Engine Assembly Stamps

[baldeaglemtnman]

Does anybody know if the Flint assembly plant worked on Saturdays in the fall (Oct. ) of '68.   Or.....does anyone else have a motor with a Saturday date stamp?

[RonM]

One of the heads on my engine has a casting date of July 6, 1968 which was a Saturday. Hope this helps, RonM.

[zzmike]

My P-O-P lists my 302 as being assembled on May, 11 which is a Saturday.  Unfortunatley, the actual assemly stamp on the engine is V05I4MO, which is a Tuesday, so I m afraid I am not much help.   

[JohnZ]

The Saginaw Foundry worked just about every Saturday, and occasionally poured on Sundays (melt cupolas are never shut down except for refractory rebuild about once a year); Flint V-8 worked a lot of overtime - at least two Saturdays a month, sometimes more.

[sam]

John, That is a great picture!  Thanks for sharing.  Sam

[1968RSZ28]

I agree, very cool photo!  What is happening in the photo?  Is this how an engine block is cast?  

Paul

[baldeaglemtnman]

Ditto and once again thank you, John.  Always enjoy the history lessons and the information is appreciated more than you know!

[JohnZ]

I agree, very cool photo!  What is happening in the photo?  Is this how an engine block is cast?  

Paul

That's a ladle of molten grey iron being "inoculated" with magnesium alloy to create "nodular" iron, which is stronger, more ductile, and easier to machine than ordinary grey iron, used primarily for crankshafts, camshafts, and differential cases; it was shot in the late 80's at the Saginaw Nodular Iron Foundry just before it closed in the early 90's.

I wrote a complete photo-illustrated technical article on the entire Saginaw Grey Iron Foundry casting process in the February '07 issue of "Corvette Enthusiast" magazine (I'm the Technical Editor); back issues available at (800) 448-3611.

[bigblknmbrs]

Tonawanda had a foundry on site and also worked Saturdays. The engine plant worked MANY Saturday's but there's now way to know now exactly which weeks they worked. Same goes for Flint. Unless someone kept personal records the exact weeks every plant worked overtime are gone. If a stamp said it was built on a Saturday I wouldn't doubt it for a minute.

[baldeaglemtnman]

I just wanted to make sure that a Saturday stamp was possible. Glad to hear that it was.

[zbo2]

for some reason on this site i can not open any of the attached photos.......like the one JohnZ has here................any idea why?

[lakeholme]

It's not just you zbo2.  I've been having the same problem for about a week now.

[baldeaglemtnman]

Yesterday when I posted to this thread, John's picture was still there. Today it is gone     I've noticed on other threads that people are referring to pictures that aren't there.

[JohnZ]

The photo I posted pops right up for me - I uploaded it direct to this site, using the "Additional Options" feature. In some cases where people have linked to a hosting site for a photo, if the hosting site is down or the image has been removed from the hosting site, you'll get a "red X" instead of the photo.

[click]

pic opens for me just fine, thanks for that one John