Odd Casting Numbers

[SoCalExile]

Apparently my Ford 400 was cast in the Dearborn Foundry, but what's with the odd date marks on my motor?

[knightfire83]

I'll take a guess:

If A=January, B= February, C= March, etc..... then L=December

The second one, E2, would decode as 1982.

I imagine your block was cast in December 1982.

The screw heads cast into your block would indicate that the plates are removable, this would be consistent with changing the date code ID plates for the blocks month to month, year to year.

Perhaps someone else can confirm?

[SoCalExile]

It'd be a fair assessment, except I think Ford stopped making all 351M's by '82 - plus Dearborn stopped making 351M's in the early 70's. Also, the code on the block (behind the started) is D1AE-A1C.

[knightfire83]

Wikipedia says that 1979 was the last year the M block engines were used in cars. 1982 was the last year they were sold for the use in trucks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_335_engine#400

None the less your other date code D1AE-A1C would decode as a 1971 Ford Engine. Perhaps it was a original '71 casting mold used in '82?

Oops, and to fix my last post "L" would have been November, since they skipped "I" at September according to http://www.fordification.com/tech/datecodes.htm

Not for sure... but this is interesting.

[SoCalExile]

I guess the answer lies behind the timing cover.

[Hawkrod]

1 with two dots under it, indicates a 1971 casting. L is November. The date code is actually missing the actual day number and that is not entirely uncommon as the molds sometimes got plugged with sand and some letters got lost. The E2 is East line shift 2 which indicates a DIF (Dearborn Iron Foundry) casting which is also shown by the big DIF (only Dearborn had an east and west line and shifts can be 1, 2, or 3 as they ran 24-7). This means you have a 1972 model year block. In response to the other posts: The 351M was only made from 75-82 so they could not have stopped making them at Dearborn in the early 70's as they did not yet exist! The D1AE-A1C is a casting number not a date code and does not tell you when a part was made, it tells you when it was designed. I believe that number was used from 71-79. Hawkrod