Topic: Engine build date verses car build date - San Jose February 10th 1966

[Morsel]

Hey, been doing a bunch of clean up and fixing small details and realized something that for some reason I never noticed before. My San Jose February 10th 1966 automatic GT K-Code fastback has an interesting thing with the engine build date. The build date on the engine is a little hard to read, but I believe it's listed as 6B28, which is strangely 18 days after my scheduled build date of the car. The vin is stamped on the block as we see on K-Code engines and does match the car. Most of the other date code items on the engine I've found on the other pieces do match up pretty well with the scheduled build date of the car, but some are very close to the actual build date, but this one threw me.

Have you see this before? I know the car is a "schedule build date" and doesn't necessarily get built on that exact date, but 18 days seems like a lot.

One other thing that interesting about this is I was just talking with Jack over at Dead Nuts ON a couple days ago about an alternator he has in his shop and is restoring from a San Jose "February 12th" K-Code that we were referencing for some detail info, and said the car was a survivor and showed every sign of being untouched, and the alternator date code was actually after the build date of the car and the owner wanted him to pay close attention to that detail and recreate it... could this be that they were off schedule during this time on their builds, or at least their builds for the K-Codes???

Anyway, thought I would ask if anyones heard of this with an engine build date being slightly after the cars...

Thanks,

Jason

[CharlesTurner]

It wouldn't be that unusual, since as you know, the door date is simply a 'guess', based on supply chain and priority.

Look over the rest of the car more carefully, anything with a date stamp, to help paint a better picture of when the car was actually made.  Glass, sheet metal, under-dash components, etc... 

What is the casting date on the block?  Also, if you weren't aware, there is another stamped date, on the oil pan mounting surface that usually is the same as the date on the machined boss on the top.  Head date castings, intake manifold, balancer, distributor, carb, all would be dated also.  If all of those are before or close to the 6B date, can help clear things up.

[Morsel]

Good suggestion Caspian65... I'll take a look around the car at some other areas and get back with some dates I find... there's been things I've replaced around the car always staying within that date code range of the car build date, which hopefully is ok

Thanks,

Jason

[J_Speegle]

.............Have you see this before? I know the car is a "schedule build date" and doesn't necessarily get built on that exact date, but 18 days seems like a lot..................

Anyway, thought I would ask if anyones heard of this with an engine build date being slightly after the cars...

Have seen engines built after the scheduled date but that has generally been proven that the car was held up for some reason. Greatest difference I've seen between scheduled build date and rear build date has been about 8 months. But in your case its not an 18 day spread its greater than that. Consider that after the 28th the engine had to be moved to the loading area, wait for a train going west, make the trip to the bay area, route the car to the plant, off load and inventory it, then install it into a car.


Agree with Charles that we need more info

I know everyone assumes that on a untouched or what appears to be untouched car that the details we find are always factory but we have seen this time and time again with the pictures I post where evidence pops up suggesting something has taken place over the years or when the car was fairly new.  The alternator could be an example of a failure early in the cars life and replaced during warranty. Original owners rarely remember every last detail. 

[Morsel]

Good point Jeff about the alternator... I'm going to have to dig a little deeper on this, to be honest the date stamp is extremely hard to read, the top half of character is impossible to make out. Me coming up with this is based on the fact that that's what made sense by what I'm seeing, 6B28 actually could be something else I guess. I'm pretty darn sure the 28 is correct, but I guess the "6" could be a 5 too. but I'm not sure about what the B could be, maybe a G, I doubt it's a K or L...

The problem is the engine is done, detailed and installed, so removing the oil pan would not be good and looking at the casting number is almost impossible with the starter in... I'm just going to dig around the car more and find more dates and see what I come up with and go from there...

Thanks,

Jason

[jwc66k]

- and looking at the casting number is almost impossible with the starter in...

Jason,
If finding the date is important, it's two bolts on the starter - do it.
Jim

[Morsel]

Jason,
If finding the date is important, it's two bolts on the starter - do it.
Jim

Haha, thanks Jim, I know, I just get nervous, don't want to scratch anything with my big dumb lumbering hands

[J_Speegle]

Haha, thanks Jim, I know, I just get nervous, don't want to scratch anything with my big dumb lumbering hands

Yes but if you don't do it now and grab a picture it will leave you wondering.  Too bad you don't have a remote camera or a scope like some of us have.  Pretty cheap to buy at or around $20 if I recall correctly. Or even a cheap bore-scope

Still gets tricky with providing light on the subject and getting a crisp picture. But snap a dozen pictures and my might get one that is close to perfect

[sgl66]

Still gets tricky with providing light on the subject and getting a crisp picture. But snap a dozen pictures and my might get one that is close to perfect

Another option in tight or blind spots is use iPhone or other phone video with light on, move around slowly and then watch the video and pause when you see what you’re after. I don’t think this will work around the starter because I recall having to unbolt mine a few years ago to get the date off the block

[Morsel]

Hey, been doing a bunch of clean up and fixing small details and realized something that for some reason I never noticed before. My San Jose February 10th 1966 automatic GT K-Code fastback has an interesting thing with the engine build date. The build date on the engine is a little hard to read, but I believe it's listed as 6B28, which is strangely 18 days after my scheduled build date of the car. The vin is stamped on the block as we see on K-Code engines and does match the car. Most of the other date code items on the engine I've found on the other pieces do match up pretty well with the scheduled build date of the car, but some are very close to the actual build date, but this one threw me.

Have you see this before? I know the car is a "schedule build date" and doesn't necessarily get built on that exact date, but 18 days seems like a lot.

