There was a recent post on special distributors for W cars and H/Os stating that most had similar date codes as they were made in batches. Does the same thing apply to engines? The '68 and '69 H/Os had very unique engines and the vehicle assembly took place during during a short period of time. Would most of the engines for these applications been built at the same time? I understand the engines do not have a date stamp, but would the engine build time be reflected in the date code cast into the block and heads (30-45 weeks before vehicle build or all around the same time, regardless of vehicle build date)? Can anyone provide examples of the year of your H/O along with the production day/week and the casting dates?

 

Here's some info on D head casting dates:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...g-dates-c.html

I have a 1111468 distributor (for '68 H/O, also used on 442 4 speed I think) with 8F18 date code, which would seem late, but correlates with an H/OCA article for another car.... here's another reference point:

http://hurstolds.com/numbers/numbers_22.pdf

 

[QUOTE=geardoc66;899703] I understand the engines do not have a date stampQUOTE]




EVERY OLDS ENGINE BLOCK HAS A JULIAN DATE/# NEXT TO THE DISTRIBUTOR.

 

Yes, I understand the blocks have a Julian date, but that is the casting date of the block, I did not think that represented when the engine was actually assembled. Are you suggesting the engine block was cast, cooled, machined, and assembled on the same day? I am just trying to find out if the engines for these cars were all built in one or two batches. It appears, based on the referenced thread, the D heads were all cast in batches. There is nothing really unique about the blocks, so they could have been pulled at any time for these cars. I would not expect the blocks to all have the same casting dates, but it would be interesting to see what the variation is, especially if the engines were all built in one or two batches.

 

The heads were MFG'd on just a few different dates.

Distributors could have been stamped from when the 1st W-32 was built until the last W-32 or H/O was built which was probably in June 69.

05B was the week mine was done.
My block Julian date is 126
The water pump is 132
The Dist. is 4/29/69 (989)
The intake # was kinda washed out from the heat.

The W-32's came with the 973 Dist.

I think most of the Dist.'s out there are the 989 version.

As far as being built in batches, who knows. It just looks like they were built anywhere from the 2nd week in Jan. to June sometime.

 

My 68 W-46 used the same 469 distributer as a W34 Toro the date code matches the same as a regular engine. I believe the whole 68 W-46 is nothing but a Toro W-34 with the front wheel drive specific parts removed and replaced with 442 stuff. It even had a W34 cam. All of the 68 H/O's were built May-July 68. The W-45's may be different since they used W-30 parts.

 

my 69 engine is all original from the factory assembly line it is an 04E car with an engine stamped 115 at the dist. freshly made. has firewall inspection marks EE and ZZ... not sure what shift that is