FE Casting Interpretation help!
 

I purchased a 1967 GT500 this past week. Although it has had the same owner for the past 29 years, he didn't have much documentation. He had the car go thru restoration in 1992 with a local shop he knew, and the engine was sent off to Auto Machine and Parts CO, in Orlando FL. They are now out of business for about 5 years. I did find a guy that used to work in the shop there, and he told the records went down with the business. He did say the number assigned to the engine on the tag (10098) was just a number assigned by the shop as a work order.

Previous owner stated the engine was a 427. It does have the cross bolted mains, and I have measured the stoke ( thru the spark plugs at TDC) and it is correct at 3.78" for a 427. The intake code ( 2 x 4bbl) is correct for a 1966 427 engine, and the heads have a casting code of C8AE-H.

I am having a hard time deciphering the engine block casting code attached...can anyone kindly provide any experience with reading the casting figures? The first letter appears to be a C ... and the third and fourth letters appear to be A E.

The larger HP casting marks above the date codes is also a mystery. DIF ( Dearborn Iron Foundry) is the clearest casting on the block...

The second line is a mystery... any help will be highly appreciated. I have tried to upload the photos of the casting codes, but the forum is limited to 97kb which is to small. If anyone experienced with decipher the crude casting hieroglyphics is willing to help, please let me know and perhaps I can email the photos?

Many thanks, Johnny

You are reading the casting number of the block. It is basically an engineering number. The second line is a date code. Sometimes they are difficult to read... PM with a photo if you want.

Sent you a PM here.

Mystery has been solved...many thanks to FFR428 for the help and expertise!

John, your very welcome. Glad to help out.

Well, now that we have solved the mystery, how about sharing the discovery with everyone else?


Ed

A lot of the codes that are on FE blocks don't mean a lot. The only two codes that are on my block that mean much, and I know it to be a 428 block, are the casting date and the mold line number. It is kind of fun to know exactly where it came from and when. There's been a ton of debate about what the E is for, and whether it was the East side or West side, or what not, and I think the verdict over on the FE forums is that nobody really knows for sure as some of the most plausible reasons were flatly denied by the old guys that actually worked the lines -- but nobody that was actually there can definitively remember. For all we know, it could have meant that they were going to have Enchiladas that day for lunch.:cool:

http://38.134.118.239/casting.jpg