327 engine ?

[Terry W.]

Can someone confim or help decode this engine number please 818FO310RD
From my research I get F = Flint 03 = March 10 = 10th RD = 62 - 300HP corvette and I am guessing the 818 is partial VIN.
thanks
Terry

[Tom H.]

Re: 327 engine ?

Hi Terry ! Your March 10 breakdown would be correct. RD 327 / 300 from 1962 Corvette. Can't say for sure on that 818 without seeing the pad.

[Terry W.]

Re: 327 engine ?

Hi Tom , the 818 appears on the stamp pad as I have typed it above , there is no space between the 818 and the F an all letters and numbers are in one line, this engine is currently running in my old 68 camaro so I wanted to know if it would be worth anything to someone as this engine is being pulled in favour of a later 350cu,
thanks

[Edward M.]

Re: 327 engine ?

Could be worth quite a bit to the right person. Can you post a picture of the pad. That will tells us a lot more.

[Terry W.]

Re: 327 engine ?

thanks Ed , I sold the car to a friend so I will get a photo next time I see him and check the block casting numbers

[Bob R.]

Re: 327 engine ?

BY the way the RD has little to do with the year it only signifies a 300 hp manual transmission engine. The suffix RD was used in 62, 63, and 64. On the passengers side rear of the block you can find the date the block was cast and on the rear drivers side of the block you can find the block casting number.

[Terry W.]

Re: 327 engine ?

not a great photo but here go's , my memory not that good

[Edward M.]

Re: 327 engine ?

not a great photo but here go's , my memory not that good

Is there supposed to be a photo attached?

[Bob R.]

Re: 327 engine ?

The photo is not very good and without blowing it up for a carefull look it is very hard to read. That said I think there were numbers to the left of the 818. It almost looks like the block may have been machined and some of the numbers were removed in the proccess. As I stated previously the block date is on the passengers side rear and the block numer is on the drivers side rear.

[Edward M.]

Re: 327 engine ?

I don't think any of that is a factory stamp. Notice that the engine suffix / assembly date stamp is not aligned. They should be all in a straight line.

Also, the size of the "818" (or whatever it is) is the same size font as the engine suffix / assembly date stamp. The VIN derivative should be smaller in font size than the engine suffix / assembly date stamp.

My guess is that this entire pad was restamped at some time, perhaps after a rebuild, when someone attempted to put the original numbers back on the pad.

Just my $0.01 (my opinion is not worth 2 cents).

[Richard M.]

Re: 327 engine ?

Terry,

Yes please tell us the block casting numberand the block cast date. The cast date may be something like....
"C032" eg March 3, 1962, or "B262" Feb 26, 1962. I didn't look at a Julian calendar so those days are just random thinking.

This is what my sold '62 327 250 HP pad looked like. It's the original block. The vin derivative is typically smaller font than the assy stamp, but...... yours may be a special case. I don't see obvious broach marks but there could be some hidden. When I played with the photo adjustments I saw some lines. You never know. I wouldn't rule it out. Need other opinions.

I took the liberty of adjusting your photo, removed the tint and re-attached it. After I did that I see a 2 at the left. A 1962 vin derivative starts with a 210xxxxx. The last 5 digits are the sequence number, i.e. vin number. It almost appears on yours it could be: 210?818. If the ? is a 8, that would be a March build. A quick test on the c1registry birthday calendar yields the car 8818......

Approximate birthday 20867S108818: March 26, 1962

....about 16 days after the engine assembly.

Something is unusual with the pad and it does appear it may not be original but....????????

Rich

[Terry W.]

Re: 327 engine ?

thanks everyone , I am waiting to get the casting number and date from my friend,however on closer inspection the number "1" after the three is definitly an "I" so I also feel it may have been restamped ,and not very well,I had taken the initial information off the registration papers which were incorrect,so it could be any old impala block, however I will update when I have more info.
cheers

[David L.]

Re: 327 engine ?

Terry,

The letter "I" was used as a number "1" on the engine code stamping but NOT on the smaller sized VIN stamping.

Assuming you block was made in Flint (from the suspicious stamping) the casting date will have a single digit for the year (example: "2" for 1962). A Tonawanda block will have 2 digits for the year (example: "62" for 1962).

Most all 327 Corvette blocks were made in Flint but there were a small amount of Tonawanda 327 blocks used on 1964 Corvettes as best as I can remember.

Dave