Help with a 519 engine block

[Stewart A.]

I have the opportunity to purchase a 519 block with the date casting of
I 11 9 Can someone confirm this date. Is it Sept / 11 / 59. I would hate to buy It and spend a trillion dollars on it to find out by a judge it is incorrect. My cars build date is Nov 59.

[Joe L.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

I have the opportunity to purchase a 519 block with the date casting of
I 11 9 Can someone confirm this date. Is it Sept / 11 / 59. I would hate to buy It and spend a trillion dollars on it to find out by a judge it is incorrect. My cars build date is Nov 59.

Stewart-----

"I 11 9" is, indeed September 11, 1959. Make sure the block is a Saginaw-cast block and not a Tonawanda cast (among other things, a Saginaw block has a 1/8" square head pipe plug above the timing cover area; a Tonawanda block does not).

I wouldn't pay a trillion dollars for it, though; that's way too much.

[Garry B.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

Joe,
What model year did they start putting the square head pipe plug into the blocks at Saginaw?

[Jack H.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

To my knowledge, the plug was always a 'feature' of Saginaw/Flint vs. Tonawanda built SB V8's....

This is my 'gut' feel, so don't take it as Gospel. But, the Flint engine plant was physically close to GMC in Pontiac, Michigan. Many of the 'big' trucks + bus vehicles sported 'cab over' body designs.

That placed the instrument cluster above and to the front of the engine making it desirable for the oil pressure gauge to connect to the front vs. rear of the block. For Corvette, we're used to seeing the oil pressure gauge line connect to the rear of the block.

Drilling and tapping is a secondary operation, but there comes a point when it's more economic to drill/tap ALL of the blocks and simply 'plug' those that don't use the forward oil pressure pickup than it is to have different PN's and complicate the production process by 'sorting' blocks for the truck/bus cab over application vs. pass car application.

Tonawanda may have had less truck/bus engine volume than Flint making it economic to save a discrete drill/tap operation for passenger car blocks...

[Garry B.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks.
Garry

[Joe L.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

To my knowledge, the plug was always a 'feature' of Saginaw/Flint vs. Tonawanda built SB V8's....

This is my 'gut' feel, so don't take it as Gospel. But, the Flint engine plant was physically close to GMC in Pontiac, Michigan. Many of the 'big' trucks + bus vehicles sported 'cab over' body designs.

That placed the instrument cluster above and to the front of the engine making it desirable for the oil pressure gauge to connect to the front vs. rear of the block. For Corvette, we're used to seeing the oil pressure gauge line connect to the rear of the block.

Drilling and tapping is a secondary operation, but there comes a point when it's more economic to drill/tap ALL of the blocks and simply 'plug' those that don't use the forward oil pressure pickup than it is to have different PN's and complicate the production process by 'sorting' blocks for the truck/bus cab over application vs. pass car application.

Tonawanda may have had less truck/bus engine volume than Flint making it economic to save a discrete drill/tap operation for passenger car blocks...

Jack-----


The pipe plug fitting in question was used on Flint blocks and not Tonawanda due to differences in tooling used to drill the oil passages in the blocks. Tonawanda had some way of drilling a particular oil passage that didn't require the drilling on the front of the block. Flint didn't use this method/tooling, so they had to drill from the front of the block and, subsequently, plug that passage with a pipe plug.

[Joe L.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

Joe,
What model year did they start putting the square head pipe plug into the blocks at Saginaw?

Garry-----


The plug was not installed at Saginaw; it was installed at Flint engine subsequent to the block machining process. This plug was used as far back as the first small blocks produced at Flint in 1955.

[Stewart A.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

Joe Joe Joe I just saw that you have posted nearly 20,000 threads what the !!! You need to buy a T.V. Thats incredable.That must be a Guiness book record Wow. Oh I believe you can tell the difference between a
Saginaw block because the Casting dates are different. The Corvette block has a 9 for 1959 and the others have 59 for 1959. So the judging book says.

[Joe L.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

Joe Joe Joe I just saw that you have posted nearly 20,000 threads what the !!! You need to buy a T.V. Thats incredable.That must be a Guiness book record Wow. Oh I believe you can tell the difference between a
Saginaw block because the Casting dates are different. The Corvette block has a 9 for 1959 and the others have 59 for 1959. So the judging book says.

Stewart-----


That's not a hard-and-fast rule. Saginaw cast blocks do use the 1 digit year code, at least through the early 80's, if not later. However, Tonawanda castings are not always a 2 digit year code as some believe. So, the presence or absence of the pipe plugged fitting I described earlier is the easiest and most definitive way to ID a Saginaw or Tonawanda-cast small block.

[Steven N.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

Can someone post a picture of this plug ? Thanks, Steven J. Neel

[Bill M.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

Can someone post a picture of this plug ? Thanks, Steven J. Neel

This block was cast and assembled in November 1958

[Stewart A.]

Re: Help with a 519 engine block

Thanks for the picture of the plug hole. I can stop worrying now. I thought I might of bought a non Corvette block. But it has the plug hole.
and the single year digit.