5thvet

John,
Have you ever seen a date in that location? ( on the drivers side, perpendicular to the casting #? ) Since this was a rare use of this block ( using it in a Corvette) I guess that might be the right place for the date. I can see why it is driving Lickitty crazy!

Don

emccomas

I have seen the date code in this location on one other small block engine. It was also a Tonowanda engine dated 1964. I do not recall the casting number.

I went throught the same sort of "this can't be the casting number, the casting is supposed to be over here" discussion back then.

Those 8180 blocks are definitely weird, and worthy of a research project.

emccomas

OK, check out this Ebay ad for an 8180 block. Look at the date code.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/64-Ch...-/310110061717

5thvet

Thanks Chuck, that is exactly what Lickitty is looking for! That is just like his!

Lickitty

You Guys are the BEST !!!!!!!
Thinking out Loud about this cars Rarity ?
It's a Factory Air Convertible and has a Rare Block and Funny Block Date Build in comparison to the Car's Final Build Date
Thots ?

AZDoug

About as rare as every other NOM car that someone tried to get sorta close to with the replacement block they found that sorta came close to a possibly correct casting date.

In the vintage Corvette world, *Rare Occurrences* are most often modern conjurations.

Any more, if someone shows up with a rare number combo, you better show me 3 decades worth of carbon 14 dated pigeon **** strata on the car, with layer by layer analysis to prove it is real.

Doug

AZDoug

On a related note, someone bought a 1970 Nova SS 396 at Russo and Steel, earlier this year, that started out life as a 307 Nova built in Canada. The seller bought it with a (he found out later) freeze cracked, NOM restamped block 396 that was not original, and he replaced it with a very good re stamp, and spent a fair amount of money on finding and restamping a date correct block to get his money back out of the car, as he thought is was the real deal 396 SS when he bought it.

Doug

Lickitty

Not to Rain on the Doom and Gloom Doug , but a Very Experienced NCRS judge just PM'd us that the block is 100% Original . Now I wonder ( out Loud) if you read the whole post and seen the pics and also what is the matching numbers on yout NCRS judging Tag ?
FYI > a PM might not have started my day off so bad ( LOL )

Classic-Chevy-Guy

Please keep the info and pictures coming. I hame a May 64 A/C Coupe with the Tonawanda block and have similar differences to the established documentation

Seems like the more we find out, the less we know.

Does anyone know why these small blocks were cast in Tonawanda and shipped to Flint for assembly?

Classic-Chevy-Guy

Just checked my car, and it appears that the casting date is below the casting number, but hidden beneath the RF Shield/Spark Plug Wire bracket.

Looks like A??64.

Classic-Chevy-Guy

To OP:

The pages in this link don't seem to load. Would you mind resposting or email them to me.

Thanks

Ralph aka Classic-Chevy-Guy