The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Engine ID F0803A

Hey, I've been using this site since I got my '49 Chevy 3600 in May of '07. Its amazing and I couldn't have done 1/4 the work on my truck with out it.
Anyway I've always loved to fix things and started at age 10 on a '64 Briggs 3 horse push mower, replaced the points & condenser, and hearing that little engine fire for the first time in 20 years got me hooked. I'm now a junior in highschool (driving that 60 year old vehicle to school is about the most fun I've ever had) and I've rebuilt about six or seven single cylinder engines but never something like a straight six.
This six cylinder came as a spare with the truck (the truck has a '58 235 in it now) and I recently decided to take it apart to see whether it's worth rebuilding or would be more suited as a boat anchor.
My webshots album is http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562679698rrCStf
The engine ID is F0803A ( http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2731855310103144652JWANGs ) and I've never been able to find this ID on any site, they always say that the F prefix means V8, but this is definately an L6. Does anyone know what year this engine is and whether it is a 235 for sure? The head casting # is 3836848, ( http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2484892350103144652KdDgbO ) so hopefully I can salvage the '848 head.
One last question, the engine was frozen when I got it and I soon saw why after removing the head. ( http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2267944290103144652uFebcv ) I've since removed everything except the #1 piston from the block (3-6 slid out and #2 came with a little help from a wood dowel and a malet). I've never seen anything like the top of piston #1 ( http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2711266390103144652kdXldv ) it looks like the moon! My neighbor told me that that was the aluminum piston corroding, but why just that one? I've soaked the top in PB blaster and Marvel but that didn't seem to help at all, so now I have the block upside down and poored Marvel in the piston skirt to hopefull free the rings. Has anyone seen this before and have they been able to remove the piston? If the block is good enough then I might want to rebuild it, I hate seeing these old 'bolts going to waste, or is this pretty much hopeless and should I just try to salvage the head?
Sorry if I've rambled on, I love these old Stovebolts and y'all are the only people I know who would actually know what I'm talking about .
Thanks in advance for the advice, and this is an amazing site!
-Alan

From your webshots, the block casting number is 3769716. If you go to www.inliners.org and click on casting numbers, it says this is a 58-62 235 block. To the left of your dipstick, I think I read CON 4 then H 2 9 That would mean it was cast on Conveyor #4 August 2nd, 1959.

From this link it looks like your head is a 1956 head
Head casting Number

Here is a link describing 1959 serial numbers.
1959 Serial numbers

From that, it looks like the block was built in Flint (F) on August 3rd which would be the day after it was cast. Unfortunately, I don't see on the serial number information page, what the suffix A means, which is funny, because they use an A in the example on that page.

Then I found this page
Casting numbers

It lists your block casting number as a 1960. That might make sense being built in August, it could be very early 1960 production. I have not been able to track down engine serial information for 1960 235s.

Todd

Might the "A" in F0803A refer to a Sedan Delivery?

The 1500 series in 1957, the 1171 series in 1958, and the 1100/1200 series in 59/60 all had an "A" as the suffix letter.


Alan,

Do you know if the 235 has hydraulic or mechanical lifters?

Tim

Todd, thank you for all the information on the date of the engine, on the 1959 serial numbers site, if you click previous page it lists 3A as being 3100, but I guess that's only for the chassis serial number and wouldn't apply to the engine right?
Tclederman, the 235 has mechanical lifters. Does that mean that it probably was from a Sedan Delivery?
Does anyone have any advice on removing the piston? I've searched all through the site and found lots of info on removing stuck pistons by soaking in various oils, but I haven't seen anyone who actually had a piston with such a corroded head, would there be some kind of acid that would actually eat the corrosion, because I'm not sure if oil will be able to penetrate.
Lastly, in my '49 3600 now is a 235 w/ block casting number 3764476 and head casting 3835913 (for some reason the ID was ground off, i can see the circular grooves in the ID plate...). My research tells me that the block could be anywhere from a '58-'62 and the head is a '54-'55. In y'all's opinion, would it be worth the money to get the '848 head cleaned and magnaflux tested and then install that on the engine I use? The only advantage to an '848 head is a little higher compression, right? Has anyone experienced an improvement from swapping heads?
Thanks again for the help, and I'm sorry if these questions have been answered before but I can't seem to find a concrete answer.
-Alan

Oh, yeah, on the spark plug side of the '848 head it says B58 848 850, I read some where that the B58 is some kind of date code, would that make this head date February of 1958? Does anyone know what the 848 and 850 mean? The head on my engine now says B18 66 570, but the casting puts it at a 45 or 55, does that ruin my date code theory?
Thanks agian
-Alan

I did see the previous page where it described the 3A in the VIN number. I don't think the VIN data and the engine block serial number had any relation in these years.

I too have been curious as to the head codes. My old engine checks out to be a 53 passenger car powerglide. That was the first one built with the hydraulic lifters. The data says that my head casting number (3835913) is a 54-55. I suppose that this info might be incorrect in that this "new" head with the hydraulic lifters actually came out in 53 and so maybe it is "correct" for my motor.

The "date" numbers on my head are B36 913 241 570. I have not figured out what they are. If it is a date, that would make mine a Feb 3rd, 1956. That doesn't match my casting number though.

Thank you for helping me identify the engine, and I managed to get the piston out, eventually. I tried pounding on the bottom of it with a wood dowel, and that got me nowhere (kept destroying the wood). So I used a steel rod and then it started to move, slowly. I got the piston almost out when the rod went through the piston. Not really a problem since I had to replace the piston and connecting rod anyway. So I pounded on the connecting rod with a 2 pound sledge, and it eventually came out. Now I'll get the head cleaned and magnaflux checked and decide whether I'll rebuild it as a spare or just salvage parts. I might rebuild it to use in my truck while I rebuild the enigne in the truck now and add some goodies out of Patrick's catalog.
Thanks again for the help, this is an amazing site,
-Alan