C2 Engine casting to assembly lag time

[Keith H.]

[Dennis H.]

Re: C2 Engine casting to assembly lag time

During my research on this subject I found some parts were still warm from the casting mold when they were assy'ed.

Most people say rule of thumb is 1-2 weeks but I have seen as little as a few days on some parts. Hope this helps.

[Joe R.]

Re: C2 Engine casting to assembly lag time

Hi Keith:

I did not have time to analyze all the info you presented, but I can tell you that two days between block casting and engine assembly is not at all unusual. If you look at the survey data in the back of Noland Adams' C2 book you will see quite a few engines with this spread. As I recall, the median interval in those surveys was around 3 days.

My block was cast and assembled on the SAME day, so I have done quite a bit of research on this topic. It turns out that the Saginaw casting plant was a 45 minute drive from the Flint engine assembly plant, and blocks were shipped from Saginaw to Flint using a dedicated fleet of trucks that ran continuously. There was no last-in-first-out inventory system in place, so the raw block castings that Flint grabbed to feed the line could be fresh arrivals or some that had been sitting around for a while.

[Keith H.]

Re: C2 Engine casting to assembly lag time

Dennis and Joe,

Thank you, that helps a lot. In Noland Adam's Volume II (p. 250) Corvette s/n 5891 has a casting date of Nov 12 (KI23) and assembly date of Nov 13 (FIII3RR) for a ONE day lag. The car in question (s/n 7086) has a TWO day lag with a Nov 11 (KII3) casting and the same Nov 13 assembly date (FIII3RR). It is also interesting that both cars have RR engine suffix (365hp, A/C).

You willingness to help is aiding to increase my confidence in the originality of this engine. Thanks!