More casting date vs assembly date

[Mike Cobine]

If you have been watching eBay, there is a 1968 L88 engine which is stamped T0809IT and has a casting date of I 11 7. Every way I can think of, I still get I 11 7 = 9/11/67 which means it was cast one month after it was assembled.

The number alignment is pretty screwy when compared to the numbers on his 435 hp block in http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2430783677

What am I missing here?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2431041326&category=34202

[Chuck S.]

Re: More casting date vs assembly date

Mike, there are few suspicious points to me too; (1) forget broach marks; there seems like a lot of etching and pitting on front pad area. It COULD be normal corrosion, but over the "09IT", it seems to extend back into the area that is under the head. (2) the "8" also seems to have slipped a little in the gang stamp...I wouldn't expect that, but then I'm no expert, (3) check out what you can see of the VIN derivative; note that it appears to start with "19S"...Does that make any sense for a 68? I'm not familiar with 68 engine VIN derivative stamp, but it doesn't even have an "8" in the prefix. The last character appears to "7", which would identify the original car as a 69, not a 68, and that really raises holy heck with the "IT" suffix.

Note that he guarantees this block to be rebuildable...He doesn't say that he guarantees it to be an L88. Maybe the junk yards are now beginning to recycle some bad restamps that didn't quite make the big time.

[Dick W.]

Re: More casting date vs assembly date

I think that you need to study the characters on the pad a little more. There are several inconsistincies in the characters, size, spacing, depth, etc