How do I identify what year my 300 I6 is?
Where are my casting numbers located at?

 

The engine block casting/engineering # will be by the starter just above the oil pan rails. The casting/engineering # will tell you the decade and oldest year the block could be. You'll have to look at the date code for the exact year.

Here's a picture of one of my 240 blocks. The red circle is the casting/engineering #. The Blue circle is the date code.





The casting # on this one is: C8AE-6015-B .

C=1960's
8= First year this version of the part was used
A= Fullsize Ford car ( but was also used in trucks and vans ) . The 240's usually have the "A" and 300's have a "T". But this isn't always true. I think it's a parts bin deal.
E= just means the part is a engine part.
6015= Engine block.
B = the engineering version.



On the date code

The first # will be the year. Use this along with the decade from the casting # to get the exact year.

On this one It's a 9 so the block is a 1969.
I can't remember if the letter on this one is a C or a G. But the letter is the month. Just count where the letter is in the alphabet ( A-M, but skip "i" ) . This one is either March or July.
And then the 16 is the day of the month the part was cast.

Most people will tell you the casting # will tell you the year. But that's not true. It just tells you the oldest it could be. So you can see the casting # says this is a 68 block but the date code says it's a 69. So you have to check both to get the exact year.