66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

[Jim H.]

I own 66 Corvette L79 327 with engine pad misstamping F0450HT (should be 0405). Engine vin stamp is 6118930 indicating car build date of April 12, 1966. Anyone have a similarly misstamped engine?

[Frank C.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

IMG_1537.jpg
James,

I have attached a picture of my pad, engine assembled FO0412HP for reference. My VIN is 6120080 the 1 is an I, how do your letters match to mine?

[Jim H.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

Frank, Attached are pix of my pad. I don't have any 1s in my engine stamp, so this sheds no light on your "I" numeral. However, the rest of your stamps seem consistent with mine inasmuch as (1) the vin numerals, including the 1's, are the same font and size and (2) the engine number stamping is not level but oriented slightly downward to the right. Mine also includes the aforementioned misstamping 0450 not the correct 0405. IMG_2652.jpg

[Jim H.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

Another NCRS member and 66 owner about 145 vins from mine indicated recently that his engine pad is also misstamped 0450.

[Mike E.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

Is it possible someone's twisted April fools joke 47 years ago?

Mike

[Michael J.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

Here's a picture of my '66's. Earlier than April of course, and yes the "1s" in the engine suffix are "Is". But seems somebody was out of it when they loaded and stamped with the gang stamp on that 0450 date, and mine are much better lined up than that one too.

[Terry M.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

Here's a picture of my '66's. Earlier than April of course, and yes the "1s" in the engine suffix are "Is". But seems somebody was out of it when they loaded and stamped with the gang stamp on that 0450 date, and mine are much better lined up than that one too.

I don't make a habit of looking at midyear stamp pads, but for C3s (I know you guys don't want to hear that, but bear with me) it is not uncommon to find the letter I in place of the number 1. It is almost guaranteed if there is more than one number 1 in the stamp pad; and if you figure the month of the year 10, 11, 12 along with the days from 10 to 19 plus the other 1s it turns out to be a lot of ones or eyes.

OH, and it works for larger motors as well.

[Patrick B.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

Frank, Attached are pix of my pad. I don't have any 1s in my engine stamp, so this sheds no light on your "I" numeral. However, the rest of your stamps seem consistent with mine inasmuch as (1) the vin numerals, including the 1's, are the same font and size and (2) the engine number stamping is not level but oriented slightly downward to the right. Mine also includes the aforementioned misstamping 0450 not the correct 0405. [ATTACH=CONFIG]49311[/ATTACH]

All of the characters in your stamping are typical of what was in use in Flint in 1966, especially the different 0's. This looks original and must be an error made on April 5th.

[Michael J.]

[John H.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

Here's a picture of my '66's. Earlier than April of course, and yes the "1s" in the engine suffix are "Is".

Michael -

The engine plants were notified by Chevrolet Engineering in 1957 to use the "I" character in place of the "1" character.

[Michael J.]

[Michael J.]

[Page C.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

There was a gang stamp holder for each assembly code they were running that day at Flint. The mistake in this case would be in the "HT" assembly code gang holder only for April 5.

[Terry M.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

There was a gang stamp holder for each assembly code they were running that day at Flint. The mistake in this case would be in the "HT" assembly code gang holder only for April 5.

True enough, but they grouped engine assemblies so it is possible anywhere from 25 to one hundred or more HT engines were built that day. Of course the total number of miss stamps not only depends on the quantity of the build but, as you said, how soon it was caught -- if it was caught at all that day.

[Jim H.]

Re: 66 327 L79 Engine Pad Date Misstamp

True enough, but they grouped engine assemblies so it is possible anywhere from 25 to one hundred or more HT engines were built that day. Of course the total number of miss stamps not only depends on the quantity of the build but, as you said, how soon it was caught -- if it was caught at all that day.

The owner of 66-18785, also an HT engine, indicated his engine is also misstamped 0450, making at least 145 HT engines misstamped that day. Great contributions by all to this thread.