The front of an engine block has serial numbers, just like a car does on the body and frame. | 
If you have stock heads on your engine and you're going to run them, pull the valve covers off to access the head info. |
You can find the head info by the valve cover holes. These number combinations will also tell you the power that the heads will put out. | 
With the valve covers off, the heads were checked for grunge. This will give you a lead on how the engine's internals will look. The valve springs look to be in good condition and we can see that the heads have been gone through. |
This engine recently had work done to it. You can see that the back cam cover had silicone all around it to prevent oil leaks. | 
This engine had an exhaust bolt broke in the treads, which can be a problem if you can't take it out. This bolt would keep your exhaust manifold or header from having a good seal and causing leaking back pressure. |
Once we got the engine to the shop we noticed that oil was leaking from the harmonic balancer; this usually is not a good sign. | 
Another area to look for leaks is where the mechanical fuel pumps bolt on and the link rod goes. This hole is set up to hold the link rod in place while the fuel pump gets installed or replaced. If you don't leave it plugged it will leak oil. |
The Edelbrock aluminum intake was taken off to inspect the engine more closely. | |