Tonawanda Engine Block

[Michael W.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Ralph-

Have you compared your engine stamp to the transmission stamp?

[Ralph S.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Next on my list. Car is tucked away for the winter.

[Kenneth B.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

ken-----

the hole was drilled. Tonawanda had some sort of block machining capability that did not require this hole to be drilled. In other words, they achieved the internal oiling passage configuration required without the need to drill an external origin hole. Flint did not have this capability and had to drill the external-origin hole to achieve the required internal oiling configuration.

The thing i've never been able to figure out is this: I believe some md/hd truck applications use this 1/8 npt fitting for some purpose. If so, does that mean that these trucks could not use a tonawanda block? Of course, perhaps gm supplied all engines to md/hd trucks from flint.

thanks joe

[Gary C.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Joe,

IIRC the hole was drilled for heavy duty engine (truck) external oil filter SC655. This hole was present for the add-on '55 external oil filter.

Gary
....

[Claus S.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Let me see if i got this right when it comes to engines for 1964 Corvette?
The dates with early, mid and late is as shown below?
"Early" would be Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec 1963
"Mid" would be Jan., Feb., Mar., and Apr 1964
"Late" would be May, Jun. July, and Aug 1964

Also all Tonawanda engine blocks have Tonawanda markiings but a F on the pad because the engine was assembled at Flint
Is this correct?

One more thing about the early, mid and late dates i suppose the same dates goes for Flint engine blocks?

[Joe L.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Let me see if i got this right when it comes to engines for 1964 Corvette?
The dates with early, mid and late is as shown below?
"Early" would be Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec 1963
"Mid" would be Jan., Feb., Mar., and Apr 1964
"Late" would be May, Jun. July, and Aug 1964

Also all Tonawanda engine blocks have Tonawanda markiings but a F on the pad because the engine was assembled at Flint
Is this correct?

One more thing about the early, mid and late dates i suppose the same dates goes for Flint engine blocks?

Claus-----

Tonawanda blocks usually have a "T" casting mark prominently displayed on the casting. If the engine was machined and assembled at Flint, the engine code stamped on the stamp pad will begin with an "F" or a "V". A Tonawanda machined and assembled block (not used for Corvette small blocks), will have a "T" prefix for the stamped engine code.

[Michael J.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Claus-----

Tonawanda blocks usually have a "T" casting mark prominently displayed on the casting. If the engine was machined and assembled at Flint, the engine code stamped on the stamp pad will begin with an "F" or a "V". A Tonawanda machined and assembled block (not used for Corvette small blocks), will have a "T" prefix for the stamped engine code.

Ah, and don't forget the infamous "Fonawanda" big blocks with the "F".

[Michael W.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Let me see if i got this right when it comes to engines for 1964 Corvette?
The dates with early, mid and late is as shown below?
"Early" would be Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec 1963
"Mid" would be Jan., Feb., Mar., and Apr 1964
"Late" would be May, Jun. July, and Aug 1964

If you mean engine case casting or engine assembly dates, no. I think it would be a mistake to try to categorize such things anyway.

[David L.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

If you mean engine case casting or engine assembly dates, no. I think it would be a mistake to try to categorize such things anyway.

Why are you guys making a bid deal about this. The categorizing into "early", "mid", and "late" production was just my opinion, nothing else. It's not a mistake, it's my opinion.

Dave

[Michael J.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Why are you guys making a bid deal about this. The categorizing into "early", "mid", and "late" production was just my opinion, nothing else. It's not a mistake, it's my opinion.

Dave

+1, good point.

[Michael W.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Why are you guys making a bid deal about this. The categorizing into "early", "mid", and "late" production was just my opinion, nothing else. It's not a mistake, it's my opinion.

Dave

No offense but to me it's a bad idea like the habit of categorizing individual parts into 'early' and 'late' - probably on the top five list of things that confuse people.

[John H.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

The folks at Flint Engine told me that "from time to time a batch of Tonawanda cast cylinder cases" would be sent to Flint for machining and assembly. The purpose was to ensure that the Tonawanda cast cylinder cases would fit the tooling and machines at Flint so that an alternate casting site was available should Saginaw Metal Casting be unable to supply raw cylinder cases or could not meet sufficient demand for cylinder cases to Flint Engine.

Terry -

I'd agree with that - probably a simple occasional trial to verify compatibility of the foundry and machining tooling between the two plants; this would be particularly important for field service, to ensure that either plant's innards would fit and operate properly in either plant's machined block, as there was no distinction between block sources for field service parts. There was certainly no production volume reason to ship Tonawanda blocks from New York to Flint.

[David L.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

It's a bad idea to have mistakes in the judging guides and not correct them. I think that would be more confusing then a vague term like "early" or "late".

[Clem Z.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

Ken-----

The hole was DRILLED. Tonawanda had some sort of block machining capability that did not require this hole to be drilled. In other words, they achieved the internal oiling passage configuration required without the need to drill an external origin hole. Flint did not have this capability and had to drill the external-origin hole to achieve the required internal oiling configuration.

The thing I've never been able to figure out is this: I believe some MD/HD truck applications use this 1/8 NPT fitting for some purpose. If so, does that mean that these trucks could not use a Tonawanda block? Of course, perhaps GM supplied all engines to MD/HD trucks from Flint.

my guess that this 1/8" NTP thread hole was used in trucks to feed oil to the air brake compressor. later model trucks with the 366 big block also had this 1/8" NTP thread hole and it was used to feed oil to the compressor for the air brakes.

[Clem Z.]

Re: Tonawanda Engine Block

i enlarged this hole to feed the engine oil when we ran dry sump oil systems on race engines because it fed directly into the main oil gallery above the camshaft and eliminated all the 90 degree turns in the stock oiling system galleries