Is there a simple/easy way to ID a 273 engine vs 318?

67CBodyGuy said

As to the story of this car, who in their right mind would replace a 318 with a 273 in a C-body? A convert C-body at that? Even if that happened 30 years ago, where would you get a 273 from? It would have been a no-brainer to replace it with an LA318 if anything (but a 383 would naturally been more logical).

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I over a decade back bought from Spokane a 1962 Polara 500. The car came OEM with one engine option, a 361 4bbl with a 727. I bought the car sight unseen on Ebay. The car had a slightly warmed over 273 4bbl with a 4 speed. That lack of originality I believed depressed its desirability on Ebay, No problem for me a 440 would drop in fine. Except when car arrived, I was surprised how peppy the car was, so I kept it and bought another to hot rod, studying all the supplied original owner's receipts, he made the swap right at the time of the 2nd US/world gas crisis in 1980, and I suspect that is the motivation for the swap. Guy was a bigshot? with Coors I believe.