Ain't that the truth.

I have a 74 Z love and drive the crap out of it. Great driving car. Lots of cool 1 year only pieces on 1974 Z

These 74 Z-28 engines still had all the goodies in the engine. 4 bolt main, forged crank, rods and pistons. Decent heads but the lower 9-1 compression was the killer as we know with the smog emission laws and engines. Anyhow the engines can take a beating.

I didn’t know the 74 Z’s still had the good short block stuff. What about the heads? Were they different than earlier 350 Z engine?

The Z28 package for 1974 included a 350ci L82 small-block V-8 that was rated at 245 net horsepower. This was clearly a performance-oriented engine, with four-bolt mains, a forged steel crank, windage tray, impact-extruded aluminum pistons, and heat-treated and shot peened rods. The cast-iron cylinder heads were still the 2.02-inch intake and 1.60-inch exhaust valves, and 76cc combustion chambers. The hydraulic-lifter camshaft featured 0.450/0.460 lift (intake/exhaust) and 346/360 duration (i/e). A dual-snorkel air cleaner sat atop the motor, while a real dual exhaust system got rid of spent combustion gases. Still used the good 2.02 heads, but they used the low rise cast iron intake and Rochester carb and later came out with the HEI distributor. This engine at 245 horsepower still had some punch and with a set of headers and good Distributor curve 300 horsepower isn't out of the question.

I've owned my '74 Z since 1980. I always liked it!