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Does anyone have a good idea of how much delay there was between engine casting and assembly toward the end of the 65 model year? More to the point, what would be the longest and shortest period between casting and assembly normally expected?
The flint casting building was in the same complex as the assembly building. They could cast a block in the morning machine it mid day and assemble that night
Last edited by Nowhere Man; Jan 15, 2019 at 08:40 AM.
Just for reference for you on my 64
Trim Tag E14 = Jan 14th 1964
Engine cast date L193 or Dec 19 1963
Engine stamp pad FI226RE or Dec 26 1963
She turned 55 yesterday, shes got 10 years on me!
Last edited by Rob_64-365; Jan 15, 2019 at 10:48 AM.
My '61 had a head that was dated 24 hours ahead of the engine assembly date....
JohnZ has answered this many times and an engine could be assembled with parts still warm from the foundry...
On my 67, L-79 (327/350) the block casting date is May 31, 1967 and the engine assembly date is June 5, 1967. The head dates are March 1 and March 14, 1967. The intake manifold is Feb. 17 and the exhaust manifolds are May 24 and May 25. The distributor tag is April 17. I am the 4th owner and have little doubt that the components are the born with parts.
The flint casting building was in the same complex as the assembly building. They could cast a block in the morning machine it mid day and assemble that night
Nope. The two plants were not part of one complex. The Chevrolet Central Foundry was in Saginaw Michigan. Roughly 40 miles north of General Motors Flint Engine Operations.
Agree, there were blocks cast, shipped to Flint, machined and assembled on the same calendar date.
On the other hand the Tonawanda Engine plant, sole home of the Mark IV big block, did have it's own foundry within the complex. Ironically big blocks did tend to get machined and assembled some time after the blocks were cast. As much as two months. Even though they didn't have far to to go to the assembly line.
Again, JohnZ has said GM ran a dedicated fleet of semis that ran nearly continuously between the foundry and assembly facility...
Normally a week or so is the spread between casting and assembly, but nobody was looking at the dates on parts when bolting things together -- just part numbers....
It looks like the less common engines were probably assembled in batches.
On my 65 .
Trim Tag L26 =July 26 1965
Engine cast date G15 =July 1 1965
Engine stamp pad F0714HG
On a nothing special passenger 870 block I saw it had a cast date of D95 = April 9 1965 and an assembly date of July 16 1965, over 3 months later.
Blocks were cast and assembled in New York so you have the cast date and engine stamp
Were both BB and SB manufactured and assembled at the same plant?
Then transported to St Louis
Installed in car and the trim tag was produced with a date
Blocks were cast and assembled in New York so you have the cast date and engine stamp
Were both BB and SB manufactured and assembled at the same plant?
Then transported to St Louis
Installed in car and the trim tag was produced with a date
When was the vin stamped on the block?
no. All Sb corvette engines came from Flint MI they had there own foundry, machineing and assembly of engines. Flint also supplied ever other GM car and truck engines. ALL BB engines came from Tonawanda NY. Same deal foundry machining and assembly. They also did SB engines for other Chevy cars and trucks. Once assembled the engine got the assembly stamp and suffix code. Then shipped by rail to the car or truck assembly plant. Then it went on to it’s mate and got a vin stamp
Does anyone have a good idea of how much delay there was between engine casting and assembly toward the end of the 65 model year? More to the point, what would be the longest and shortest period between casting and assembly normally expected?
Thanks,
Mike
From Noland's book, a survey of 1965 engine nos. for both 327 and 396 cylinder cases..... 327 production seems to average between a day and a week between casting and assembly.
Here's the shipping dock area for L-6 blocks at the Saginaw Foundry, and the shipping conveyor at the Flint V-8 plant in 1955 (note no side motormount or oil filter provisions on the '55 V-8).
John,
Thanks for posting the photos, I have not seen those photos before now. A quick estimate of the 6 cylinder blocks would be between 3500-400 blocks in the first photo.
Engine assembly date vs casting date
