I understand usually the engine assembly date and the casting dates should be within 1, 2 maybe 3 weeks before the vehicle production date,...but has anyone ever seen an engine assembly date match the vehicle production date exactly?
Not possible. There is always some gap between engine production and vehicle assembly.
Now, I have seen a few cases of engines cast and assembled on the same date. But that's pretty rare.
The engine assembly plants did not build cars, so the engines had to be shipped to the auto assembly plants. This took time.
Quote from: FRANKTHECRANK on October 20, 2026, 03:21:33 PMI understand usually the engine assembly date and the casting dates should be within 1, 2 maybe 3 weeks before the vehicle production date,...but has anyone ever seen an engine assembly date match the vehicle production date exactly?
When you say vehicle production date, are you referring to the NCRS report or are you referring to the date on the Fisher Body tag, (trim tag)?....Joe
Quote from: x66 714 on October 21, 2026, 07:32:48 AMWhen you say vehicle production date, are you referring to the NCRS report or are you referring to the date on the Fisher Body tag, (trim tag)?....Joe
Both actually. My cowl tag is 05C, third week of May. My NCRS shows the official GM production date to be 05/20/1968 which is actually the Monday of the 4th week of May, 1968.
I knew what the answer to my question was going to be, but I found this 68 302 on marketplace with the engine pad date stamp that happened to be the exact date the NCRS report said my car was produced. Just a cool coincendence.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/959344540441270/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post
Quote from: bcmiller on October 20, 2026, 03:31:34 PMNot possible. There is always some gap between engine production and vehicle assembly.
Now, I have seen a few cases of engines cast and assembled on the same date. But that's pretty rare.
Well after chatting off line with william - I am going to back down and say I was wrong. POSSIBLE, but extremely rare. He may want to chime in for additional explanation. But the engine would have had to have been assembled early in the engine assembly shift at Flint and the car assembled late first shift or second shift in the vehicle assembly day at Norwood.
Quote from: bcmiller on October 21, 2026, 09:18:34 AMQuote from: bcmiller on October 20, 2026, 03:31:34 PMNot possible. There is always some gap between engine production and vehicle assembly.
Now, I have seen a few cases of engines cast and assembled on the same date. But that's pretty rare.
Well after chatting off line with william - I am going to back down and say I was wrong. POSSIBLE, but extremely rare. He may want to chime in for additional explanation. But the engine would have had to have been on rush order, assembled early in the engine assembly shift and the car assembled late in the vehicle assembly day.
Hmmmm,...that's interesting. Oh and, who's William?
Unfortunately that engine in the link I provided doesn't state what the partial VIN is, but in the one photo of the engine pad, I can see a couple of digits and they are not in what would be my partial VIN if that were the engine that came out of my car.
william is Bill Glowacki - one of the CRG Core Members who is an extremely knowledgeable person on 67-69 Camaros, especially 69s.
Quote from: bcmiller on October 21, 2026, 10:10:58 AMwilliam is Bill Glowacki - one of the CRG Core Members who is an extremely knowledgeable person on 67-69 Camaros, especially 69s.
I see,....thank you.
I can't think of a scenario where this would happen. And looking through the database I see none.
In production, the dates could be close but there's always the shipping delay from either Flint or Tonawanda to Norwood. That's most of a day right there under normal conditions. The car spent three shifts on the Chevrolet side and the engine was one of the first things need to build up the chassis - there were 2 shifts left until completion.
If there was a major repair (like replacing a faulty engine, unusual since they were 100% tested at the engine plant), the car would go to a repair bay at the end of the line. If under unusual circumstances they didn't have another engine in stock, the car would wait and would get one from the next shipment - this engine could be closest to the production date, but there still logistics in the plant to get it to the repair bay and repair it. And we're not sure what production date would be recorded for that car.
Read up - https://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml