Thread: factory heads in 68

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I am the third owner of my 68 camaro/327/2bbl/210hp car. pretty decent shape except for the rusted out front cap and fender wells when i got it. My question is on the heads, if there are any experts on the subject. As I said it was a 2 bbl car, when I ran all the numbers the heads show to be 1968 307 cid application. So one guy said it prob. happened at the factory since the heads have the same specs as the 327 heads. Here is the story, the car was bought new by a lady and drove till 1972/27,000miles when the 2nd owner bought it. It was running bad so he took it in to a dealer and they "fixed" a broken rocker. (or I suspect they may have changed the heads with some off the shelf 307's). the car never saw any other major service, the guy kept a small book with everything he ever did to the car until it jumped time in 86 with 210,000 miles on it.

So who screwed up the matching numbers?
The factory?
Or the dealer that "fixed" the broken rocker?

Originally Posted by chevydrivin

I am the third owner of my 68 camaro/327/2bbl/210hp car. pretty decent shape except for the rusted out front cap and fender wells when i got it. My question is on the heads, if there are any experts on the subject. As I said it was a 2 bbl car, when I ran all the numbers the heads show to be 1968 307 cid application. So one guy said it prob. happened at the factory since the heads have the same specs as the 327 heads. Here is the story, the car was bought new by a lady and drove till 1972/27,000miles when the 2nd owner bought it. It was running bad so he took it in to a dealer and they "fixed" a broken rocker. (or I suspect they may have changed the heads with some off the shelf 307's). the car never saw any other major service, the guy kept a small book with everything he ever did to the car until it jumped time in 86 with 210,000 miles on it.

So who screwed up the matching numbers?
The factory?
Or the dealer that "fixed" the broken rocker?

Is the rest of the car numbers matching?

Yes everything else is, powerglide trans, 2.seventy somthing gears. The book in the glove box has the oil changed every 3K miles, also wrote down every time he packed wheel bearings, put on brakes, exhaust, air filter,tires and on and on and on.............Someone told me that the factory somtimes did that if there was a shortage of parts..............i don't know.............The book said he had the dealership change the rocker arm, but who knows what that GM mechanic did in 72.

Well going by my book a 327 210 HP 2 brl pG engine has the prefix code ME it's compression ratio was 8.75 / 1

there were no 307 engines available as a RPO in 1968, so it is possible the heads were switched.

to be sure check your casting dates on the cylinder blocks and heads and compare them they should not be more than 3 months apart for any engine component. It is rare for factory car manufactured parts to be assembled at 3 months variation in casting dates. I say rare but not impossible.

The year matchs but I don't think I paid any attention to the month. I'll have to check. I was so peoid about the numbers matching a 68 307. I was assuming they were the same combustion size and valve size.

IS you casting number 3727185 ?

Checked out further these heads came on the 307 327 low compression chevy engines so there is a good chance they are the matching heads. The double humps did come out on 327 chevs, the 186's came out beginning in the 69 model year which was from june 1968. So your car being a 1968 model, the production run ran Approx June 1967 to May/June 1968 so the heads you will be looking for are none accessory hole Double humps. A good way to check this, is by looking at the water pump,

short pump = non accesory hole heads

long pump = accesory hole heads

So for a short water pump engine these are the head castings to go after.
so you would be looking for 3890462 heads produced 66 and 67 and early production 68 Camaros or 391292 heads available in 1968 as an installed head or a replacement service part.

These will raise your compression ratio to @ 10 / 1

These heads to not have hardened seats for todays unleaded fuel.

Just remember you will have to get them as close as possible to your block date code, not ported and not cracked...
Good luck

I might also mention my BOOK is ;

CATALOG OF CAMARO ID NUMBERS 1967 1993

Copright 1995 by Amos press ltd

ISBN 880524 15 5

pay to get one of these, they make your part checking and chasing so much easier. Because you can cross reference and decode build dates and the cars number on the production line

Well I just came in from offshore today after my 14 days working, I now have my 14 days of daqys off starting today. Well anyway I went and checked my numbers on those old "307" heads I had wrote off as non matching numbers. The origanal book I was using said "307" but Mortec says they are 307 and 327 heads. 3917293 on both heads, L47 on one and L67 on the other, so I guess I do have all the original parts for the car. well it will not get built by me, maybe my son will one day, he is 4 years old and already trying to talk me out of the car.

that a boy!!! my girlfriends daughter is 3 and she loves my mustang... maybe one day when i'm too old to drive it anymore and get a cadillac and where golf pants 24/7... she can have it