348 car or truck? New Member-Joe McGhee

[jkmcghee]

Hi all,
Just thought that I would introduce myself. I live in the Atlanta, GA area and have a 59 Impala under restoration, and a 59 El Camino that I am restoring. I just purchased a 348 engine Casting # 3755011, intake # 3732757, exhaust # 3732794. However, because the dip stick is on the passenger side, I now think this engine may have come out of a truck. What confuses me is that the Intake # seems to indicate that the engine is from a passenger car. If anyone knows for certain how to determine if this engine is from a car or truck please let me know. Date code is D1659. As a follow up question, if this is a truck engine what is the down side and up side to using it in my El Camino?

Thanks very much! Joe

 

[Jim Sullivan]

Welcome to this great site! Are there any stamped number/letters on the front passenger block deck? The down side of the 348 truck block is that it has double notches in the cylinders to lower the compression ratio. I'm in the process of building one now. Unless your looking for high horsepower, the engine would be fine for a cruiser.

 

[Don Jacks]

Welcome to our zoo! With good pistons rated at 10.5 and 817 heads if it is a truck block,you can get the compression to the 9.25-9.5 range,fine for a peppy cruiser with a small cam and carb[625 or so] and good exhaust.If you add a 409 crank and rods,you'll go up a bit more on the compression,and have a great improvement in the torque.The only way to be sure is to pull a head and look.

 

[jkmcghee]

Hey Don and Jim, Thanks for the response and info. Jim you asked me if there were some numbers on the front passenger block deck and there are. They are:T42IU ; do you know what these signify? thanks again. Joe

 

[Don Jacks]

According to the info on our site,the U code is for a 58-59 truck block,230hp.348.With it being a 5011 block,it sounds like what you have is a 59 truck block for your 59 El Camino.Yes,it'll be a double notched block.What are the head casting numbers,702's? What do you want this motor to do?

 

[Jeff Olson]

Welcome! If you can't find out what you need to know here it can't be found anywhere!

 

[Jim Sullivan]

What Don said above.

 

[Tom Kochtanek]

Here's what a double notch 348 truck block looks like:



The 348 passenger blocks and some 348 truck blocks from the mid 60s have a single notch.

Nothing wrong with a double notched block, still a lot of torque and HP potential, just at a lower compression.

Best, TomK

 

[jkmcghee]

Thanks guys for all the help!