Related to the head question I asked, is there any way to tell if a reman short block has the newer spec pistons and such without tearing it down? Heads are on it currently and it's 2hrs away from me, though the guy that has it seems to be handy.

look for the VVT valve in the valley, or at least the hole where it goes in would tell you if it was an 09+. That would not tell you what pistons are in it but I would consider it a bonus if the wrong ones were in it as the older ones give you more compression anyhow.

PS, if the heads are on it then it is not a short block, its a long block.

yes - long/short. The one part # on the head is for pre-eagle it seems, so my question was actually about identifying what's in the short block, even though the heads are currently on it.

The older pistons have the ring lands up higher and tighter end gaps and therefore aren't as good for boost, correct?

Is what you're pointing out shown in these photos?

That is an 08 and older block

the heads are also 08 and older

The quick easy way to tell about the block is there is no cam phaser, no cam phaser solenoid hole. The quick way to identify the heads is the notch in the top of the port for the injector spray, the later heads are bigger and don't have that notch.

for my reference do you have a photo of a valley with the phaser?

Im too old to finger out how to post photos on here since they "updated" the forum

if post or message a cell number I can send you pics and you can then post em up

.

the first picture shows the VVT solenoid in it's hole

the second one is the VVT phaser/cam gear, has more stuff going on in the center area than the pic you posted with the NON VVT cam gear.

the third pic has a white pointer pointing into the VVT solenoid hole, this hole is non existant on the earlier 5.7 and all 6.1 blocks. All 6.2 hellcat, demon, 6.4 trucks 6.4 cars and 09 and later 5.7s have this hole with a solenoid.

The last pic is the belly up D shape of the eagle head.

Also if anyone is wondering the aluminum thingys laying on that engine are plugs I sell that can be used to run an MDS engine in a non-mds application, you no longer need to replace the lifters and head gaskets or leave in the ugly solenoids. They can also be used to limit or block all pressurized oil to the lifters or just to replace the plastic plugs if you don't like the way they look under an intake where they are visible. They work on MDS or Non MDS engines the same.