What casting numbers on the block do I need to look at and how do I decipher them? Hopefully this will help with my cam plate problem. Please help me.

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Riccioli Performance Motorworks

--RPM Racing--

-Currently building first ever engine. 383 with Super Ram plenum and runners, Edelbrock lower intake, Bosch 24# injectors, AFR 190 heads, MSD ignition.
-Will be installing Baer Brakes
-Will be installing full Spohn suspension in rear
-Art Carr 700R4 trans??


Attention Everyone!!! I will be changing my name on the message boards to HardcoreZ28 sometime in the near future. Just wanted to let everyone know.

 

You need the date code that's stamped on the right front pad in front of the right head. It's usually hard to read. You may have to clean paint and dirt off first then go over it with a wire brush to see it.

What you want is a three letter code ABC, DFG, THW etc. The remaining 6 or so numbers is the last part of the cars serial number.

The three letter code can usually tell you what the block came out of. Casting numbers help a little but the same casting can be used over a number of years.

If the block has ever been decked then the stamped numbers are gone.

 

Well those numbers are nowhere to be found. The block was so rusted when I got it, they probably chipped right off. Any other ways to tell?? Here is what I do know about it. It's a 4-bolt main block with a 1-piece rear main seal. It has the holes in the front of the block and bosses under the intake for a roller cam setup, but wasn't roller from the factory. The guy who sold it to me said it was out of a truck.

 

At the back of the block, just below where the distributor goes in, on the rail where the transmission bolts to, will be a code---something like this sample---C 14 8.

Notice the spaces between C and 14 and 8.

C is the third letter of the alphabet. It also stands for the third month (March). A for January, B for February, etc.

14 stands for the date of the month.

8--this is where you have to do some other investigation (especially in older engines).
8-- means 1958 or 1968 or 1978 or 1988 or 1998. Get the point? 8 equals the eighth year of a decade.

In the sample above, since you have a one-piece seal block, which appeared first in 1986, this sample block would have been cast March 14, 1988 (or possibly 1998). You would have to look at other clues to find if its an '88 or '98 block.

If your block (or actually any cast item) has the code (another made-up sample)-- H 4 2 and has a one-piece rear main seal, it would have been cast August 4, 1992.

The casting date is usually from two weeks to three months ahead of when the piece actually ends up in a production vehicle.
jms