I have a 1957 Chevy pickup that was originally a 6 cyl truck but came to me with a 283 with Pontiac valve covers on it. The truck was sold new in Saskatchewan and stayed there until I bought it from the second owner. It had this engine in it when he bought it so no telling really how long it's been in there. Truck starts easy and runs fine, all I've done is adjust the valves, change the plugs and put in fresh fuel filter. The HEI was added years ago by the second owner. I've taken pictures of some of the numbers on the engine and it seems to come up as a 1957 283 Canada only. My question is what would this engine have come in originally? Is there a way to tell from the numbers? I will be changing it out as I have something else to put in and it's not original to the truck anyway. Would really like to see this find it's way into a Canadian 57 Pontiac. By the way most of the original green paint came off when I cleaned the covers and I couldn't find a good match so I just painted them black for now. Sucks but at least I took pictures.
Block casting number: 3731548 57 283
Head casting number: 3731556 57 283 Canada, the cast LC after the number is a date code I think for December 3rd week
Pad on front of engine: V57526
-- Edited by BobinBC on Wednesday 21st of November 2018 03:11:17 AM
-- Edited by BobinBC on Wednesday 21st of November 2018 03:39:32 AM
I was wondering the same thing about Canadian built GMC's. I know the came with the Chevy engines in them but don't know what the valve covers looked like. Also this has a fairly low oil filler tube on it, wondering if it was taller in the trucks? I will try to research that on a truck site.
It's hard to find engine stamp data for older Canadian cars but I think I may have found something.
V = Flint Michigan engine plant
57 = year of manufacture
5 = month of manufacture
26 = day of manufacture
Does this seem right? Is there anyone who is familiar with these older stamps?
Started looking into this a while ago(stamping #'s)....but never fallowed through. Not sure(don't think) the next 2 digits after the "V" are the year. Mine are v264381 & v281032.??? Would also like to know what the #'s mean. Have an original 57 block in my 57 belair....but the numbers got shaved of when decked!!!!!!!
-- Edited by hawkeye5766 on Thursday 22nd of November 2018 01:21:33 AM
Thanks for the feedback Hawkeye, I'm really not sure either. Not sure where I saw the info now, mostly US decoding info online. But I remember that the code in 57 did not have anything to do with serial number or VIN. I know that the block and head casting numbers are 57 only according to mortec.com but always open to hearing more good info!
Hawkeye what year are your blocks? Are they 66 and 68 by any chance?
Ray that chart is so cool! I love that kind of unobtainable stuff that shows up on here. So if the 2 barrel on there is original it looks like I have a Strato-Flash 283. I'll know more when I eventually pull it out and clean it up enough to see the rest of the casting numbers and date codes.
And I know what you mean about the green, I was thrilled to see it wasn't chevy orange ha ha
I know the 261 serial numbers on the six engine are sequential and are not related to anything with the serial number on the car. The 283 V8 are probably the same. I know if the engine came with an automatic the engine number had a 9 prior to the V. An example would be 9V 123456. What are your plans for the 1957 283.
On m Cdn 62 chev, pretty sure it was a 9v and it was a 283 powerglide.
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
Hawkeye what year are your blocks? Are they 66 and 68 by any chance?
As far as I can tell 281032 is a 61-64 block by the casting # on the back (3789935). Think....but not a 100% sure it came out of my dads buddies 63 Parisienne wagon many years back. Would be nice to know for sure what each number represents....cause I don't know.
Al I will be pulling the 283 in the spring sometime. I will degrease it and look for casting dates on the block. I'll try to leave any original paint I find as intact as possible. After that I'm not sure if I'll rebuild it or just try to get it into the hands of a 57 Pontiac owner as is. It currently starts and runs quite happily.
Well Bob....you got me back into this! Have been calling and asking buddies...but no one knows. One engine guru I know says he thinks he has it in a book(going to look for it) and thinks the numbers are related to the vin. He just can't remember how back it started(year related to vin) and how many or which # they are. I know...not much help. But will keep digging. Has always puzzled me how you can have #'s stamped in a block and no one knows what they are/mean?? With all the knowledge on this site....someone has to know or have a good guess?
So I guess it looks like this engine originally was in a full size 1957 Canadian Pontiac, at first I thought there might be an outside chance that it was originally in 57 Canadian-produced GMC. Either way I find these little mysteries from the past of our vehicles fascinating...sure would be nice to know what those stamped numbers mean though. Here's a pic of what I think my engine should basically look like taken from another thread on CP
-- Edited by BobinBC on Wednesday 28th of November 2018 02:52:26 AM
I looked up my paperwork on my Cdn 62 Bel Air bubbletop, serial number 163720858, engine number 9V214785, 283 powerglide, built in Oshawa, 1 of 710, built Dec 26/61. My same car with a 6 was SN 2153750793, engine number 9654915, PG, built in Oshawa, 1 of 2045, built April 26/62.
I agree with Taylor 55, the engine number is a code 9 for built in Canada (likely on later cars than this 57), the V is for V8, then the rest, 6 digits, is just a sequential number from the engine plant. The stamping on my V8 was not the same as on my paperwork, it was 9v88749. Like the stamping on the 57 block, the last 2 digits, in this case the 49, were stamped differently, so maybe the first batch are stamped when the block is cast, the last 2 digits when the block is attached to a car in production?
That's my best speculation for today.
I wonder how many vehicles were built in Oshawa?
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
One engine guru I know says he thinks he has it in a book(going to look for it) and thinks the numbers are related to the vin. He just can't remember how back it started(year related to vin) and how many or which # they are. I know...not much help. But will keep digging. Has always puzzled me how you can have #'s stamped in a block and no one knows what they are/mean?? With all the knowledge on this site....someone has to know or have a good guess?