You can confirm the year of the engine by cleaning with a wire brush the ledge to the rear of the distributor. An engine ID/code is pressed into that ledge and in 1954 - post the code here and someone with a code book will decode it.
Did you look mfor the code to the rear of the distributor? Sometimes it is missing because it was ground off sometime during the life of the engine.
The casting numbers/codes in one of your photos might mean something but I do not think it is the block code (maybe someone will post information about the code in your photo).
The block casting code is behind the right rear of the starter (you might have to clean that area). If you can find it,
look for the number in this page , or post it here and someone will decode it.
