Not a problem, but you are correct, it's not quite as simple as it might seem. If you could have your friend take some good photos of the various number stampings (detailed on your other thread) we could decipher them for you here. Or if you'd like have him call me when he's next to the car and I could walk him through it.

Cheers!
Scott
801-940-2689

*What type of car is it?

Thanks again, Scott!

PM sent...

Keeping the thread alive....One recent update/correction. I've recently looked at several more survivor 70-71 340 engines and have come to the conclusion that my theory of some dip stick handles being bare steel as opposed to painted black is beginning to look invalid. The most recent examples I've looked at APPEARED to be bare steel but upon a very detailed inspection showed slight traces of black paint. I've also recently purchased an NOS dipstick handle that has original black paint which has VERY poor adhesion, about 75% of the original black paint had already flaked and fallen off simply from light shelf wear and handling. We all know that production line parts and replacement NOS parts could have had different finishes, but in this case I believe both were the same and it's not too difficult to imagine how a similarly painted handle would quickly wear to bare steel while in normal use. So.....The research continues but for now I'm sticking with them being painted black as the "norm". BTW, the NOS handle appears to have been dipped in black paint, VERY thin and over a poorly prepped surface with tons of fish eye.

Close up. Top stick in pic is an original from a survivor engine (Orange engine built in October of 1970). After a REALLY close look there are a few remaining black specs that looked like dirt/grease at first.

Another odd 1971 only 340 detail. I was going through some of my used production line 1971 340 parts and came across this carburetor gasket (used under all 4972s and 4973s Thermo-Quads). It is pretty well known that these used a unique carb gasket combo; two foil/asbestos gaskets which sandwiched a thicker aluminum spacer plate/ The combo raised the carb up about 1/4" above the intake and the materials likely added some decent insulating properties.

What I wanted to call out on this post is a small easily overlooked detail of these gaskets. The 3 pieces were STAPLED together! That's right, the staples go through both the asbestos gaskets AND the thick solid aluminum plate! Pretty impressive staple power there! One staple in the front, one staple in the rear, likely to keep them as a set and for ease of assembly during production. I have never seen this on anything but production line examples.

2B

3c

4d

5e

6f

7g

Original head gasket, 69 340, P.N. 2863 493, with Pentastar.

Closer

Nice

Discovered that the factory installed this head gasket in 'blown' configuration. The gasket was torn at the top of one cylinder and folded back on itself.

It's obvious the head was tightened down on the tear, because the folded over part is compressed to the same thickness as the rest of the gasket. I had never removed that head until recently.

WOW! Did it run poorly?

I drove it 160,000 miles and never perceived a problem - there were
never any obvious symptoms. But I suppose the pressure inside the
crankcase must have been too high, and maybe that explains why the
exterior of the engine got so greasy.

Can anyone post good pics of 100% confirmed original 340 coil mount bolts? Looking for head markings and plating colors. Front and rear bolts may have been unique.