Jason

Hey all, maybe this now makes more sense and does this align with Build Date of my car (1966 February 10th San Jose). I was finally able to get my starter off, the block casting date code is 5K14, so I think I just can't read the actual build date stamped up on the block up above the oil sending unit. Some other dates I've found are as follows

Manifold: 6A28
Fender Drivers side: 1 27 D2
near Cowl Driver side 1 32 2D
near Cowl Passenger Side: 2 2 2D
Lower Frame Rail Strut Support Drivers Side: 1 31 2D
Lower Frame Rail Strut Support Passenger Side: 1 5 2D

Theres more but won't go to deep, just wanted to check with you guys and see if this is now sounding like it's all aligning with my scheduled build date? If so great!

Last question, if you were going to date stamp your alternator what do you think would be a good range? I have Dead Nuts On doing a rebuild using all NOS items and they asked about the date stamp and what I wanted? Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks as always,

Jason

[J_Speegle]

You can also check the oil pan block surface for the machined date but that will still not provide the assembly date. I take it also, since it was not mentioned, that the engine did not have its aluminum engine id tag

Hey all, maybe this now makes more sense and does this align with Build Date of my car (1966 February 10th San Jose). I was finally able to get my starter off, the block casting date code is 5K14, so I think I just can't read the actual build date stamped up on the block up above the oil sending unit. Some other dates I've found are as follows............
Theres more but won't go to deep, just wanted to check with you guys and see if this is now sounding like it's all aligning with my scheduled build date? If so great!

Last question, if you were going to date stamp your alternator what do you think would be a good range? I have Dead Nuts On doing a rebuild using all NOS items and they asked about the date stamp and what I wanted? Any suggestions would be great.
[/quote]

So you've got a car with a VIN that likely has a vin starting with 163-164

Looking at other examples here are some dates to compare

Manifold:

Fender Drivers side: Is that date from the top edge of the fender or from one of the other panels that makes up the fender?  Should  raised crush triangles

Near Cowl Driver side : 2  2  2D & 2  3  2D (guessing this is the short transition panel)

Near Cowl Passenger Side: 1 22  2D & 2  8 2D  (guessing this is the short transition panel)

Lower Frame Rail Strut Support Drivers Side:

Lower Frame Rail Strut Support Passenger Side: 1 17 2D

Sway bar mounts Drivers side : 1 16 - 1 28

Sway bar mounts Passenger side : 1 28 - 2 9

Last question, if you were going to date stamp your alternator what do you think would be a good range? I have Dead Nuts On doing a rebuild using all NOS items and they asked about the date stamp and what I wanted? Any suggestions would be great.

Don't have allot of solid data points since so often the alternator has been replaced but is was added to the engine at San Jose and not the engine plant so that makes for a slight difference. To be safe but still in the range I would choose the end of December

Hope this helps

[Morsel]

You can also check the oil pan block surface for the machined date but that will still not provide the assembly date. I take it also, since it was not mentioned, that the engine did not have its aluminum engine id tag

Don't want to take the oil pan off and damage any paint, but I do have the engine tag which reads "289 C 66 9"       "6-B 246-S"

Last question, if you were going to date stamp your alternator what do you think would be a good range? I have Dead Nuts On doing a rebuild using all NOS items and they asked about the date stamp and what I wanted? Any suggestions would be great.


So you've got a car with a VIN that likely has a vin starting with 163-164

Yes, exactly.

Looking at other examples here are some dates to compare

Manifold:

Fender Drivers side: Is that date from the top edge of the fender or from one of the other panels that makes up the fender?  Should  raised crush triangles

Near Cowl Driver side : 2  2  2D & 2  3  2D (guessing this is the short transition panel) Yes

Near Cowl Passenger Side: 1 22  2D & 2  8 2D  (guessing this is the short transition panel) Yes

Lower Frame Rail Strut Support Drivers Side: 1 28 2D

Lower Frame Rail Strut Support Passenger Side: 1 17 2D

Sway bar mounts Drivers side : 1 16 - 1 28

Sway bar mounts Passenger side : 1 28 - 2 9


Don't have allot of solid data points since so often the alternator has been replaced but is was added to the engine at San Jose and not the engine plant so that makes for a slight difference. To be safe but still in the range I would choose the end of December Thanks

Hope this helps

So is all this aligning in your opinion? I got a little worried when I was first looking at the date stamping...

Thanks for everything.

Jason

[J_Speegle]

Since we're only working from projected or guessed upon build dates we can only be in a range

Don't want to take the oil pan off and damage any paint, but I do have the engine tag which reads "289 C 66 9"       "6-B 246-S"'

Good then you have the assembly date down to at least a month. So my guess is that if it were a Feb built car it would have been late Feb since the engine (built in Feb) would have had to be inventoried, loaded on a rail car, traveled to the west coast, unloaded, entered into inventory then installed in your car.

So is all this aligning in your opinion? I got a little worried when I was first looking at the date stamping...

Looks like its in the neighborhood of the others with similar VINs and likely built around the same time period. What ever that was exactly 

[Morsel]

SInce we're only workign from projected or guessed upon build dates we can only be in a range

Good then you have the assembly date down to at least a month. So my guess is that if it were a Feb built car it would have been late Feb since the engine (built in Feb) would have had to be inventoried, loaded on a rail car, traveled to the west coast, unloaded, entered into inventory then installed in your car.


Looks like its in the neighborhood of the others with similar VINs and likely built around the same time period. What ever that was exactly 

Haha, Thanks Jeff. It really is crazy how these things all came together... appreciate the the help with all this.

Jason