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Hi, I’m looking for help in confirming that the ‘63 SWC that I plan to purchase is in fact a 340 HP non fuel injection engine.
I don’t believe the FI prefix refers to fuel injection as I have seen fuel injected cars with FO and FI as the prefix. My understanding is the last two letters denote the engine code. In my case, RE is for the 340HP 327 carburetor engine. Any help is appreciated as I typically buy newer gen Corvettes so this is a bit new to me.
The "F" prefix is for the Flint engine plant. The "I" is acutally used as a numeral 1. So the pad reads Flint plant, December 3rd build date and RE is for the L76 (340 HP) motor.
I am not enough of an expert to say if a trim plate is original or not, rivets, stamps etc, but I will say the dates for the engine assy are inline with my car built shortly after this one, same with the body number vs my trim plate. Also on the engine stamp the fonts look consistent with mine although a straight on picture would help. Have you checked the casting date and p/n on the engine block rear? mine is very close to the assy date, 2 days before.
Hi, thanks for the quick replies. So far, everything checks out. Tomorrow I will receive additional pictures including the casting date and engine block p/n. Car is across the country so requesting additional pictures as needed.
If the car is represented as original transmission it would be good to get a picture of that stamp and other cast in dates etc on the trans. (Should be a T10 4 speed trans for this car)
Rear end stamp will tell you mfg date and gear ration/posi (stamped on the bottom edge of the flange viewable by the spring), casting date on the rear end is on the side. A lot of 63's had rear end failures so it is not uncommon to find swaps there, and without a vin stamped it is not as critical to the value as the motor/trans.
I agree with @mapman --that "M" in "TRIM" is not normal, but it looks like it's physically damaged to me rather than a repro tag. The only absolute conclusion I can draw from that photo, is that a better photo is needed.
The "N" in paint is something else that is wrong on most repro tags--this one looks OK. Not sure, however, if more recent repros have corrected that obvious flaw.
Here is one of my 63's for reference, which has been validated:
The Trim Tag Body number that you show lines up perfectly with this cars serial number when compared to others that were built close to it that I have recorded.
I had this '63 recorded from some years ago.
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Need help with this ‘63 SWC engine stamp
