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Reply to "engine number on ID tag"

If you absolutely must know whether an installed block has 2 or 4-bolt main caps AND you don't want to or can't for some reason drop the pan, the simplest way (outside of renting a fiber-optic borescope) is to remove the harmonic balancer, waterpump and front cover. Ford blocks were about the only ones that included a 4-bolt FRONT main, and with the front cover off, it's right there in front of you. Note that with the pan option, it need not come completely off; even if you have the OEM welded crossmember, the pan will drop down far enough to see if there are 4 bolts per main.
FWIW, Jack Roush- who has built a few Ford engines, once said that 4-bolt Cleveland main caps reduce 'cap-walk' which is a slight side-movement that can fret the main bearings on that cap. This will only happen at very high rpms in very high horsepower engines, so for all practical purposes on street engines operated sanely, the extra bolts are not necessary. But they DO strengthen things a bit.
If you don't have 4 bolt caps and really think you need them but can't find any, having a good machinest add 3/8" DOWELS to the outboard sides of 2-bolt main caps will gain every bit of the extra strength of the unavailable 4-bolt caps. Pontiac did this to all their performace engines- they didn't use 4 bolts per cap. It will work on Ford Windsors too although there are aftermarket splayed 4-bolt caps for this engine. Note that with all cap changes, line-honing the block afterwards is a really good idea.
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