68hemi

When I bought this car recently the owner told me it had a 327 out of a 1967 Impala so I did not bother to look at the numbers on the engine.

Today I decided to pull a valve cover because I saw that the front of the head had a marking that would indicate they are 1957 FI heads. When I pulled the valve cover sure enough find a 3731539 casting number with a A 9 7 date code which is Jan. 9 1957 which would probably be correct for my March 19th estimated build date of the car. This all got me wondering about the engine so I check the casting number and find it to be 3731548 which is correct for a 1957 Corvette.

Now here is the strange part, the stamped characters on the engine pad are FI207FC, the second character is the capital letter I not 1. Now if my memory serves me right this would be decoded as F=Flint then I207= Dec. 7th then FC= 1957 283 passenger car. That is if the I stands for the number 1, I know there are changes for some of these characters.
I know there have been blocks that were mis-stamped with the wrong info on them. I can not see the date code casting number on the back of the engine to determine when it was cast without taking the ignition shielding plug wire bracket off of the car but if the stamped date code falls in line with the casting date this COULD be the original engine for this car except for the suffix code question. In looking at the suffix codes for 1957 I guess it is possible that it SHOULD have been stamped FG which would have made the car an auto trans with 2X4s. The car now has a 4 speed which I don’t believe is correct because of my estimated build date of March 19th makes the car too early for a 4 speed.

I know there are several possibilities here so lets hear them guys.

ohiovet

I believe the year code of "7" indicated Corvette engine.
If it was "57" it would be other then Corvette.
The FC indicates:1955 265 CI 162 HP, 2 B Carb, a/c ,PG, Pass Car, Truck
or:1956 265 CI 170 HP, 2 B Carb, A/c, PG, " "
or 1957 283 CI, 220 HP, 4 B Carb, PG, Pass Car
or:1969 327 CI, 235 HP, 2 B Carb, Turbo 350, Pass Car

68hemi

Which 7 are you referring to, the stamped numbers or the head date?

MikeM

Look at the sides of the block and see if it has the three drilled/tapped embossment for '58/later pass car mounting.

ohiovet

The stamp on the front pad;FI207FC

jerrybramlett

The 539 head castings were used on all passenger car 4-bbl. 283/220hp engines in 1957 as well as the 283/283hp engines.

The letter "I" was used as a "1" in the date code block stamping.

All Corvette blocks were cast and assembled in Flint for '57 models. I believe some passenger car blocks were cast and assembled in Tonawanda, however.

68hemi

Yes, but did they all have the "pyramid" marking on the front of the heads?

68hemi

So, the part numbers in the chart below are wrong?

1953 - 1967 Corvette Specification Guide
(1953-1967 Cylinder Head Casting Numbers)

1953
3836066* 6-Cylinder, 150 Horsepower

1954

3836241*
6-Cylinder, 150/155 Horsepower

1955

3836241* 6-Cylinder, 155 Horsepower
3703523 V-8, 195 Horsepower

* The tapped hole for the 1953-55-6-cylinder temperature sender did not require an adaptor.

1956

3725306 All 210 & Early-255 Horsepower with 2-bolt Exhaust Manifolds
3731762** Later- 225 & All 240 Horsepower with 3-bolt Exhaust Manifolds

** Some carryover into early 1957 production occurred.

1957

3740997 220, 245, 250 & 270 Horsepower
3731539 283 Horsepower, Fuel Injection


1958-1960

3748770***
1958 & possibly very-early-1959; All Engines; Contains "X58" on Side

3755550***
Early-1959; All Engines

3767465
Late-1959; All Engines

3774692
All 1960 Engines

*** Staggered valve cover mounting holes.

1961

3774692
230, 245 & 270 Horsepower

3782461
275 & 315 Horsepower, Fuel Injection

1962

3795896 250 Horsepower
3884520 250 Horsepower (unverified)
3782461 300, 340 & 360 Horsepower

1963-1964

3795896
Base 250 Horsepower

3782461
All Optional Engines

1965

3782461
All 327 Cubic-Inch Engines

3856208
425 Horsepower 396 Cubic-Inch Engines

1966

3782461 All 327 Cubic-Inch Engines
3872702 390 Horsepower 427 Engines
3873858 427 Horsepower 427 Engines

1967

3890462
300 & 350 Horsepower 327 Engines

3909802
390 & 400 Horsepower 427 Engines

3904391
435 Horsepower 427 Engines (Cast Iron)

3904392
L88 & L89 (Aluminum)
Corvette Cylinder Head Casting Information
The six cylinder engine cylinder head casting number is located on the left top of the head, between the valves of the #2 and #3 cylinders, directly above their exhaust port outlet. The number is visible with the valve rocker cover installed.

