Engine Judging
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 1,864
Likes: 148
From: Santa Barbara California
Engine Judging
Here is one for you judges. I am comtemplating buying an engine with a visible underlying VIN that is correct for my car. There are two numbers that are overstamped (some say by G.M. and some say they don't know). The engine has been restamped with a VIN one sequence number after my car. With the visibility of my number under the overstamped number would the investment be worthwhile (this block is going to cost me as much as double what a normally available block would cost). I want my car to be as authentic as possible and having looked for an alternative for the past year it seems finding a block with this same casting date is like finding a needle in the haystack (maybe worse).
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 2,917
Likes: 13
From: NE Illinois IL
Martin,
A couple of questions for you--do you believe this engine to be your original engine? Based on your screen name, I am assuming the engine is going into a 65 FI car. Is the engine suffix correct for your car's configuration (i.e. is it an FI suffix)? If that is the case, I would procede with some caution. If you can get a high resolution picture of the pad and stampings, you would be doing yourself a huge favor to have Al Grenning authenticate the pad. I do not know what he will charge for this service but it would be cheap insurance.
http://ccas4vettes.com/
You can also post it here but to be honest, this group is not nearly as good as Al, nor do they have the extensive library of pads with grind outs, stamp overs, etc.
If you do not think this is the original engine for your car but you are simply looking for something that would work for judging, I do not think I would pay 2x what a similar engine would cost. NCRS will allow the correct casting number to have been cast within 6 months of your car's build. If you meet those criteria you will get most of the engine case judging points. If the engine is undecked, but is out of a passenger car you will also get credit for the deck surface and only loose 50 pts for the VIN and engine configuration stamps being wrong. Shoulld not be too hard to find a 65 passenger car 870 block cast within 6 months of your build date so this would be the more economical route.
Good luck
A couple of questions for you--do you believe this engine to be your original engine? Based on your screen name, I am assuming the engine is going into a 65 FI car. Is the engine suffix correct for your car's configuration (i.e. is it an FI suffix)? If that is the case, I would procede with some caution. If you can get a high resolution picture of the pad and stampings, you would be doing yourself a huge favor to have Al Grenning authenticate the pad. I do not know what he will charge for this service but it would be cheap insurance.
http://ccas4vettes.com/
You can also post it here but to be honest, this group is not nearly as good as Al, nor do they have the extensive library of pads with grind outs, stamp overs, etc.
If you do not think this is the original engine for your car but you are simply looking for something that would work for judging, I do not think I would pay 2x what a similar engine would cost. NCRS will allow the correct casting number to have been cast within 6 months of your car's build. If you meet those criteria you will get most of the engine case judging points. If the engine is undecked, but is out of a passenger car you will also get credit for the deck surface and only loose 50 pts for the VIN and engine configuration stamps being wrong. Shoulld not be too hard to find a 65 passenger car 870 block cast within 6 months of your build date so this would be the more economical route.
Good luck
