Topic: Ford 4100 Family Carburetor Bodies With Dates

[Dan Case]

Tooling dates. It was not common but some tooling used to make Ford parts had either a date code or a plain language date included somewhere that resulted with finished parts denoting something tooling related and not related to individual final assembly date of manufacture. This one applies to some but not all main body aluminum die castings for Ford 4100-A carburetor assemblies. I have no idea how many different molds were used but it was two or more in most casting designs. If a main body shows a date on its underside, it was not the date the carburetor body was cast (manufactured as a raw casting) or the date the carburetor assembly was made which countless people falsely believe. I worked in mass production manufacturing 37+ years and I suspect the date  was a day that particular mold had some kind of physical change or change of status made to it. Where I worked molds were usually marked in some way to what design revision level they were. 4100-A carburetor assemblies wise, I have examined main 4V bodies with a single date indicated in multiple different end use carburetor assemblies manufactured as much as eighteen (18) months apart. I cannot imagine the die casting plant making tens of thousands of bodies on a single day, much less make them all at once and then store them until use was required for as long as a year and a half later. It is entirely possible to find a typical 4100 carburetor body dated weeks to a year plus before carburetor assembly date. I would not expect a date on a mold to be after the date on the assembly tag.

[sgl66]

Dan,

Have you found any correlation between the clock style date codes on the base and the carb tag from known OEM units?

FWIW, I have a 6Z C with a 5HE tag and the 11-5-63 tooling. I haven't studied these anywhere near the level you have but my best guess is the cluster of dots in each section of the clock denotes the week in the month when it was cast however I have nothing to back up that guess.

Steve

[Dan Case]

Dan,

Have you found any correlation between the clock style date codes on the base and the carb tag from known OEM units?

FWIW, I have a 6Z C with a 5HE tag and the 11-5-63 tooling. I haven't studied these anywhere near the level you have but my best guess is the cluster of dots in each section of the clock denotes the week in the month when it was cast however I have nothing to back up that guess.

Steve

Steve,
I never got enough data collected to see any pattern. Unfortunately users and rebuilders have moved tags around for decades and that confounds research.  I never determined who made the castings. Some of the parts in Ford 2100/4100 carburetor were made by the same suppliers that made Holley brand parts and some will interchange between Ford 2100/4100 and Holley 2300/4150/4160 units.

Dan