C1 Block casting/stamp date

[Ken K.]

My 1959 Corvette have the original 3756519 engine. The casting date is:
K258 (November 25th 1958) The stamped date on the pad is: F1125CQ
Also Nov. 25th. Can this be correct? And does it happen that often? (The casting and building of the engine on the same day. (Note: Thanksgiving has on the 27th that year.)
Thanks Ken

[Tom B.]

Re: C1 Block casting/stamp date

It seems that I have heard of blocks being machined and assembled about as soon as they are cool. John would be the guy to give a definitive answer to this question.

Tom

[Jack H.]

Re: C1 Block casting/stamp date

It's come up and been answered several times in the past... The answer is YES!

The foundry for SB Corvette engines was in Saginaw, MI. The engine assy plant was in Flint, MI. The two are roughly 40-miles apart. There was no specific inventory control system (FIFO/LIFO), so freshly cast blocks arriving by truck had two places to go: (1) into inventory, or (2) directly to a production run...

Also, since the foundry worked 3-shifts, it's entirely feasible for the pour, cool, pack, ship and route to the assy line to happen within the same calendar day...

[Kenneth B.]

Re: C1 Block casting/stamp date

Block could have been cast 3rd shift after midnight on the 25 And machined late on the same day. Also it could have been cast before that date but the date tag was changed to the day when it was expected to run next. Foundry could have run a lot of scrap that day & had to put that pattern in production before that. There other reasons this could happen. I have been in the pattern & foundry business since 1963. I saw a lot weird things happen IE wrong part #'s. Hold your ground. Don't let the judges say it couldn't happen because it did.

KEN BARRY 7808

[John H.]

Re: C1 Block casting/stamp date

Ken -

What style (round head and/or flat head or one of each) are the screw heads at both ends of the casting date tag?

[Kenneth B.]

Re: C1 Block casting/stamp date

The date tag was strip of steel rounded on each end to match the machined slot in the pattern. The tag was drilled & countersunk on each end. date code was raised. They were meant to have flat head machine screws but I am sure the pattern maker grabbed any 10/24 he had. I have a 67 block withe what looked like one of each. If both were flat heads & sand filled the slot & The countersunk screw you may not see any evidence of the 2 screws. Hope it helps

KEN BARRY 7808