Checked the casting number (3850817) on inliners.org says my block is a "230-250." So which is it? If the casting is the same for both displacements, that means the difference between a 230 and a 250 is all in the stroke, right? If that's the case, the way to tell the difference is to pull a plug and drop in a long shafted screw-driver to get a measurement of the stroke, no? However, even if I knew that the stroke was 'x' number of inches, I still wouldn't know if it was a 230 or a 250 because I don't have any positively identified blocks to compare the measurement to. Lots of questions, but what it comes down to is this: Does anybody happen to know the stroke measurements for chev 230s and 250s? (or, if my logic is wrong here somewhere, please let me know!) Cheers
believe it or not, there's an article about hopping up 6 cyl chevies in Hot Rod this month! it has all the info you need. but if you can't wait, the stroke on a 230 is 3.25, the stroke on a 250 is 3.53 I keep several old thick Chilton's manuals around to look up this stuff, you might see if you can score some at a used bookstore or swap meet.
there's also an engine code on the block, stamped on a machined pad to the left of the distributor (lookin at the engine from the p*** side). The last two or 3 letters of this code will be the engine code, which the Chilton's book might have listed. Not sure if it includes Canadian codes, but post the whole number/letter sequence and I'll try to look it up for you. Do you know what year the engine is? there's another code cast in the block above the starter, which looks like B 25 9, which decodes as Feb (B=2nd month) 25, 1969 (or 1979)
poke around my six cylinder pages - http://danielstrohl.com/sixinfo.asp - see if that helps. if not, send along your casting numbers and your engine's info (year, displacement, what it came from, etc.) and I'll include that info whenever I get around to updating the pages. thanks, dan
Cool. I'll check out that mag. As far as the Chilton's manuals go, I'm actively searching for that kind of stuff as we speak. So there's no confusion, I'll tell you exactly where I'm at with this project. I just got the car this weekend. It is the first remotely cool American car I've ever owned (though I've been around quite a few). The shop, most of the know-how, and the car itself are with my buddies in my home town; I'm in the city for the week. I decided to leave the car out there until I can get it liscenced. So, in a practical sense, I CAN wait to get the information. The car is a hundred miles away. Unless I can't stand it and head back out there this week, I won't be able to lay a wrench on the thing until next weekend. So I'll confess then. I'm a typical newbie - sponging for information. I'm sitting here on a Monday morning, unable to think about anything but getting back out there to work on my car. Thanks for the info! cheers
Yeah, so I neglected to grab those numbers, but I will do so as soon as I can. Unfortunately that might be a few days. If you're still willing to look it up by then I'd sure appreciate it... I don't know what year the engine is, but it isn't original (in 1996 the original was swapped out for this one, which was rebuilt prior to being installed). Again, thanks for the info. I'd have no way of knowing this stuff without someone like you telling me!
Dan, your site looks like an excellent resource. Thankyou! I don't remember seeing it under the Hamb's Tech archive/SOURCE-of-info thread. So, if you don't mind, I'll stick it in there if it isn't already. cheers, Tom Edit: errrr... yeah, it's there. First one on the page no less. I'm an idiot.
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