I am in the market for a nice clean block to build a strong street motor. I know enough about chevy small blocks to get in trouble but thats all. My question is how can you tell for sure 305 327 350 blocks apart from one another, if I go junk yard hunting or go look at a sellers block that has no clue what they are selling?  

I always thought that block & head casting numbers were always pretty simple...

http://www.mortec.com/  

Thanks for the information and the great link. I didn't even think to look for casting numbers online.  

Anyone know what kind of power you can get out of a 305 / 327 respectively when your budget is slim.  

Oh, we know but some more specific information would help. How slim is the budget? What are your plans with the vehicle? How much power are you expected? Just start throwing out info...  

The deuce has been down for a while now so my current plan is to get it rolling again.  I want to do it right not just throw money at the l6 or a junkyard runner i will have to build again.  The long term plan is to make it a fun sleeper car for my wife and I to cruise around in and eat up newer imports and run with other muscle. I was going to shoot for high 300 low 400 hp within the same numbers for torque. As far as budget goes i only can afford to spend 2,000ish I only get a couple hundred a month to play with after bills. Any other info you need just ask thanks for your time and help.  

That is a very slim budget! First things first is you need to find a suitable core, sure you could get a 305 for peanuts but it would not be a good idea to even try for even 350 Hp out of one as you would end up chasing your tail. Decent 327's are getting harder to find but if you do find one they more than likely will have decent heads. But with a 327 it will be hard to make 400Hp and 400 lb ft, if you're really striving for this type of torque a 350 is your best bet as a 383 will be out of your budget...

I really suggest you go your local newstand and pick up a copy of the November Popular Hot Rodding Magazine and take a look at the "Budget Sledgehammer" article, pretty good story about 440+ Hp for under $3500. They started with a late model 350 core, it wouldn't make much difference if you started with an early model 350 since you should use a vortec style head anyway but as stated in the article the late-model engines with fuel injection are a lot more durable and it will probably save you money in machine work and will give you the ability to reuse parts. Just some things to think about.  

The easy way to tell a 305 block froma 350 is to take a ruler or tape measure and do a rough bore measurement. The 327/350 blocks had 4-inch bores, while the 305 blocks had 3.75 bore (basically the 305 was a 350 crank {3.48-in. stroke) inside a 265 block. This long stroke/small bore combo made the 305 an excellent torque engine.

A good story to look at is Mike Harrington's "Swinging On A Shoestring Budget" where he did a small block build with quality parts for under $3000. Another great story is our "Chevy's Gone Wild", the first part in the October 2006 issue, the second part in November.

Yet another good budget build story, this time around a 307 Chevy small block, is "Danger Mouse" from the April 2006 issue, where Rob Fortier took a stock short block 307 V-8 and made 315 HP and 330 lb-ft. of torque for under $2000 I believe.

Since your Nova is a fairly light car, you won't need as much motor to go fast as you would with a Chevelle or Impala, or even a Camaro. The best thign to save money on would be finding a motor fromt he salavge yard that has a short block that doesn't need to be disassembled and machined. You might spend a little more initially, but you'll save in the long run on parts and machining costs.

Also, helping ot stay in budget, if you really hunt swap meets, classified ads and Ebay, you should be able to build a good motor under $2000 that make your Nova fun to drive.  

63Deuce:
I am in the market for a nice clean block to build a strong street motor. I know enough about chevy small blocks to get in trouble but thats all. My question is how can you tell for sure 305 327 350 blocks apart from one another, if I go junk yard hunting or go look at a sellers block that has no clue what they are selling?

you might save money by installing a crate 350 with a hot cam an intake lm1 go for about 1400.oo bucks and its all new stuff 250 hp to start  

Thank you all for the great advice and good articles to check out. Your input was a valuable tool in my decision process. Im thinking of going with a used 4 bolt 350 block new vortec or 461 heads from GMPP, nice air gap style intake.  Thats for now till I get more money saved up to put together a 383 like the one outlined in Hot Rod Mags "383ci like new" its a good power making motor, inexpensive too. Thanks again to all who gave any advice.  

Mike Harrington from the Super Chevy staff says:

· You can buy a cheap water pump/alternator/starter motor at NAPA (I’ve done all of the above for tech article stuff an non tech article stuff)

· Professional Products has stuff like balancers and intake’s a few bucks less than the big name guys.

· I used the Holley systmmaxII kit. You get fully assembled Holley cylinder heads, an intake manifold, and a Lunati cam with 235°/240° duration at .050, .490/.490 in. lift, and 112° lobe separation. You also get lifters, hardened pushrods, head bolts, a double-roller timing chain and gears, and assembly lube. Only 1, 1499 for the kit.

· Starting in our Oct issue, the Chevy’s gone wild story. I think that is one of the best engine stories I have read in a while. It starts with a basic stock engine and add’s one part at a time to see what it does and how much power it makes.

When it comes to budget stuff, it all depends on where you start. In my case, the small block was purchased 4 to 5 years prior to the story, so I just excluded the cost of a basic shortblock.  

Harmonic balancer is good thing to check, as most are stock units or OEM replacements, driverside by distributor for post 85 blocks tells how many liters it is 5.0 for 305 and 5.7 for 350. A 400 could be in the mix as the outside dimensions are the same but the 400 has an extra freeze plug on drivers side center of the block, A good guesstimate on a 327 is not seeing an HEI distributor+ thin but tall ballancer+ no egr Valve+ 2 freeze plugs on both sides the block+ and double hump heads as 90 percent of 327's I've came accross have double humps. Good tip for 305 is short fat balancer with no recess cut in it, HEI distributor, and electric choke on carb, and a good tip for a 350 is a short fat balancer with a recess on the back edge going for about 4 inches around the balancer+ electric choke+ HEI distributor+ 7 blade fan+ 4 core radiator. Those are the things that I mostly look for quick and easy references.



And power wise, a 305 you can sqeeze 300 hp on a tight budget, and the 327 around 350 hp on a tight budget easily.  

Just to say, there are 400 blocks with both the 350 freeze-plug arrangement and with the extra plug.  

Funny, I was never aware of any 400 blocks without the extra freeze plug. Also, 400 small block balancers have a notch cut out of them becasue the 400 balanced externally, opposed to internally for all the other small blocks.

Early 327s did have the "thin" balancer, and also the oil filler tube through the front of the intake manifold, while 67-up 327s had the "fat" balancer and oil fil was through the valve cover with no filler tube through the intake manifold.  

Hi, thanks to all for the great advice, and I am writing again for more. I am trying to sell the L6 that is in the car now and one perspective buyer thought it may be the original motor. I figured I would just replace it so I didnt bother looking in to if it is a numbers matching car but, now I've decided to give it a go.  So if anyone knows a good online L6 engine decode list or other good resource to look into how to find out if its #'s matching it will be apreciated. Thanks again!