Start of the use of 388 Blocks, and end of 618 Blocks on 69 Z/28's?

[dannystarr]

I got somebody questioning my knowledge and I am starting to wonder myself.

Block Casting Date is.......... 2/11/69
Block Build Date is..............2/24/69 VO224DZ 
Car is 4th week of Feb. 69  O2D
X33 Norwood car.
Body sequence # 260151

So if the car is the 4th week... lets say the 28th. The last day of the month. And the assembly of the block is the 24th.  He is saying it's to close with only 3 or 4 days in between. And that it should be a 388 block, not a 618. I was always told that under 10 days is ok. And that under 7 days is even better. Because no train ride to Van Nuys. Right? But what about the block Cast number??.......Danny

[mopar346]

I'm sorry but I am going to refer to my Mopar knowledge again cause thats what I got. In the Mopar world it is a SPD (scheduled production date) and it is just that a scheduled date. Cars have been documented to have been built well after their SPD in some cases I believe weeks. There are again documented case of parts dated after the SPD originally on cars. Is this the case with GM?? We know that the Data tag was created an attached to the body to go to fisher to know trim codes, correct? We know every business runs behind at some time or another, we also know that acrs got pulled out of line for amny reasons, including an option that was not on hand (maybe questionable). So with all that ASSUMED as fact, it is not beyond a reasonable thought process to believe that a 2/24 built engine could eb installed in a 2D car. I also read something earlier about a strike around that time period at Van Nuys didn't I.

Just check the VIN on the block...........oh wait GM didn't do that, date coded is good enough to be numbers matching. Sorry just funning ya!

[KurtS]

6618 block were still being cast then.
Dates look fine.

[dannystarr]

Well, the coil was correct, so I bought the car.....NOT!! Mopar346 good one eh......Thanx KurtS for the knowledge as always. Anybody else wanna add 2 cents to the mix I'll take it...Danny

[william]

Body tag date is NOT an exact indicator of when a car came off the assemblly line. Many of the original 50 ZL-1s were 02D; production extended into March.

With a BDY # of 260151 the dealer confirmation was received 5 Feb 1969. At that time Norwood was 3-4 weeks out.