Building my first Chevy Engine

Hi guys,

Newbie to the board and newbie to Chevy engines. My experience, to date, has been building Ford FE engines. Go ahead and take your shots and get it out of your system. :)

I just picked up an 87-90 Gen I 5.7L and am having trouble finding specs on the heads and intake. I was hoping someone might happen to know a couple things:

1) Specs on heads part # 10147898 (combustion chamber and valve size)
2) Specs on intake part # 14014434
3) Recommendation for a good reference book on Chevy part numbers.

Relatively mild build going into a '94 Jeep Wrangler. Just seeing if these parts are worth cleaning up and using or sharing them with the Salvage yard and starting over.

Thanks for your help. I'm fairly confident this won't be my last question here.

All the best,

Mike

Welcome to the forum.


Don

The manifold is an iron 4-bbl intake used on Corvette 350's. I suspect it did not come on that engine. The heads trace to a 1995-98 350 crate motor, but I can't determine which one. Are they angle-body heads?

Henry,

Thanks for the response. I'm not sure of the "angle body heads" terminology but the heads are thicker (taller) on the exhaust port side (deck to valve cover side) than they are on the intake side. Is that what you were looking for??

10147898 are listed as 91-99 350 truck (non Vortec)
no info in book as to chamber size or valve size

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mhn1961

Henry,

Thanks for the response. I'm not sure of the "angle body heads" terminology but the heads are thicker (taller) on the exhaust port side (deck to valve cover side) than they are on the intake side. Is that what you were looking for??

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Nope. All heads are like that. I'm asking whether the spark plugs are 90 degrees to the head, or on an angle.

Note how the plug in the photo "leans" to the right. The ones on either side of it will "lean" to the left. I suspect they're not angle plugs, but I thought I'd ask.

Henry,

Plugs are straight-away on the heads. I've been calling dealers, machine shops, etc... and no one seems to know what I'm staring at here. Thanks for your efforts thus far. I'm open to any and all input from everyone.

I'm guessing that you have decent enough parts to work with, but I'm still mystified by the heads. All of my references just say "1995-1998 Gen I Crate motors." As if they only put out one crate motor . . .

You may be nearing the point where you have to pull the heads to see what you have.

What's the casting number on the block?

Talk about inconsistent:

Here is a site that lists the head casting as a 80-85 350 truck
head (a 7 bolt head):
http://www.cehighperformance.com/c_t...lock_codes.htm

Here is a site that lists it as a 95-96 truck 350:
http://www.donsautopages.co.nz/chevheadnumbers.htm

here is a site that lists it as a crate motor:
http://www.ecbrcnj.com/id14.html

and my MSA-1 chevy ID book lists it as the 91-99
350 truck head

From the late casting number, it is certainly a 7-bolt head...the
7 bolt term refers to a second exhaust bolt location on the end to
accommodate the longer, new style exhaust manifolds.

Guys,

Thanks for all your efforts. Sorry for the delay in responding. Been out of the country on business. Dropped the engine, Heads, Rods, Crank, etc... at the machine shop. These guys are supposed to be the Chevy guys in Cincinnati. We'll see soon enough I guess.

Again, thanks for all your help and I'll keep everyone posted on the build and what I find out about the heads. All the best.

Mike

A quick update to everyone that offered help. The heads are a 76cc combusion chamber with 1.72" intake valves. Cylinders are in great shape and the block, crank and rods are clean. Rebuild is about to begin and I'm taking it back pretty close to stock as it going into a fairly light vehicle (Jeep Wrangler) and I'm looking for torque. CHanging the intake to an Edelbrock RPM and putting a Holley Projection FI on it. AGain, thanks to everyone who offered help. I'll keep you tp to speed on the build and I'm pretty sure I'll be back with questions.

Just wanted to let everyone know how my first Chevy build is going. Block, heads, crank, etc... were all clean. Machine shop cleaned them up, milled the heads .006 and polished the crank. Specs are as follows:

Stock Bore
Valve job, new springs, etc... 1.72" Intake, 1.50" Exhaust 76 CC Chambers
Cam-Hyd, flat tappet, Intake .420, Exhaust .443. Duration 270, 280 I/E
Compression Ratio (If my math is correct) 9.013
Performer RPM Manifold
Holley Projection 700 CFM


I do have a couple of stupid questions. Using an electric oil pressure gauge. Where in the sam hill is the sensor bung. Using a new oil filter adapter with no bypass and for the life of me, can't figure out where this thing goes. 1988 Gen 1 block.

Again, thanks to everyone for thei help so far. I'm sure I'll need a lot more assistance as this thing goes along.

MIke

Hi Mike - check to see if there is a small port just underneath the Distributer on the drivers side - it's about 1-2" from the dist. housing - I'm building a chevy 350/330 crate motor and am told that thats where the oil pressure sending unit is supposed to go. Beware of the threads in the port- some blocks come w/a/fine thread and some with course. Hope this helps - Bill

Hi guys, A quick update: I finished the build on the small block. Once you get the parts, it goes together fairly easy. A lot easier than the old FE blocks I've been building. If I can get this to work, there should be a picture or two below. Thanks again top everyone for their help. I'll let you know how it fires up in a month or so.

Both the headers and the pulleys from Jeg's. Hedman Headers for a Jeep Wrangler V-8 conversion and March Serpentine COnversion Kit.

I can say this with fairly good athority. That is not a 88 chevy set of heads. they are early heads. 88 5.7 heads have the centerbolts for the valve covers. So you could be all over the place with your timing.Also did you check the timing gears to make sure you have the key in the proper slot if there are more than one??? Backfireing could be a bad intake gasket. Now I'll be quiet since I have confused even me.