1963 Engine Stamping Question

[Sydney G.]

Re: 1963 Engine Stamping Question

Syd -

That's how it was done. A typical day's production schedule would include anywhere from 20 to 50 different suffixes, and a separate gang holder was set up prior to the beginning of the day shift for each suffix on the schedule. The holders were stored at the stamp station in a "pigeonhole" rack, with each suffix having its own "hole" in the rack for the day.

There was no time during production to fiddle with gang holder die setup or changes; Line #1 ran at 170 per hour, and Line #2 ran at 130 per hour. The stamp operator looked at the suffix scrawled on the side of the block in the bore air-gage station, grabbed the gang holder for that suffix from the rack, stamped the pad, and performed the balance of his operation.

Thanks John.
It's still hard to imagine that each day the process of setting up the stamps/holders repeated itself. You would think that they would just have kept an 'RD' suffix holder and placed that particular stamp in the pigeonhole for that days work orders.

John, does this mean that either "R" could have been used on any given day in '63 for the 'RD' stamp (for example), or RC or RE?

Syd

[James G.]

Re: 1963 Engine Stamping Question

here is 16160 fuel engine with the short leg. Note the date F0506RF

[Philip C.]

Re: 1963 Engine Stamping Question

Hi Phil,

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. I realize there were 2 variations of the R, but my point was that on a given day, one suffix could have used the short leg while or all of the others could have used the long leg, since each assembly stamp set was put together in it's own separate gang holder. The short R distribution would have been random based on what the operator pulled out of the character bin.

This may not be 100% accurate but it is my opinion based on how I understand the process to have worked. I'd welcome any clarification anyone else might have on the topic.

Hi Joel I understand what your saying from what you have read in the above posts. But it seems that there was a change over from one R to the other, sometime around the end of april 63. That idea of many gang holders doesnt seem to hold up, but if it does or doesnt, either R would work around the change over. It seems most people need a iron clad answer when there really is none. Phil 8063

[John D.]

Re: 1963 Engine Stamping Question

Brian, If you get the chance sit in on an Al Grenning seminar on engine pads, etc. Most enlightening. I am sure Al could put up numerous photos of 63 pads showing the R.
What about the other characters you are using? How do you know they are correct? In the old days both at Flint and Rochester Products the characters/font used don't come close to what's available today.
On the FI units the tags used have characters all on their own and nothing in the catalogs will fly (without alteration).

And the biggy is this. How are your broach marks as you said the block was decked? Good luck, JD

[John H.]

Re: 1963 Engine Stamping Question

Thanks John.
It's still hard to imagine that each day the process of setting up the stamps/holders repeated itself. You would think that they would just have kept an 'RD' suffix holder and placed that particular stamp in the pigeonhole for that days work orders.

John, does this mean that either "R" could have been used on any given day in '63 for the 'RD' stamp (for example), or RC or RE?

Syd

Syd -

There were many days when NO Corvette-suffixed engines were built (Corvette engines were less than 2% of the volume at Flint V-8); in that instance, a gang holder that was used on Monday for "RE" Corvette engines could wind up being used for any one of the other 50 passenger and truck engine suffixes on Tuesday.

For a suffix that was built every day, only the date dies in the gang holder needed to be changed; not many Corvette engines fell into that category.

The character dies for the gang holders were purchased from at least three different suppliers, and nobody paid any attention whatever to font styles when setting up gang holders; those individual dies were kept in bins, and were mixed. All that mattered in production was having the correct date and suffix code in each holder for that day's schedule, and the guy who came in an hour early every day to set up the day's gang holders could care less about the font styles.

If they had known in the 60's that we'd be scrutinizing font styles 45 years later, they'd still be laughing.

[Michael W.]

Re: 1963 Engine Stamping Question

I am currently in the process of rebuilding and engine. I just had the engine decked and am about to have it restamped and the machinist is asking me what style "R" that I want for my RD code. Are there really two types of R's that were stamped in 63??

Brian,

Maybe I've missed this, but if your block has been decked, how are you going about restoring the proper pad surface appearance? Typically an engine shop will use a rotary milling tool, the resulting swirl marks stand out like a sore thumb. Not much point in fretting over the font of an R if the pad finish is not taken care of.

[Terry M.]