CASTING/ASSEMBLY DATES

[Al Grenning]

The "normal" time between casting and engine assembly dates is very difficult to define. Unfortunately, that relationship is more complex than a universal number of days. The Judging Reference Manual indicates a time span of 6 months between casting and final vehicle assembly date and that has served us well. It follows that the time period between casting date and engine assembly must then be somewhat less than 6 months. As we accept the manual it is well to remember that the 6 month period is identified as a guideline, not a fixed law.

In the assembly plants many factors were at work which affected time span. In general, even though the Saginaw foundry was a significant distance from Flint, production at that V8 plant moved at an extremely high pace. In contrast, Tonawanda blocks were cast on site in their own foundry. Yet the record shows on average the BB time lag between casting dates and engine assembly to be greater than Flint. As production went along, in both plants, time separation between casting date and engine assembly continuously varied by individual castings to groups of blocks cast on specific dates and periods.

The lag could be extremely compressed or greatly extended. For example, there are many confirmed original "next day" small block assemblies, but nill "next day" big blocks. Then at times huge periods existed between castings and assembly. In the case of late production 67 base engine Corvettes, there are numerous confirmed original examples of casting dates one year ahead of assembly. Also, depending on the production period and application there are Tonawanda engines with castings many months ahead of assembly.

Bottom line - there is no specific normal number of days between casting dates and engine assembly. For now the Manual guidelines are a good approach as long as we are not closed to legitimate exceptions.To the great credit of NCRS, cars that I know of which have been exceptions to the guidelines have been dealt with fairly and correctly.

[Joe L.]

Re: CASTING/ASSEMBLY DATE

The key to the long time frames seen between some casting and assembly dates might be found in a statement that I used to hear the late Phil Hawkins, longtime St. Louis employee, make at many Bloomington Gold Workshops. He used to say "...we weren't in the grocery business; we didn't rotate our stocks". Of course, Phil was talking about the long time lags which could occur between engine assembly dates and body build dates. However, the same rationale could apply to workers at the foundry and engine assembly plants.

[Jack H.]

Re: CASTING/ASSEMBLY DATE

More confusion here by:

(1) In-line fixes at all levels of assy where repair by substitution was in effect. Faulty part could be yanked and tossed onto pile/bin and sit there until manpower was available to re-work the bin. Example, the AL rad in my 396 has a weld-on plate saying C 65. When pulled (curiousity) beneath it was a clear B 65 wack. Looks like Harrison stockpilled "leakers" and when they got around to repair the month of assy had changed....

(2) Duality of car body line. With body plants in St. Louis and at AO Smith in Ionia, the possibility of engines with assy/casting date(s) AFTER the body build date of the car can/do happen.

(3) Also, there were times when various GM staff en-route hand carried parts to help thwart line shortage situation and "impossible" cast the same day situations occurr.

(4) Don't really know how GM controlled inventory where/when. Was this LIFO, FIFO? Knew of cases where workers jockeying pallets "discover" parts that were lost for long periods (years sometimes) and had been written off!