How do I go about finding out ifIi have maching #s car?  The vin on the motor arnt the same as the vin, so how do I  tell?

"Matching Numbers" should mean that the car has the same engine, trans, diff, and all other major components that it left the factory with. The VIN on the engine and trans should be the same as the car's VIN. The engine, trans, body, and frame are the only components that have the VIN stamped on them.
All of the parts should also be the correct parts for the car, as far as part numbers, such as the water pump, alternator, A/C compressor, etc.
All of these things combined make the car a true "Matching Numbers" car.
However....with enough money, you can pull a car with NO engine/driveline out of the bottom of a riverbed, and "create" a "Matching numbers" car. This is what leads to a TON of "Original, matching numbers" car...sometimes even more than were ever produced to start with.
It's bad for the hobby, and it hurts the value of real cars, imho.
I much prefer the term "Factory installed components", as it is more representative of an original car, that has ALL of the originally installed components for that car, not parts off of 5-6 other, different cars....

It appears to be a '76 Vette engine, with a VIN fairly close to yours...19,071(your car)...8784(engine). Perhaps someone had two different '76s, and swapped the engines...ya never know. If you could get the rest of the stamp #s off the engine pad, it would get us a little closer... Adams' Apple2009-05-12 19:57:11

cool! Sounds like we are getting closer.