I just went and looked at a 454, block casting # 361959 and wanted to know more information about it. My questions are: What heads does this motor have? Open/closed chamber, oval or peanut port? 2 or 4 bolt main? Steel crank? The motor has an after market aluminum intake and has all power accessories=air conditioning, power steering, fan and is complete from carb to pan. It is in good running condition and the price is $650.00. The block has Hi perf Pass stamped on the back behind the flywheel. The guy said that it came from a 79 truck. Is this a good deal?

go69,

the only ifo my sorces show is 361959.....454.......73-90. as far as the heads go i will need #'s from them to tell more about it.


71 Camairo

361959 = 454 1973-1990

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Bryan Shook
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You definetly need to get head casting # to know what you've got. All production Chevy heads after 1973 used oval-port heads, some peanut, some not.

The High Performance Pass. mark is confusing as this came out of a truck. Was this maybe not the original engine in the truck? The hi-per stamp would indicate a 4-bolt normally- but from a passenger car.

If you want to go big block and everything's a-ok- $650.00 doesn't sound unreasonable- although because the block indicates a passenger vehicle and there's an aftermarket intake on it- you may want to pull a head and measure the bore- maybe this block's been machined heavily before and their won't be enough 'meat' left to do a proper boring when the time comes (BBC 454 can go up to about a .125 maximum overbore- i.e. 4.375").

If this is the stock engine from a 79 truck, then I'd bet it's a 2 bolt main, cast crank, low compression, peanut port smog engine designed for the 1ton dualies. Many of the 454 engines have the "high perf" in the rear block casting, unfortunately this doesn't mean much as GM used the same casting in many different variations. Like the other posts suggest, get the head casting number by removing the valve cover. You can also get into the ballpark by removing the intake and measuring the intake port. (my guess is they'll be the size of a silver dollar)

With all this in mind, I'd be asking myself why was this engine removed? Ask questions like "was it burning oil", if so "how much".
Did it over heat? Ask the seller if you bought it and had it magnafluxed and it turned up cracked, would he refund your money?

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67 Camaro LS6 454/TH400/12bolt 3.73