327 engine numbers - Canadian 67

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

327 engine numbers - Canadian 67

Ghost Post · Poncho Master!

The '81' is the key here and is one of the unique Canadian numerical 'suffixes'.
Unlike the US, here in Canada we used the same engines for different applications adding pilot bushings etc when necessary.
For '67 and up model years, Canada went to the US letter style suffixes but may've used up leftover '66 numerical coded style engines early in the year?
That said, the most common use of the 81 coded engine was 327/275Hp put in '66 Canadian A & B-Body cars.

~ Pete

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Thanks for the info Ghost! I was kinda thinking it was a case of a pre-67 Mackinnon engine. I was digging through old images I have downloaded over the years and found one that I got here back in 2012 for 1966 Chevelles. It was a Monthly List of Vehicles Shipped, the old documentation that VVS used to provide. It isn't a clear scan, but even though it is indistinct I can make out variations as 8 & 9 numeral engine codes. The big block cars have the conventional Tonawanda codes.

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

You know Pete, what you say sounds very plausible. While Chevrolet in the U.S. was cranking out engines for just Chevrolet, in Canada the St. Catherines plant was cranking out engines for Chevrolet, Canadian Pontiacs, and even engines for outside of GM, namely Studebaker in Hamilton, Ontario. Of course Studebaker packed it in during 1966. That may have had something to do with the revised engine coding system for 1967, plus the gradual harmonizing of the U.S. & Canada product lines, and even the requirements for engines to have serial numbers as an anti-theft measure.