A buddy of mine recently acquired a '63 Chev shortbox truck, (C1404). It has a smallblock V-8 with headers and a cast iron 4bbl intake. The unusual thing is is the lack of a harmonic balancer. There are 2 pulleys on the crank, the inside one drives the alternator ,which has been re-located to the left side, and water pump, with the other running unused. A large hornets nest is covering the casting numbers at the rear of the block. The engine pad, RH front, reads: C or O E9A29072 and VI290XBD. I'm guessing this may be a replacement engine. The guy he bought it from said it is a 327 and his older brother (now deceased) owned the truck since new, but could provide no further info. Another friend says his 283 has no balancer either. The build plate indicates the original engine code T684457.The truck has a three speed column shift. This is a canadian built truck, and thus I'm having difficulty finding info. I'm trying to load pics from my phone to follow. Any help would be appreciated,Thanks
CE would indicate a warranty replacement, 9 = 1969, A29072 should be the serial number from Flint engine plant. Anything this old may have been rebuilt more then once and the block, heads, crank sourced from different engines.
Pictures would sure help figure out the damper/pulley thing. The 283 damper was pretty small, and could be hiding behind the pulley. XBD suffix code on the engine is probably later than 1970. I'm not familiar with Canadian numbers, though.
Above pic appears to have something at the end of the crank. The alternator is mounted on 2 curved arms at the extreme left of the engine, likely a podunk "farm fix" A 283 I had in an Impala had a bigger balancer behind the pulleys. Perhaps a different pulley setup in cars than trucks? Any 327 I've seen had a wider balancer than 283's
Might be there used to be a stamped metal piece on there, that's missing now. And some of the early engines had a pulley built into the damper. Can you post a picture of the block stampings?
The damper is there and the back pulley is part of it. You can see part of it on the back side of the pully If you unbolt the front pulley you will see several rivets holding the pulley on the damper.
That stamping looks strange. Maybe that's how they do them in Canada? Thanks for the picture. Sent from my Trimline
Up here an attitude of inferior complex pervades much of everyday life. See "tall poppy syndrome" Thus things are done in an illogical or confusing manner, simply so it can be proclaimed "At least we're not like Americans" This happens when marxist socialism becomes the norm.
Jim what SBC did not have a balancer just a hup with a stamped metal piece riveted on with timing marks?
I could be remembering wrong...but I sure remember one. I can't find a picture of it, so maybe I'm wrong.
You really need to get that hornets nest killed off and gone, so you can see the block casting number. If that blue paint is any kind of GM original paint, that points to about 1975-late 1980's time frame, original from some other vehicle or a service replacement. I could not find an "XBD" code, and "V1290XBD" doesn't fit the known code format since "1290" doesn't fit the date format for those numbers (Month/Day xx/xx) would appear to say 12th month, 90th day, which isn't possible. "V" is Flint Engine Plant. I could find an "XB" code, 1969 350" 255hp from C20-C35 trucks I could find a "BD", 1981 305" 150hp from Firebird Could not find an XBD though...but as a general rule, three letter codes are all post 1970. Due to age, newer engine could be swapped and all the old balancer, pulleys, etc also swapped to a newer block. That long flat pad for the stamping area also points to post 1974 era, earlier blocks tend to have a much shorter pad about 1/2 as long. This is why getting the casting number to help validate or reject some options is so important. Canada differences may change a lot of things though.
Some of the early low horse 283's had just a small hub, no actual balancer. That appears to be what is pictured.
I'm beginning to lean towards what Ericnova72 is saying, that appears to be a mix and match parts from here and there engine. That stamping looks like it may have been done when the engine was pieced together.
The stamp looks like the same strange shape characters that were used by Chevy when the engines were made. But it's a bit short of numbers....
I have always been able to decode the Canadian Chevy engines using the same codes that were published many years ago in the Super Chevy Magazine, but I agree with Squirrel that the numbers 72, don't seem to fit with the replacement serial number. I have a 427 warranty replacement block, and it only has a partial set of numbers stamped on the pad. That makes sense to me, because the engine is no longer original to the car. The number on the top of the bellhousing, and the casting date on the block would go a long way to identifying the engine. The Canadian Chevy engines turned blue sometime between 1975 - 1976. I have a picture of an older Canadian Pontiac engine that might show the older combination damper and pulley arrangement. I'll have a look, and post if it shows anything. Bob
Just to the right of the numbers in the picture, is another group that reads: VI290XBD. Hope to see it again to check the block casting # at the rear. My '64 Buick had different vin codes than the U.S. counterparts, but the casting # were the same.
If it were a typical Chevy engine, then the stamp you showed us would be the partial VIN, and C = Chevy truck E = 1984 9 = Oshawa assembly plant and the rest of it would be the last 6 digits of the VIN. Then the V1290XBD would almost make sense...but not quite. V = Flint engine plant 12 = December 90 = 90th day of the month (this does not make sense!) XBD = suffix code, which is one I don't have a listing for. How about a picture of that other stamping?
The GM of Canada plate on the door jam indicates the truck was built with Eng. code T684457, Which I believe is a 6 cyl. The vin number bears no resemblance to stampings on the block, leading us to think it is a cobbled together collection. The headers have 3/8" thick flanges though. Really want to see that casting number.
Would anyone be able to help me decode this engine? SGI 5.7 D148 Reman# 53324 14093638 V0419PJJ on the front of the block on the machines surface is GJE184015 I appreciate it, I been having troubles finding info on this guy Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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