The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 56 ? 235 What does Special mean?

See attached photos. Can anyone decode this engine? What does the cast word Special stand for?
Thanks for your help.

According to this thread the 3837004 indicates a 56 or 57 engine block. The 1266 would indicate either Jan 26 '56 or Dec 6 '56 date. The serial number F prefix indicates it was made in the Flint Factory, and the A suffix means it was originally installed in a car and would have hydraulic lifters. No idea on the SPECIAL casting.

My bet is the date is Dec 6, 1956 as the "A" code wasn't used on a 6-cylinder during the 1956 model year, but was in '57.

I also can't help with the "special" casting...

Mike B

Thanks, It came out of a 57 truck but who knows if it was original to that truck. Maybe special means an automatic in the truck or something?

My guess is that it came out of a short bus...

Isnt it "i" 26 6 ? where "i" is the 9th letter, meaning Sept 26, 1956 is the date code for the block

Joe, yes that would be correct. I was thrown off by the "I" looking like a "1". But the serial number doesn't look like a 1956 number, which would consist of a 6 digit serial number, F or T for plant designation, 56 for model year, and one or two letters for type and series.

Maybe that's why its SPECIAL?

August 31, 1956 is the date the factory shut the 56 production line down to re-tool for the 57 model year. The production line was shut down for 30 days, until October 1 or thereabouts, for the retooling. So if that block was cast September 26, 1956, that would make that block a very early 57 block. A look at the vin plate and a little deciphering might tell you when the truck was built. Anytime near the first couple of weeks in October 56, and pretty good inference that the block and the truck are original to each other.

As another example, I have an 848 head with a casting date of September 55. But the 848 head did not enter service until the 56 model year so its a very early 56 head, same as the above block

As for Special, I have never seen that on a block before. Very very interesting.

Dragsix, the engine came out of a different truck, so the engine ID and the truck ID will not match.

I completely missed the letter "I" on the date code...good catch!

Seems weird that that block was cast in September and laid around until December to be built AND that it was made as a "regular 235" that went into a passenger car (code "A").

I wonder if they made a 235 with the "Corvette Cam" as a "POLICE SPECIAL"...after saying that I think they would have been using the V8 for the Police in 1957...grabbing straws here!

Mike B

This great and fun. The “ Special “ as cast in the block is still a mystery 🤔. I’d like to keep this thread up to see if anyone has seen this before.
Thanks for your interest.👍

Try posting this along with pictures on the HAMB / Jalopy Journal. Somebody over there may have run across this before.

Finding a "special" engine in the vehicle it came with would answer a lot of questions, I think.

Ahh .... I see.

Just a SWAG, but isn't the time frame in question about when they started putting oil galleries for hydraulic lifters in all the engines they cast, whether or not they got a juice cam? Maybe a prototype for those blocks?
Jerry

You may well be onto something there.
In 1953, passenger cars which came with a Powerglide transmission came with a "special" engine, in that the 235 for those vehicles came with hydraulic lifters, aluminum pistons, insert connecting rod bearings, and full pressure oil systems. They had a set of captains bars cast into the block above the starter to designate them as "special" so to speak.
These captain's bars went away in 1954 even though the 235 engine remained pretty much unchanged.

The comment about a block sitting around for months before being assembled into an engine shows a woeful lack of understanding about how casting and machining is done (or at least was, a few decades ago). A "green" casting was usually left out in the weather for a year or more to "season"- - - -undergo lots of heating and cooling cycles so the internal stresses from the casting process could relieve themselves. Then, and only then was the finish machining done. In the mid-1980s when thinwall casting became the accepted practice, that process was abandoned, and parts were machined and assembled shortly after leaving the foundry. About that time, automatic transmission pump assemblies started giving problems. If a pump was disassembled and left on the bench for a few days, the halves would warp and create pressure leaks when the transmission was reassembled. We were cautioned by factory service school instructors to disassemble, clean and reassemble pumps quickly so they wouldn't have a chance to warp.
Jerry

So I guess my “Special “ engine isn’t so special. My challenge now is to get the flywheel off as that’s what I really need. As you know you need to be able to rotate the engine to remove the pressure plate to expose the flywheel bolts. I think I’ll need to cut off the cam gear so the crank will turn independently of the cam. Can’t remove cam without rotating it to get to the lock bolts under the gear. GREAT!!!

A separate question, the oil line shown in this picture isn’t installed on my 1960 engine. The ports where it ties into the block have pipe plugs in them. Was this oil line not used in later engines? If so , how do the rockers get oiled?
Thanks,

You can probably get the flywheel off by removing the pan, unbolting the main and rod bearings and pulling the crank and flywheel out of the block. You may also need to remove the balancer and timing gear cover. Or if you don't want to salvage the bell housing, drill access holes to the clutch bolts or just break the bell housing off with a BFH. It's cast iron and should break with a few good whacks.

Also if the cam gear is a fiber one, that can easily be broken loose from the crank gear with a prybar. But there's still no guarantee that the crank will turn if the pistons are rusted into their bores.

Yes that’s what I’m doing. I am planning of dropping out the crank with the flywheel attached. My challenge now is cutting off the retainer ring behind the cam so I can get the front plate off of the engine so the crank can drop out.

Stuck pistons are bad but when the cam and lifters are rusted in it becomes a real struggle. The lifters are so rusted in their bores I don’t think I will be able to get the cam out.

It looks like this might be a boat anchor candidate. Rebuildable 235 cores can be had for a few hundred bucks. I have one sitting in my garage. It will take you a LOT of time to get this apart and then it may be rust pitted beyond use.

That engine looks like it spent a significant length of time in the bottom of a lake. I have a hard time imagining that the bores are going to look much better.
Have you some fun tearing it down though. It will be good practice. Maybe you can even prove me dead wrong about recommending that you return it to the bottom of the lake. I have eaten crow before. It's not that bad.

Yeah, I forgot about that plate behind the cam and crank gears. Break out the sawzall.

But if all you want it the flywheel (kind of looks like that might be the only salvageable part), taking a BFH to the bell housing can be pretty satisfying.

If all you need is the flywheel, use a small carbide tipped hole saw to put some extra ventilation into the bellhousing over the pressure plate bolts. Usually there's only a couple of pressure plate bolts that can't be accessed either through the dust cover opening or through the window at the top of the bell housing with a universal joint socket.
Jerry

That wouldn't be nearly as satisfying as hearing that bell housing crack into enough bits when the BFH hits it for access though.

I also use a hole saw to cut the tops out of pistons that are rusted into the bore. Leaving a ring of piston material just a little inside of the piston ring inside dimension and smacking the center with a BFH frees up a crankshaft pretty well without damaging the crankshaft or connecting rods.
Jerry

There are some parts that maybe ought to be salvaged. Items like the sheet metal e.g. oil pan road draft tube, etc. Then there are manifold castings if they're not warped. Even a bell housing might be worth saving. I like the pull-the-crank idea to save the flywheel. Just have a cherry picker handy. One guy shouldn't lift it. If the clutch is a 9-bolt truck clutch it can be worth rebuilding or as a core for a supplier.

I just hate to waste parts that I or someone could use. And, my luck purchasing core engines is like 0 and 2 🤨. I am learning a lot messing with these engines but I’d really like to move forward with completion of my chassis. It’s a 1/2 ton that I hope to use on the property once complete.

Call me, please- - - -we can salvage at least one of those engines- - - -maybe both of them.
Jerry