<<How long did it take to ship the engine to the assembly plant? Does anyone have any photos of the S&H?
Just so I am clear... the block stamp is the complete engines assembly date, correct? ...or is it the short block???
Why we are on this subject... how long did it take to ship the frame, rears axle and trans to the assembly plant?
i would assume... (there is that word again, LOL) that all the components were sent palatalized and the pallet did not leave until it was a full pallet... assuming this then the pallet would have older and more recent engines being sent at one time . Can anyone shine some light on this? >>
Engines were shipped by rail, and it took a couple of days to get from Flint V-8 to Norwood by the time the rail cars were loaded, marshalled, made up into a train, travelled, split at the receiving marshalling yard, and moved inside the plant for unloading. Add another three days to get to Van Nuys. Engines were shipped three to a steel rack, stacked four racks high in the rail cars, and the rail cars returned the empty racks back to the engine plants - see photo below of racked Tonawanda big-blocks being unloaded.
The engine started down the assembly line at the engine plant as a bare block, upside-down, with the suffix code written on the side of the block in grease pencil so the assemblers knew what innards to install in it; after it was flipped right-side-up and the heads went on, the front pad was stamped with the plant identifier, assembly date, and suffix code. On big-blocks, Tonawanda stamped the code on the front pad BEFORE the heads went on, so the big plug on the front of the head didn't interfere with the gang-stamp holder, and there was nothing in the way of the assembly plant-applied VIN derivative stamp on the inboard end of the pad.
Frames and subframes were shipped stacked on open rail cars, and axles and automatic transmissions were shipped in enclosed rail cars in returnable steel racks similar to the engine racks; manual transmissions were strapped in stacked wooden pallets.
