Thread: my engine

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Aight guys I'm in a dilema and i need some help, I'm 16 years old and I just Bought a 1978 Chevy Camaro Z28, and the guy i bought it fromseemed like a goodfella and sounded like he knew what he was talkin about, he built the engine in it and he says it's a "350 Chevy BIG BLOCK" but many people have told me that Chevy doesnt make a "350 BIG BLOCK" and never has so if anyone can PLEASE PLEASE e-mail me and tell whether or not its true and how to identify the difference i would apprecite it very much. I need help THANKS

Small blocks have the middle two exhaust exits right next to each other in the center of the head. Big blocks have all the exhaust exits equally spaced.

Hey Pierce welcome, I use to live in Indy on the south side. As for your dilemma. We live in a world where there is lots of slang. The best defense is doing the homework, which brings u here. If u can find any books or magazines by the great late Smokey Yunick u can learn more about chevy engines than GM. Good luck with the "big block"

well than i guess my engine is a small block but oh well cant complain, a V8 is a V8 right... so all in all im happy as can be with my car. Thanks to everyone that replied. Also isn't the Chevy 350 small block reffered to as one of the best engines ever made???
Please reply back. Thanks!

Well a Z28 is a very good first car; certainly one of the better original models. Get it fixed up in terms of paint and interior as well as mechanically. The 350 can be built up quite a bit and a lot of parts are available for it; maybe more than for any other motor at this time. If you stick with it you can build it up to a 383 sometime in the future (not cheap or easy, but not too difficult either.) I had a 350 rebuilt to Z28 specs for my '29 roadster and you can look up the Z28 specs and performance on the Internet and you should find it to be a later form of muscle car. One slight problem may be gas mileage so be a little cautious about adding 850 cfm carbs! Part of the performance of the Z28 is due to a slightly lower (higher numerically) rear gear ratio which gives better acceleration but which lowers the mpg. Anyway as long as it is repairable with minimal rust you can make a great daily car out of it!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

In edit mode here is one good site with technical data on the Z28:

http://www.nastyz28.com/camaro/camaro78.html

Well Pierce comparisons are relative. U wouldnt tell your best friends they have an ugly baby would u? Those engines do have a big following, so there must be a lot of good things about them. For myself I try to learn about as many kinds of infernal combustion engines as I can. U never know when u will be forced to repair some odd thing on some odd car. Yrs ago a guy I worked with agreed to hold my hand while I did some repair on my old ford. On the way to my house his clutch messed up so there we were in a wide spot in the road pulling the tranny on his old chevy. Oh yeah lots of laughs.