Date codes for engine accessories

[Daniel Cate]

How close should date codes be for engine accessories such as distrbutors, starters, alternators etc. in relation to the engine date and even the car body build date? I have a 12C 68 car (built 3rd week dec 67). Thanks

[bertfam]

Depends on what engine you have, what component you are talking about and where your car was built. Base engines should be fiarly close to the cars assembly date. Within a day to a week or two for Norwood cars. LA cars could be a little more since things had to be shipped to that plant. Optional engines are another story and their components might have a little more of a spread than the base engines. High perfromance engines can be a month or two before the cars assembly date. But again, it all depends on what component you're referring to. Some things like exhaust manifolds were shared between the low end engines and the high perfromance ones. Holley carbs were just for the high performance engines and were built in batches, so they might be up to a few months previous of the cars build. See what I mean?

John Hinckley (JohnZ) can answer this better than anyone so I'll let him reply.

Ed

[JohnZ]

The only accessory item installed at the engine plant was the distributor - everything else was installed on the engine dress line at the car assembly plants. There's a detailed listing of all those items in the Engine Dress Line section of my "First-Generation Camaro Assembly Process" paper on the main CRG site - click on the "CRG Reports" button at the top of the page and you'll see it listed. 

[Daniel Cate]

Thanks for the replies. My car was built in LA. It is an R/S with a 275 hp 327 and glide. It is a 12c build date and I realize that is the b"body" date but I wasn't sure how close the "accessories" would need to be. The short block is original and matching #'s but everything else I'm having to track down. I'll check the article you suggested. Thanks again, Dan