hi everyone, I am cleaning out a shop that we have had stuff stored in for years. My brother has a 396. He got it back in the early 90s , late 80s when someone we knew bought a house and it was in the garage. We dont know what car it came from. I can tell it is a 68 from the the vin stamp. I also have the intake and oval port heads and they have december 67 date codes . it is block number 3916323 . I have looked up the front code of T12203R and I cant find anything with the suffix code of 3, R or 3R. when looking at the vin stamp it looks like it 1 8 , which would be chevy 68, then the next looks like 1 or I or lower case L . From my research this could be a Canada plant . They said chevelles were sequence 100,000-200,000 and all made in a US plant. this is 135,000 . If it isnt a chevelle could it be a Beaumont ? Or maybe another passenger car from Canada. Or maybe I am way off. Do any of you know what the Suffix code is? Attached are some pics . Thanks .
We got similar engine plant numbers here in Australia, for example T1I223Q (Tonawanda for T11223Q, they always mixed and matched 1/I and 0/O). These were a 250hp (L73) 327 in 1968 Impala and Parisienne, assembled here but they were CKD packs built in Canada, same cars as used in Canada with Chevrolet chassis and running gear in Parisienne, just RHD with some local content like trim. So if 3Q was in Impala and Parisienne I'd say that 3R is also from a 1968 full size. Here is an example, just ignore the 32741717 number, that is the local number stamped at the assembly plant, in this case Dandenong, Victoria. And another L73 from an Impala, assembled in the Pagewood, Sydney assembly plant.
Thanks everyone for the info. Good stuff to know. So I am guessing it is from Canada and probably a full size car like Impala then? What do you guys think about it being from a Beaumont? I am going to sell it , just trying to figure out what it is and what it is worth . I know if it was from certain cars it would be worth more . If it is from a Canadian car , is that worth more to someone in Canada / with a Canadian car? I am in California so I imagine someone from this area will buy it , probably just for whatever a 396 BB that needs rebuild is worth , but I dont want to sell it for nothing / to the wrong car if it happened to be one someone out there needed for Beaumont or CA car.
Hopefully our member 68Grande will see this. He has a 68 Grande Parisienne with it's original block and he can check what it has. There's some original 68 SD396 Beaumonts here too, so maybe those guys will read this as well.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
My guess is it will be from an Impala or Parisienne or similar that was assembled in Canada. McKinnon Industries only built certain engines and hence why some of the engines came from Tonawanda. The L73 327's I posted up are Tonawanda as at the time McKinnon wasn't doing 4BBL 327 engines.