1967 Cylinder Head date question

[joe aronne]

I have a 1967 Corvette with a 427/400. When I took the engine apart I catalogued all the casting numbers and date codes. The block was a 351 cast Sept 14, the heads are 390 castings one is Sept 17, one is sept 19, (Sat & Mon), the intake was Sept 26, carbs were first week Sept. I was told by someone that the heads must have been changed because they are dated 3 & 5 days after the block. But when I took the engine apart everything looked original. Steel shim head gaskets, silver cork valve covers, and this is an early production care (3000). Also the build date of the motor is Oct 18. I am looking to see if there is a consensus of opion on the dating of heads to the block on early motors. Thanks

[Michael H.]

Re: 1967 Cylinder Head date question

Joe,

In my opinion, the dates on your block and both cyl heads are well within a range of being the correct original components as long as the stamp date on the block is at least a day or more after 19 September, the day the latest head was cast.

[Joe L.]

Re: 1967 Cylinder Head date question

Joe-----

Whoever gave you that information is "completely off his/her rocker". The only thing unusual about your casting date situation is that the block and cylinder head casting dates are as close together as they are! Especially for big blocks, the dates are often quite far apart. There is absolutely NO rationale for a belief that cylinder head casting dates must be the same as or precede the block casting date. That situation might occur in some cases, but the a situation such as yours in which the cylinder head dates succeed the block casting date is equally possible.

Of course, the casting dates of all of the engine's cast components should be prior to the engine's assembly date as stamped on the engine stamp pad. Even here, though, there is a possibility of a cylinder head actually having a later casting date than the engine assembly date. It would be very unusual, but it is possible. In some cases, a cylinder head or component thereof might have failed on the engine "hot test". In that case, the engine would have been set aside for repair. Subsequently, a cylinder head could be replaced with a head which actually had a casting date later than the engine assembly date. It would be extremely rare for an engine to have 2 such heads, though.