decoding engine

[edgar]

HI' I'M TRYING TO RESTORE MY BUICK DAILY DRIVER OF
2 YEARS.I BROUGHT A 70-75 BOOK OF DECODING
ENGINES AND COULD NOT FIND THE VIN ON MY
ENGINE BLOCK,AND THE CASTING #'S DOES NOT MATCH ANY IN THE BOOK. MY CAR IS A 1970 BUICK SKYLARK
CUSTOM CONVERTIBLE.I BELEIVE THE CAR ORIGIN-
ALLY WAS A 350 2BBL,IT HAD A INTAKE AN INTAKE
FROM A '71 350 BUICK WHICH I CHANGED TO A '68
350 4BBL BUT THE ENGINE IS A MYSTERY.THE
CASTING #'S 1231447 AND ON BOTH SIDES OF BLOCK THERE ARE STAMPINGS THAT ARE MARKED
'71, AND ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BLOCK READS 350- 1. I REMOVED THE RIGHT VALVE COVER AND THE
HEAD IS STAMPED 1232650. THE ENGINE DEFENI-
TLY LOOKS LIKE A BUICK ENGINE. IS THIS A
NEWER THAN '75 ENGINE OR A '71 BUICK REPLACEMENT MOTOR? I APPRECIATE ANY HELP YOU
CAN GIVE ME. THANK YOU.

 

[TODD]

Edgar, there's a good engine ID page on this site in case you haven't used it. Go to the home page, click on the SHOP section, then click on the engine identifcation line.

There are some pictures of the locations of the stamped numbers on the 350 block. These are the most specific means of identifying the engine. The number location changed slightly around 1971.

If you continue on down to the bottom of the engine id page, there are some blue links to identify 400/430/455 engine parts by casting numbers. Try these out, there is a bit of 350 info in there.

Your numbers are in there for 71 or 72, although it looks like some numbers have one digit haywire.

Hopefully you can find the stamped numbers. We can help decode those if the site page is unclear.