[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

The story on the motor is one you probably wouldn’t expect. It was actually running a natural gas compressor on a well site. Here in the San Juan basin there are tons of 350’s and a few 454/8.1’s running compression out in the field. They just chug along at 1,000 to 1,800 rpms all day everyday. Running on natural gas they accumulate virtually no internal wear because the oil never gets washed down with the solvent properties of gasoline. These things run tens of thousands of hours. This particular engine was pulled off a well location 7 or 8 years ago and sat in the shop at work until last year when I asked about it. My boss gave me the motor for free. The cam bearings were worn but otherwise everything was in really great shape. The bores still measure perfectly at 4” I’ll see if I can get a picture of one from the field the next time I go to out to one. I’ve acquired another vortec 350 and a vortec 454, the same way that I still need to get rounded up and in my shop.

The industrial 350’s are the same identical engine as the L31 vortec 5.7 long block they just run a vortec to carb intake and natural gas carb. The 454 is the same as the L29 vortec 7.4 long block but with a carb intake as well. We don’t have any, but there’s a few big cubic inch big blocks around with dart 540 and 600+ cubic inch blocks. There’s also some of the GM 8.8’s (factory stroked 8.1)

Interesting, I didn't know they were used like that. I'm definitely interested in seeing the pics.