Hi all,

I just purchased a 65 F100 that has a non-stock 302 in it. The PO thought the engine was from an early 70's truck but wasn't sure. Could someone tell me how to identify the block and heads back to a year and whether it's a car or truck engine ?

Thanks.

John.

 

FTE has engine forums for engine specific questions.

This forum is for Truck Year Specific topics.


I will answer your questions there.

 

You can look for a small metal tag bolted to one of the coil mounting bolts that should have all that info on it, but they've often been removed somewhere over the years. If it is indeed gone you'll need to look at the casting number, which on the block can be found by getting under the vehicle and looking just above the starter. You'll usually need to remove the starter to read it clearly. The first digit of the number represents the decade, for the '70s it would be a D ('60s would be a C) followed by a single number representing the year of that decade, and then followed by two more digits, then 6015 which represents an engine block and then a suffix that denotes the change level. So a '74 for example would read something like: D4AE-6015-A or something to that effect. There is also a smaller alphanumeric code that is the block casting code and can be decoded to tell you the exact date the block was cast.

There is also a small, very hard to read code usually stamped into a small pad at the front of the driver's side cylinder head right where it mates to the block that is the date the engine was assembled. This is often missing on an older block if it ever had machine work done to it. Decking the block will remove this code.

 

I will add to the post above that the third character in the casting number will tell you what vehicle line the block's engineering costs were assigned to, some tend to think it means what vehicle it was built for, but that's not true. If the small metal ID tag is missing, you may never know what vehicle it was originally installed in. it doesn't really matter anyway, the same engine blocks and heads were used in both cars and trucks in most cases. The first two characters will tell you the first model year the part was cast in, the date code will tell you the actual date the parts were made.