How to tell when your engine was built....

[BobT-47P15]

If you want to know when your engine was built, there is a date of manufacture cast into the side of the block, below the distributor. Some will know this fact, so am posting for any that may not have discovered it. [**correction.....as

was said in comments below......the date is when the block was cast and could be a different year than the car was

made. However, it gets you in the neighborhood for age of the engine.]

I don't know if that number was removed when an engine was re-manufactured by some company.

The top number (on this 1950 Dodge motor) is the year, the two below

the month and day. I would presume this information is on engines in

all the Chrysler brands with flathead sixes. (Anyone with different information feel free to comment.)

And, of course, the I D (or v i n type number) is on the flat boss just

below the head on the driver's side. Here's the one on that same 50

Dodge motor.

Edited December 2, 2012 by BobT-47P15

[Niel Hoback]

The lower date under the distributor is the blocking casting date. Blocks are then allowed to sit, sometimes for a year until they are machined and then assembled.

[Don Coatney]

My 1953 Desoto engine looks like it was cast 52-1-4

[Andydodge]

My 230 Industrial engine has "67" cast into that spot, nothing else........would they have still been casting these engines in the 60's?.......even for industrial use?..........andyd

[Plymouthy Adams]

I read an article that these were still in production through 1972 for industrial pruposes...not sure if casting was still going on but that would depend on the demand of end user contracts....the same article mentioned that the parts distributor section of Mopar still had crate flathead engines available in the late 80'..a testament to the ruggedness and dependability of the engine design..

[40plyrod]

I don't think this works for Canadian models. They must have used a different coding system. The number on my 40 plymouth block is H 17 9 and the block ID number is P9C1200. I've checked the other blocks I have in storage and all use a letter plus one or two numbers. I would assume the letter is the year but starting when?

[B-Watson]

I don't think this works for Canadian models. They must have used a different coding system. The number on my 40 plymouth block is H 17 9 and the block ID number is P9C1200. I've checked the other blocks I have in storage and all use a letter plus one or two numbers. I would assume the letter is the year but starting when?

Or the month - H is the 8th letter of the alphabet - August

17 - 17th day

9 -Year - 1939

Block was cast on August 17, 1939

The Engineering Department used letters for model years, starting at A and running though V. They skipped I, N, O, Q, and U. H would have been 1932, as little early for a 1940 engine.

P9C1200 -

P9 - 1940 Roadking

C - Canada

1200 - the 200th P9C engine built Numbering started at 1001.

1940 production began late August, 1939. So yours is a very early engine and an August casting is feasible.