Which Engine Plant

[Gary C.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Mike,

Tonawanda made small blocks starting in 1955 with the 265 and in 1957 with the 283.

Don't know if they produced 327 and 350 small blocks or not.

Gary
....

[Michael J.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Thanks Gary, I was speaking of Corvette small blocks. Did they make any 283 or 265 Corvette engines?

[Dan A.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Tonawanda supplied a small number of 3858180 block castings to Flint in the 1965 model year. Flint machined and assembled them and a few '65 small block Corvettes received them. So yes some Corvettes did receive Tonawanda small blocks.

[Mark E.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Did any engine plant produce both small blocks and L6?

If not, then another clue the first picture shows an assembly plant receiving both types of engines, not an engine plant shipping.

It's interesting how much paint is on the exhaust manifolds. Maybe a cheap, deliberate way to prevent rust until delivery? Or just excessive but accidental over spray?

[Terry M.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Tonawanda supplied a small number of 3858180 block castings to Flint in the 1965 model year. Flint machined and assembled them and a few '65 small block Corvettes received them. So yes some Corvettes did receive Tonawanda small blocks.

Dan
The same situation took place in the 1969 to 1972 era with 350 CID engines. The Tonawanda casting number was 3970014 v the Flint casting 3970010. Like your earlier situation the raw casting was sent from Tonawanda and machined and assembled at Flint.

Back when Marvin Burnett was 1973 and up Team Leader he asked me about those numbers, so I believe that situation continued in the later C3 years also.

[Joe L.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Don't know if they produced 327 and 350 small blocks or not.

Gary
....

Gary-----

The Tonawanda engine plant did manufacture 327 and 350 cid small blocks. These were cast at the Tonawanda foundry.

[John D.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Early on it was the A-body Buick Century and Pontiac 6000 built with many of the same processes from the Life magazine pics. Worked later on the APV's-Chevrolet Lumina , Pontiac Transport and Olds Silhouette from clay model through very near the end of production in 2006. All the original production engineering was done at Pinninfarina in Turin Italy. Travelled there and all over the midwest on the launch. Heady stuff for a young wet behind the ears engineer.

[Gene M.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Gary-----

The Tonawanda engine plant did manufacture 327 and 350 cid small blocks. These were cast at the Tonawanda foundry.

Yes and they are easy to tell the difference on the 870’s from a flint block even before machining. The casting numbers on the bell housing flange are slightly smaller.

This is all interesting but the answer to Dan’s question is not 100% resolved ............a lot of evidence? Yes? By John in post #11

[Michael J.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Early on it was the A-body Buick Century and Pontiac 6000 built with many of the same processes from the Life magazine pics. Worked later on the APV's-Chevrolet Lumina , Pontiac Transport and Olds Silhouette from clay model through very near the end of production in 2006. All the original production engineering was done at Pinninfarina in Turin Italy. Travelled there and all over the midwest on the launch. Heady stuff for a young wet behind the ears engineer.

Wow! I bet that was a great time.

[Gene M.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Wow! I bet that was a great time.

Buick Century, Pontiac 6000, APV's-Chevrolet Lumina , Pontiac Transport and Olds Silhouette I just don’t see the excitement.

[Edward B.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Was it commonplace to ship these engines with distributors installed? It would seem that might lead to much accidental breakage due to their exposed positions.

[Joe L.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Was it commonplace to ship these engines with distributors installed? It would seem that might lead to much accidental breakage due to their exposed positions.

Edward------


Distributors were almost always, if not always, installed at the engine plants.

[Michael J.]

Re: Which Engine Plant

Here is a picture of the engine rack in St. Louis for big blocks, the distributor appears to be on them, but not some other parts.