The six cylinder head casting date is located in the valve rocker area next to the #4 and #5 cylinder exhaust valves, and is visible only with the valve rocker cover removed. The casting date is deciphered in the same manner as described for engine blocks.

The V-8 cylinder head casting numbers and casting dates are located in the valve rocker area and are only visible with the valve cover removed. Casting dates for cast-iron cylinder heads are deciphered in the same manner as described for engine blocks. Aluminum cylinder heads may not necessarily carry a normal casting date, but rather a mold date. Aluminum cylinder heads usually carry a "W" within a snowflake, symbolic of the Winters Aluminum Foundry Company.

GCD1962

My 57 Belair with powerpack engine and heads has the pyramid on them.

jerrybramlett

Yes.

jerrybramlett

If you will read my post again carefully you will see that it doesn't disagree with your Corvette chart. I was just trying to point out that the 539 castings were used on many passenger car engines. The 283/283 was also available in passenger cars.

68hemi

So, if the 1957 low h.p. 4bbl Corvette came with the pyramid heads, then this is either the original engine with a mis-stamped front pad on the suffix or it is an engine out of a passenger car with the correct suffix stamping that was build in the same time period as my Corvette.

Could go either way I guess however my GUESS would be a mis-stamp that was supposed to be an FG rather than a FC as it is. That would be an easy mistake to make for a line worker. If it was supposed to be FG that would have made the car a low h.p. 2X4 auto car. It would be awful coincidental for it to be a transplant from a passenger car where all of these numbers are lining up with the build time of my car. Of course another possibility is that it got assembled originally with a passenger car engine by mistake. I guess it is all guess work 60 years later.

68hemi

Yeah, I understand that but it looks like all 57 Corvettes used the pyramid heads except the 270 h.p. cars and these pyramid heads were used again in 1962 according to this other info I have.
Narrow triangle over rectangle c/n 520, 896, 1958 and up 283 Power Pak and 1957-'60 FI. 9.25:1 CR, 1.72" x 1.50" valves, 59cc nominal chamber volume. Could be used on a 305 but no accessory holes and has unhardened exhaust seats.

62corvette

Darryl, You can suppose, assume, or hope all you want. In reality it is 99.9% sure that is a passenger car motor that was installed in a passenger car that was built quite a bit earlier than your 57. Too much against it for it to be likely that it's the original to the car.

68hemi

WHOPPS, I did that wrong and it throws a wrench in my previous theory about my engine.

From Jerry's previous post:
1957

3740997 220, 245, 250 & 270 Horsepower
3731539 283 Horsepower, Fuel Injection

If my car was a base 4 bbl car it would have 3740997 heads.

When I first started looking at the heads and block today I wondered if it was originally an FI car but no round accelerator rod and of course the suffix characters are also wrong.

I am getting more confused by the minute. I used to know all of this stuff off of the top of my head but my age is screwing with me.

MidShark

Darryl, I think chances are that you have a 220 HP 283 out of a passenger car. You will have to get a look at the casting date to be sure. How cool though if it turns out you have a correctly dated 283 instead of a later 327. And you'll wish you had the 997 heads instead of the 539s- the 539 heads are easy to find and relatively cheap; a pair of 997s currently go for about $3000.

Rich

68hemi

Why do you say that? You do understand that the engine blocks and heads were built in another plant than the cars right? Then when they were assembled for the car they were going to be installed in they were built to spec for that car e.g. a hipo engine or what ever the order called for then shipped to the assembly plant for install. A considerable amount of time could pass from the casting time of the block or heads until assembly of the car. There can be a lot of mismatching of date codes because of this This is why NCRS has such a big range of time with this in mind for judged cars.

However, I reviewing these dates I just realized that the heads on this engine are cast prior to the stamped date of the block which would be impossible for them to be correct for the engine to have had them factory installed.

I am not assuming or hoping anything at all, I am just trying to figure out what I truly have here.

68hemi

Unless this car was originally a 270 h.p. or an FI car it has little effect on what I will do with it. A base engine or auto trans car are at the bottom of the value scale as far a I am concerned. In fact even if it were an original 270 or FI car and this was the original engine it would go in the corner of the garage and I would install a stealth 383 stroker like I have already planned to do.

jim lockwood

997 heads were used on Corvette 220 HP engines (and others)

539 heads were used on passenger car 220 HP engines (and 283 HP engines).

The engine in your car is a 220 HP passenger car engine. Somehow it got transplanted into your Corvette.

desertpilgrim

The short block in your car got replaced with a Flint-assembled passenger car short block, perhaps under its original heads.