still not what's referred to as "matching numbers" Stove, the fact that the engine number on the firewall tag [only a CDN thing] is the same as what's actually on the engine, just means it still has the original engine, or at least the engine goes with the tag, the engine number still does not match the vehicle unit number or the body serial number, 3 different numbers, with no matches among them, and none of those numbers appear anywhere else on the truck .... all that tag tells you is the engine in the truck is the one on the tag, both the engine and tag may have been 'transplanted' from another truck, which is what the "numbers matching" game is meant to avoid because with a "true" numbers matching vehicle all components have numbers matching the vehicle ID number ['vin'] .... so yes, like George, you can be sure you have the engine that was factory installed in that truck, but it is not what's called a "numbers matching" vehicle - to the original question again, "Do block stamp numbers always match partial body VIN numbers - no, never
the whole numbers matching meme is about the very high dollar muscle car era vehicles that came with lots of spendy factory "upgrades", particularly hot engine components, all those items are number matched from the factory, and folks spending the big bucks want to know that the vehicle is 100% original as built, a meaningless exercise with old work trucks, our engine numbers can tell you it's size, and sometimes what sort of trans was used with it and what series truck it was originally in, when the engine was assembled needs to be guessed by casting date codes, and they were never assembled for a particular truck
Bill
