John Hinckley Question: '66 Smog Cars

[Dan Pepper]

John,

Another member and I have been batting around questions regarding '66 A.I.R. component and engine assembly procedures.

Do you know if '66 smog engines (BB's and/or SB's) were assembled in batches? Also, were the smog components mfg'd in batches or runs (as may be reflected by longer spreads between part dates and engine/car build dates)?

Or were all smong engines and their parts ordered Just In Time?

[Craig S.]

Re: John Hinckley Question: '66 Smog Cars

Dan - I believe these odball engines were batched. My 67 L79 KH suffix car (AC, AIR, PS, L79) is a 2.24.67 build date in an AOS 4/29/67 body with a 5/11/67 build date car. Verfied by Al Grenning as the original engine based on adjacent day pad stamps, and my pad is in his registry. This was not the norm or common for the frequently built engines. No reason to think 66 was any different than 67....Craig

[Joe L.]

Re: John Hinckley Question: '66 Smog Cars

Dan-----

The only difference in the AIR engines as compared to non-AIR as far as the engine plants were concerned was the installation of the AIR pump bracket, specific distributor and the air-fitting exhaust manifolds. That's it. And, that's the only reason that the suffix codes were different. All other components of the AIR system were installed at St. Louis.

I don't see why the above 3 differences would necessitate any efficiency in the engine plant build process by using a batch build, but it's possible, I suppose. It's very likely, though, that these engines "resided" in their engine bays at St. Louis for longer periods of time. So, when they received a "batch" of these engines (just like they received "batches" of all other engines), these "batches" stayed around awhile.

Also, as far as "just-in-time" delivery goes, that system wasn't generally used in the old days for components. It's a phenomenon of "lean manufacturing" inspired by those "upstart" Japanese manufacturers.

[Mark G.]

[Dan Pepper]

Re: John Hinckley Question: '66 Smog Cars

Joe,

There are a number of other components unique to AIR engines (L36's like mine anyway) besides the distributor, exhaust manifolds and AIR pump bracket that you'd mentioned. These include:

Different Carburator
Different Thermostat housing (on my AC/AIR car it's an L79-type w/alum spacer)
Different stud mount position on H2O pump (on opp side to fit smog adj. brkt)
Different belts (pulllys too?)
Different Air Cleaner base
Different PCV hose & routing brackets

Sincd the percentage of AIR equiped cars was reletively small, this seems like a lot of specialized components to keep immediately on hand for a mass production assembly line process. That is the only reason for conjecture RE batch building AIR engines. Maybe they just kept the parts in buckets under their workbenches... Hmmm.

[Joe L.]

Re: John Hinckley Question: '66 Smog Cars

Dan-----

The carburetor, pullies, belts, air cleaner base, hoses, and misc. brackets were all installed at St. Louis. So, they in no way affected anything done at the engine plant. The thermostat housing and stud were installed at the engine plant, so you can add them to the 3 components that I mentioned in my previous post for a total of 5 items that differed on AIR versus non-AIR engines. All of these items are peripheral engine items that could, it would seem, easily have been accomodated in the normal engine final-build process at the engine plants.

[Dan Pepper]

Thanks for the education, Joe.

Had no idea that all these components were added at the St. Louis plant. I can see now why/how you surmised that AIR engines might have been "batched" by St. Louis workers. Your input is always appreciated.

[Joe L.]

Re: Thanks for the education, Joe.

Dan-----

I'm still hoping that John will "weigh in" on this one. He might have some first-hand (or, even second hand) knowledge on this. Mine is pretty much "interpolation" or speculation.

[Mark G.]

[John H.]

Re: Thanks for the education, Joe.

Joe -

You've got it surrounded - everything but the water pump stud and thermostat housing was installed at St. Louis; as Mark points out, the St. Louis engine dress line was pretty complex due to all the potential ECL combinations (we used to call that "proliferation"), which is why the car was built from the elusive "Broadcast Copy", which had a box for every single engine component and identified the right one (for that particular car and its ECL combinations) either by part number, alpha codes, or discrete symbols for assembly at seven cars per hour.

That engine line was duck soup compared to a typical 65-per-hour GMAD multi-car line plant that built eight body styles of Chevy, Olds, and Pontiac (and sometimes Buick) with all their different engine and transmission options. Assembly is a VERY complex business.