Serial Number of engine?

[BCossette]

I was talking with my boss who is a huge gearhead... and his suggestion about me getting a 350 would be to get a bunch of different serial numbers of different 350's and bring them to a junkyard so that they could find me an engine.... How exactly am I going to find the serial numbers? Does anyone know of some serial numbers for 350's? Basically I want a 350 from a 1988-whenever TBI stopped. Anyone that can help me, it's greatly appreciated.

[Old88]

He's talking about casting numbers.
They are located on the drivers side next to the distributor in most cases.
Try www.mortec.com
Print it
Take it, and a small wire brush
don't forget your wallet

[BCossette]

I don't think that was exactly what he was talking about, i think he meant more or less a model number for a 350 or something or like a couple different numbers of them. What exactly is a casting number?

[Old88]

Much like a coin has a date stamping (coins are stamped)
Blocks are cast and have a (casting) number to ID them from one another.
Blocks also have a date "code" (like a coin)
To the untrained eye, most V8 blocks look alike
even to the trained eye, these numbers are very helpful.

Example:
A penny is a penny
unless it is a 1942 (1943?) copper penny that's worth $100K

A block is a block is a block to the unknowing
A block with the casting # 366286
is a Bowtie Aluminum Block

how would you like to run across one of those for $100