this engine# doesn't make sense FOII7R. There seems to be a number missing at the end, but the picture doesn't seem to indicate any altering. Any ideas? This is on a 1964 365hp 327, so should be an RE.

 

Doesn't look like there is a VIN number either.

I've seen these engines. I believe that they are service replacement or over the counter engines.

They have no VIN. The are stamped with an assembly date, ending in R for manual trans or S for automatic trans.

I have pix. Here's another.


Chuck

 

 

I have a block in my shop that was the replacement in my 64 back in mid-65. The original block was pulled when there was a suspcion that thenrear main seal was bad and had caused damage. The delaer put this block in as a service replacement. About 95K miles later it came out due to needing a valve job and has traveled with the car ever since.

 

Wow so this is a real dealer replacement under warranty engine. I understand these are not counted off for at NCRS. How does it affect value, I assume this would be much better than a beltsander NOM matching number block.

 

There's nothing unusual about it - the "R" suffix simply denotes a '62-'64 passenger car 327/250hp manual transmission engine; passenger cars only had VINs stamped on optional high-performance engines.

 

JohnZ,

Are you sure that the R means a 250hp car? It's just that the '64 that it is currently in appears that it could be an original 365hp car. All the signs of one anyways. I realize that all those things can be changed to look like a high hp car. If you know this is a 250hp engine, then I'm going to pass on this car.

 

I imagine this isn't going to make me a lot of friends, but you guys really need to do some studying on numbers if you are going to use them to "authenticate" old Corvettes.

1. John is right on about the R suffix. You think he is wonderful on everything else, why doubt him here? And if you really doubt him, just pull out an old Motors Manual and check on R suffix engines.

2. The R suffix means the engine was ORIGINALLY assembled as a 250 hp engine. That happened 45 years ago. What it is today could be anything. A 3.75 inch crank in it and you have a 383. A 3.00 inch crank and you have a 302.

Numbers ONLY mean what the item was originally, and have very little to do with what it is today.

3. The only two sure things are that the engine is NOT original to this car and the block was originally part of a 250 hp 327 assembled Jan. 17th in Flint, Mich.

 

I bought an L79 crate motor in the late spring of 1967. I looked at the pad, not knowing what I was looking at and not really caring eather. FWIW I think the numbers were VO 512 HT. I always wondered about the "O" because it might have been a "Q". The date 512 agreed with the time of my order, more or less, and the HT was something I later saw as being correct for a 327 / 350 with a manual transmission which indeed was what the engine was set up to have.

I last saw the engine on a garage floor with a bent rod caused by the lead foot kid who bought the car from me. If that engine block is still around I bet that any "information" obtained from the pad is totally useless for predicting what is now inside that block.

 

you are looking at your number wrong.

you should look at it this way
v-0512

v meaning assembly plant
05 meaning may
and 12 meaning the 12th day

if it were build in october it would be

V1012

good luck

 

using the numbers on the pad to tell what is actually in the motor today are indeed useless,

but the question here was to determine if the car was an authentic L76.
not to determine what pistons and cam it had in it..
a look at the pic determines that it has the right heads and intake, etc.

thats what he is usiing the numbers for.

How do the date stamp on the block and the casting date line up?
how do those dates coincide with the build date of the car?

if the dates all match up, then someone likely put L76 heads, intake carb etc. on an original 250hp car. what transmision? - are the dates correct? where is the redline on the tach? can you confirm the tach to be original? powersteering? (an original L76 could not have been ordered with PS)

these are the things to look for if the original block is in doubt.

Check the casting number and date codes on the heads. See what that tells you.

All of this will either lead you to one of three possibilities.

An original L76 car with a non-original block
A 250 hp car with L76 parts on its original numbers matching block
A 64 corvette with a hodge podge of parts assembled to look mostly correct LOL.

A

 

Funny I don't usually care much about this stuff but just for the hell of it...where is assembly plant "V". I guess I remember alot about that engine and the car I loaded it in because I had soooooooooo much fun with the car. It is how I like to remember the hobby before astronomical parts prices and better than factory restos, rotten gas at $3.00 / gallon, oil that does not lubricate flat tappet cams and all the other stuff that is integral in the hobby today.

Lots of good vibes from that car and from those days. Pickin the motor up at the dealer with the truck from the gas station where I worked after school. Installation over a Memorial Day at a now deceased friends home. He had neglected to ask his dad if we could do the job at home. When Dad got home from work at the start of a long holiday weekend my car was in his garage stall and the old motor was hanging on the crane. Dad said "Steve come inside RIGHT NOW we need to talk......" I bet that old Dads first drink of the weekend had a different purpose than he had planned while driving home. Steve came back with orders.... " THIS CAR WILL BE RUNNING BEFORE THE WEEKEND IS OVER". We had neglected to buy frame adapters for the swap and we had one of those AHHHHH S---T moments an hour or so after Dad went off the wall. We were dead in the water and Dad was smoking mad. Off to the junk yard and over the wall we went, wrenches in hand. Hell I had good memories of that car and that motor before the motor even fired for the first time.

Just seems like a less complicated time. I drove the wheels off that Chevelle must have run it 75K or 80K miles and the engine made me smile all the time I had it. Ahhhhhhhhh

 

pretty sure that V was for Flint
wouldn't bet my farm on it, but i think i read enough about it somewhere.

bigblocks were at Tonawanda

 

"F" prefix = Flint V-8 Plant (supplier of all Corvette small-blocks); the "F" prefix for Flint V-8 changed to a "V" for 1967.
"T" prefix = Tonawanda Engine Plant (Tonawanda small-blocks weren't used in Corvettes)
"R" suffix = That block was originally installed in a '62-'64 250hp passenger car. No telling what's inside it now, but it started life in a passenger car.

 

1. is possible.

2. is NOT possible, but you have nothing to prove this was a 250 hp car, either, because this block is NOT original to the car and is a PASSENGER block, not a CORVETTE block.

3. is most likely.

 

I 'm generally stupid about all this so humor me. How do we know its a passenger block and not a corvette block?

 

Ok I found it, answered my question.