Solved ? early 842 BB Aluminum Heads mystery grind/stamp

[Wayne M.]

I have a set dated 6-19-67, and 8-24-67. On the 19th August head, the first digit has been ground off and a '3' stamped over. The later Aug 24th head has the proper unmolested 3919842 casting number. Was always wondering what was there before, that required the grind.

There's also been several sets on eBay over the years that also had the same grind and stamp-over; casting dates 6-15, 6-19, 6-20 and 7-13.
A recent eBay listing showed a set with 6-15 cast date and a 4919844 cast number. See thumbnail below the big pic

(p.s. can anyone explain to me why I can't position the thumbnail before the big pic, as that's the order in which I downloaded them ?)

So here's the theory : Winters foundry started casting of 842's on or about mid-June 1967. They discovered the error in the first digit about a month later, but had to grind and stamp 4 weeks of production.

[Patrick B.]

Re: Solved ? early 842 BB Aluminum Heads mystery grind/stamp

Your theory appears to be very sound. There were a lot of little changes going on with the aluminum heads during that time. The 842 head is supposed to be mostly identical to the '67 3904392 aluminum head except for the addition of a cast boss for the 68 temperature sender. Howver, I had a 4-15-67 392 head that had the cast boss, and it was even drilled and tapped like it had been used on a 68 car without the manifold mounted temp sender of the 67's.