Stovebolt.com Forums The Parking Lot General Truck Talk Is this a truck or car engine?

The only "light truck" in which the Z engine would have been used was the sedan delivery, which is really a car.

Hey, Fredstev:

No.1 Conveyor in Tonawanda?

Where the heck did you find THAT information? That's getting down to some details! Must be some library you have.

Chris in NC

So, it looks like from Keith's online Chevy manuals then (thanks Frank) my original Blue Flame would have had a "ZE" at the end also, because this car also has the original power steering.

So sometime in it's history, an owner swapped out the Blue Flame. Anyway, this engine is strong and climbs the Appalachians like a mountain goat! Think I'll keep it. Besides, a 2-bolt valve cover probably leaked pretty badly.

Fredstev and Brendan, thanks for the casting date code and mold conveyor information (where'd you get that?).

Thanks everyone for all this help.

PS: I'm doing some "body" maintenance to clear up some minor blistering blemishing the previous resto in 1998. I've been trying the POR-15 stuff talked about in Cars and Parts last month and it works really well.

Cheers from Chris in NC!

No library, I worked at the Chevrolet Saginaw grey iron foundry for 36 years. At our place the 6 cylinder blocks came off of #2 conveyor during the period I was there. I think that the service six was produced on the old 7 conveyor. Our small block V8's were poured on #1 and #3 conveyors.

Bear in mind that GM (and other auto manufacturers) needed to be able to identify the source of their castings both at the engine plant and later in the vehicle. There are also shift markers and in some instances, the hour of the day the casting was poured. At our place, a flathead 8-32 screw in the pattern meant day shift, and a round head meant 2nd shift.

THANK YOU ! I've been wondering about that for 30 years now....

-Nate

FREDSTEV:

36 years? Man, the cars you must have seen in your career! I'd wager you'd enjoy John Robertson's "A Pictorial History of Chevrolet, 1940-1954." ISBN 1-880524-29-5. It's full of GM archives photos we don't usually get to see unless they are in the Taillights page of Cars and Parts.

Chris in NC

whotmewory - thanks for the book info. I'll check into it.

Just to clear up any confusion on these engine numbers and identifiers - I was a patternmaker at the Saginaw grey iron foundry. All the numbers and identification stuff that we dealt with was for identifying a CASTING and the date that it was cast. With just a few exceptions, marine and service parts engines, all of our output was destined for Flint, MI. Some times, these castings would sit around for weeks, or maybe even a month or so before being machined and having a ENGINE number stamped into them.

We had to be able to identify the shift, date of casting, pattern number, and part number on our castings so if there was a problem at the assembly and machining plant, or later, out in the field, we could pin down the source of the problem.

Patterns and core boxes wear from constant exposure to mold sand. A worn pattern will produce a "smaller" casting in many detail areas that may not have machining cleanup stock. Just the opposite with a core box - a worn one will produce bigger cores that introduces another set of problems.

I guess the point of this is, don't mix up casting information with machining and production information. The stamped engine number is of much more use to the customer than casting numbers.

There, I won't bore you guys any more with this stuff.