I have a 350c.i. that I want to put in my Camaro, but it has been sitting for some time now in another vehicle. It was rebuilt and only has about 1,000 miles on it. The problem is that I do not know if I had enough anti-freeze put in to make sure the block didn't crack since it has been sitting for 3 years. The coolant in the radiator is a green color, but how would I check it to make sure?

How would I check that out without tearing the engine back down?
I got it started up today and my buddy showed me the dollar bill trick on the exhaust that supposedly shows I have a bad lifter on the drivers side. *I could never get the valve adjusted right for some reason***What could I do to fix this? Replace the valve and spring??? I have the same type of 202 heads on my 327 now. Should I just swap them out too?

The guy who built the engine put some kind of a different intake on it (aluminum aftermarket) that he had laying around instead of a stock one and I do not have a temp gauge that works on it..Not sure why he did that either....redneck/shady tree mechanic

When I got it running today, I did not see any leaks of any kind, but the radiator isn't going to pressurize due to the over flow tube being snapped off. (not sure how that happened since it has been sitting for some time) Any way that I can get this to pressurize? Suggestions?

Should I just chance it? and change the intake to the one that is on my 327 now or what? Pulling a motor doesn't take all that long, but I don't want to do any damage pulling and re-pulling motors and burning up a whole weekend doing that?

Buy a antifreeze tester, it will let you know if you had enough in it. At the same time buy a pressure tester and pressurize the radiator that way. It should hold pressure if the system is sealed and i dont think the tube being broke off would prevent the system from pressurizing.

Also, get yourself one of those laser temp gauges. Use it to check the t-stat opening and other engine temps.

See there, i just helped you spend about 60 bucks on new usefull tools. Or ask your buddies if they have any of those tools and borrow them.

good luck.

Agreed, get an antifreeze tester to see if the af is the right mixture for freeze prevention. Antifreeze will become slush, but takes quite a bit of cold before freezing solid.

You can remove a plug in the intake or somewhere in the coolant system and apply low pressure shop air for leak detection, rad cap will be the regulator. Depending upon availability, you can add a gauge and a shutoff valve to isolate the coolant system and see if it loses pressure or not.

Thanks guys. Didn't think about the lazer temp gauge...Duh about the anti-freeze tester...I guess I was having a brain fart. Thanks for responding.