71 454 (LS5) heads on 72?

[Monte M.]

Re: 71 454 (LS5) heads on 72?

Monte,
If you ever saw the Tonawanda engine facility you would not question that. The expression S)&t through a tin horn comes to mind. Flint was even faster.

Terry,

Are you saying that there is a very good chance that they broke the mold, cooled it, got its valves and was put on an engine all in one day (24 to 36 hour period), or are you saying there was a ver good chance the casting date, or the stamped date was wrong. Or, both for that matter.

It must have been a zoo?

Monte

[Terry M.]

Re: 71 454 (LS5) heads on 72?

Terry,

Are you saying that there is a very good chance that they broke the mold, cooled it, got its valves and was put on an engine all in one day (24 to 36 hour period), or are you saying there was a ver good chance the casting date, or the stamped date was wrong. Or, both for that matter.

It must have been a zoo?

Monte

It could have been either, but my bet is that they could have poured the heads on the first shift and assembled the engine on the third shift a day hence (I think that works to the 36 hours you mentioned). The castings (heads, cylinder case, water pump, intake and so on) came out of the molds on shaker conveyers and could have moved to, stacking, cooling & machining and assembly pretty quickly. At Tonawanda the foundry was adjacent to the engine assembly building, so unlike Flint, there was no significant shipping of raw castings.

The engine was washed, assembled, hot tested and racked for shipping in maybe two hours -- if nothing was found wrong. The greatest delay from casting to assembly completion would be the cooling before machining, and that would be the same for the cylinder head, unless the cylinder head or case was on a pallet that got stuck in the back of the transfer area. If your heads were LIFO (last in, first out) what you found could happen. In Mike's case his heads were FILO (first in, last out) and that accounts for his disparity in dates as well as casting number. Remember the only reason for those dates were to be sure the part had cooled before machining, and to track back if there was some quality "issue" in manufacturing.

Organized zoo would be more accurate. Lots of fork lifts (high-lows) scurrying about, and long assembly lines with machines operating lickity split. I didn't watch a lot of the cylinder head operation, but the cylinder cases moved right along. My belief is the heads did as well. The cylinder case stuffing and rod torquing operation was the most labor intensive station and a sight to behold. Selecting the pistons, fitting the rods and rings also had its share of labor -- but all of these operations went on simultaneously and the parts met the case at precisely the time they were needed. It would take me more than several long paragraphs to describe it, and even at that I couldn't do it justice. We would need a video, and as far as I know none exists. I really wish there was one. It would give us a much better sense of the speed of the operation and the drudgery of assembly line work.

[Tom L.]

Re: 71 454 (LS5) heads on 72?

Correction... I went and took a second look at my numbers and it seems I mis-counted the months. The heads are dated I-7-71, which is September, not October. Need to work on my alphabet. That is about a month before the build date of the car. When I went back I checked the intake too. It's dated I-28-71 which would be less than 2 weeks before the build date of the car. Since it's a CE block I have no idea what the build date of the engine itself was.

Since my vin is also in the 43xx range and built within a day or two of his it still may help with Mikes question. Sorry for the confusion.

[Terry M.]

Re: 71 454 (LS5) heads on 72?

Overnight I recalled an article I did for The Restorer about one of the tours I and another NCRS member took of the Tonawanda engine facility. My best guess was it was published late '80s or early 90s. There was a photo in there of a transfer area with many pallets in it. I can not now remember if it was cylinder cases or heads. Monte, that photo might give you some idea of the magnitude of the operation.