Question for our Engine Experts

[Larry E.]

Restoring a 1966 Base Corvette with Base Engine(L75). Have a chance to buy(Price is Right) an
extra set of #3782461 Heads. These are date coded H305 and H315 (Aug 30th and 31st 1965) My Engine Pad indicates the engine was assembled 9/1/65. I know back then the Saginaw Casting plant and Flint Assembly plant ran 24/7 and close by and trucks ran continuous. Could the dates above be realistic and possible?? Thanks in advance>Larry

[Terry D.]

Re: Question for our Engine Experts

So that would mean heads were finished, assembled, sent to shipping, boxed up, sent to receiving at engine plant, unboxed. sent to parts bin, picked up and put on motor in 24-48 hours. All done by union labor! What do you think?

[Patrick B.]

Re: Question for our Engine Experts

I have seen a couple of small block cast the same day as assembly, so it is not impossible.

[Edward M.]

Re: Question for our Engine Experts

I have also seen some engines cast and assembled on the same day.

But I have never, to my recollection, seen an set of cylinder heads cast on the same day as the engine assembly date, or even as close as 1 day apart.

The real question is where were the cylinder heads machined and assembled. They were cast in the Saginaw Foundry, the same place that the engine block was cast. The block and heads (raw castings) were sent to the Flint Engine Plant for machine work and assembly into a complete engine.

There was not a lot of storage space at the Flint Engine Plant, so rough castings were usually machined within a day or two of their arrival at the Flint Engine Plant. Rough castings arrived at Flint 24 hours a day via a dedicated truck fleet.

So, to the given scenario... a cylinder head is cast on H 30 5 and sent to the Flint Engine Plant for machining, another cylinder is cast on H 31 5 and makes the same trip to the Flint Engine Plant a day later.

An engine block is cast probably sometime in late August of 1965 and this block is also shipped to the Flint Engine Plant.

OK, by September 1st, we have a completely machined block with a casting date of late August, one completely machined and assembled cylinder head with a casting date of H 30 5, and another completely machined cylinder head with a casting date of H 31 5.

All of these parts come together as a complete engine on 9/1/1965 at the Flint Engine Plant. The engine is assembled, tested, and then shipped to the St. Louis Corvette assembly plant.

This scenario is theoretically possible, and might even be called theoretically "likely", but it would still be somewhat of a deviation from typical factory production. You would not lose any points for it, but a subsequent reviewer might call it into question.

Good luck with your car, and a special thank you to John Hinckley for the information from his article "Building the Small-Block V-8 at Flint Engine".

[Terry D.]

Re: Question for our Engine Experts

I didn't say it was impossible but agree with Edward, highly unlikely.