JD1,
From the stamped serial number, FII7A, posted a couple messages back, it looks like a '57 serial number ( as Bart' suggested). It decodes to F= Flint plant, 1=January (I and 1's were sometimes interchanged), 17 = 17th day of the month, and A = standard 235. In an earlier posting, you showed the engine casting number - 3837004 - which was a 235 block casting used '55-'57. It's pretty certainly a '57 235, from those numbers.
Would be interesting to know the head casting number - driver's side, near the middle of the head, just outside the valve cover rail.
Doug
