Thread: SBC Identification

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I have a typical ID question that I am hoping you guys can shed some light on. I have a 355 short block that I was going to put into my 80 El Camino but decided to hold off on the 355 since I want to build it right with nice heads and a nice cam and I just dont have the money to do that. Instead I want to buy a basic used 350, freshen it up and drop it in with my new TH350 trans. The car is a daily driver and I am looking to get a basic 350-370 HP motor to drop in to pull a 2,000 lb trailer behind this car.

Anyways, a buddy of mine has a 350 he pulled from a 79 Camaro that he wrecked (not the original motor keep in mind). Miles are unknown but he is going to let me pull the heads to make sure I want it (it ran fine and had new valve seals and such put in about a year ago or more and I drove and rode in the car with this engine). The numbers I pulled from the back of the block are the typical 3970010. Front of the block I have 151209794 K05 30 CMJ. I understand that the number after the 5 should be a letter, my guess is it's an L or i, I can't tell. Here is what I was able to I.D....
K= St. Catherines, Ontario (McKinnon Industries Canada).
05=May
30= 30th day
CMJ shows that it's a 1974 350 4 bolt main from a full size car with a T400 Police trans).
If it's a 74 block then why would the 5 in the above number show as 75?

Here is the sites/links I pulled the info off of: http://www.nastyz28.com/gm-chevy-cod...s-suffix-2.php

http://www.nastyz28.com/sbchevy/sblock.php

My question is, what year is the block. 74 or 75? Are there differences with the Canadian blocks and heads compared to US? Better or worse?
As for the 4 bolt mains or not, I could care less if it's 2 or 4 just because the fact it's a street car and I do not plan to go over 370 HP (most likely will end up at 350 HP tops because of money issues).
I am sorry for all the questions and rambling on, I am just trying to provide as much info as possible. Thanks a lot in advance!

Actually, there are 7 engines that were tagged CMJ

91 Cadillac 185hp 350ci TBI with 700R4 L-05
75 Chevelle 145hp 350ci turbo 350 trans L-65 2bbl carb
76 same as above Chevelle
74 Impala 155hp 350ci 1x4bbl turbo 350 LM-1 police
75 Impala 145hp 350ci 1x2bbl turbo 350 L-65
76 same as above Impala
80 Impala 155hp 305 (yes, 305) 1x4bbl LG-4 turbo 350


mike in tucson

Thanks Mike. As far as the year, does the number 5 in my above number mean that it's a 1975 block? I sure hope it's not a 1980 305 haha.

My book indicates that there is only a month/day indicator in the sequence before the letter code. The first two numbers are the month and the last two are the day of the month....sometimes the leading zero for the month is missing...their example is that
0430 and 430 are both April 30th

To find the date, look at the casting code.....back near where your casting number is located. Tells month day and year block was cast. For instance E204 is E=May 20=20th day and 4= 1964