The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Engine serial number question

My '53 Chevy has (had) a '62 235 in it. In December I had a catastrophic engine failure: front of block blew out on both sides, pieces of cam shaft and main bearing caps in road as well as lifters and push rods. I was doing about 45 MPH so I don't think I had the motor wound up too much.

Anyway, I found a replacement 235. Here is the info:

Casting Number: 3764476

Casting Date: H89 - does this mean August 8, 1959?

Serial number (to left of distributor): F804A. There are no other numbers such as the production sequence number stamped here. I know the F means Flint. I thought the 804 meant August 4, 1959 but this conflicts with the casting date code. And what does type designation "A" mean? I didn't see it on the type designation list.

Head info:

casting number: 3836848
date code: A140

The motor is at the machine shop and the machinist will start on it in the next week or so. I just pulled the head off the blown motor - it is an 848 head and has hardened seats from a rebuild in 2000, the machinist will pick the best head for the motor build.

235. Here is the info:

Block Casting Number: 3764476 (used 1956-1962)
http://www.1954advance-design.com/Stovebolt-engine/casting-numbers.html

YES - Casting Date: H89 - does this mean August 8, 1959?
http://www.1954advance-design.com/chev-specs/1959-t-ser.pdf

Serial number (to left of distributor): F804A. There are no other numbers such as the production sequence number stamped here. I know the F means Flint. I thought the 804 meant August 4, 1959 but this conflicts with the casting date code. And what does type designation "A" mean? I didn't see it on the type designation list.
F804A
F = Flint, Michigan
8 = Auguat
04 = 4th

Head info:
casting number: 3836848 (used 1956-1962)
date code: A140 - January 14th 1960

Thanks for the reply Tim.

Do you know what the "A" in F804A stands for?

Sorry,

I did not see that the "A" is not a truck model in 1959 or 1960:

http://www.1954advance-design.com/chev-specs/1959-Chevrolet-c-ser.pdf
http://www.1954advance-design.com/chev-specs/1960-c-ser.pdf

Car 235 with 3-speed or 3-speed overdrive (it would have had hydraulic lifters).

Thanks!

Tim got it right...

F804A

F = Flint
8 = Month/August
04 = day
A = "regular 235" passenger car

They started using this same style engine s/n code in 1957, so your casting date tells us it's a '59 engine...without that it could have been a 57 or a 58 as well.

Mike B

Thanks!

As a sort of confirmation, if it was a 57 or 58 pass car block, would have a steel line behind the side cover for rocker arm oiling, the 59 and up blocks we redesigned to use a drilled passage eliminating the line behind the side cover.

So if it is a 59 block, you want to try to use a 59 and up head, and confirm that the rocker arms you are using have the oil groove inside rash of the rocker arms off set from the dribble hole, and the use of a pinched off rocker assembly connector. The 58 and earlier rockers had the oil groove directly intersecting the dribble hole. Using the earlier rockers on a later motor results in too much oil squirting out instead of dribbling which is what the motor needs for proper rocker, spring and ouch rod lubrication.

Over the years blocks, heads, rockers were often swapped out and around just to keep them going. So it’s not all that uncommon, at least in my experience, to find mismatched parts. This would be a good time to double check the parts just to be sure.

Thanks Mike. I'll print out your post and go check everything at the machine shop.