Dataplate Interpretation For My 64

JUST BOUGHT A 64 CONVERTABLE . I AM TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT ENGINE AND REAR END GEARING IT LEFT THE FACTORY WITH . ALSO WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THE ENGINE IN IT NOW IS EVEN A 327 . THE NUMBER ON THE ENGINE IS TO8I6HC . THE NUMBERS ON THE DATAPLATE I NEED TO FIND MEANING TO ARE DATAPLATE E28 , BODY A-1838 . THE REST I FIGURED OUT. THE VIN IS 40867S119548. WOULD GREATLY APPRICATE ANY HELP

Piper 68; The E28 = the build date which is: E = January, 28 = 28th of 1964. I've questioned the body # representation in the past and I'm not sure what the number represents, but I'll take a stab at it and say that it was the 1838th body that A.O. Smith produced. Which leads me to the "A", which represents: A.O. Smith manufacturing.
The engine # is not correct for 327 Corvette as I can see. The 327 block casting # was most commonly 3782870, with 3858180 showing up randomly. A typical engine # would be: F0118RC which would break down as:

F = Flint Plant
01 = Month built (in this case January)
18 = Day built (18th)
RC= Engine type (RC is for 327 250hp)

Your engine type of "HC" is not listed for any 64 327 motor.

Your VIN breaks down as:

4 = 64
08 = corvette
67 = 2 door convertible
S = St. Louis assembly plant
119548 = basic production number (19548 corvette produced)

As far as determining what 327 motor was originally with the car all I can say is good luck. If the original rear end is still in the car, you might be able to find a stamped I.D. code on the bottom of the case. You didn't mention if the car was a manual or automatic. If it is an auto, the highest rated motor you could get was the 300HP.

Godd luck!

Steve

[JohnZ]

A.O. Smith body build date codes are different than St. Louis codes - your E28 means the body was built at A.O. Smith on May 28, 1964, and VIN #19548 was produced off the line at St. Louis on June 10th.

Your T0816HC engine is either a 1965-68 327/275 Powerglide from an Impala/Caprice or a 1969 350 2-barrel manual from a Chevelle, Camaro, or Nova. There should be a 7- or 8-digit VIN derivative stamped adjacent to the T0816HC which will identify which of the two it is, and the block casting number (behind driver's side cylinder head) and casting date (behind passenger side cylinder head) will confirm it.

[Lucy64]

Good info 72LT1STEVE. My 64 has the original 327 with casting # 3858180. I am not sure what the TO816HC is, I have never come across this one. Does any one know?? My 64 was built on November 4, 1963 and is the 4169 built in 64 model year.

[yukonted]

Hi folks,
My '64 is VIN#19478, A-994 with E28 also. For two vettes produced so close together, any idea why the Smith body numbers A-994 and A-1838 are so far apart in sequence?

[JohnZ]

The "T0816HC" means the engine was built at the Tonawanda, New York engine plant on August 16th; the year has to be determined from the casting date. In any event, it's not a Corvette engine, as all St. Louis small-block engines were built at Flint Engine, which had an "F" prefix instead of the Tonawanda "T".

The A.O. Smith bodies were numbered in separate sequences between coupes and convertibles (just as St. Louis-built bodies were), so two A.O. Smith cars, one a coupe and one a convertible, built one after the other, would have body numbers far apart, depending on what the "mix" had been up to that point between the two body styles. The "body number" on the trim tag has no direct relationship to the car's VIN number.

Lucy, your engine will have two codes stamped on a machined pad on the block just in front of the passenger side cylinder head; one will be a seven-digit engine plant code, starting with "F", and there will be another seven-digit number that starts with a "4", followed by the last six digits of your car's VIN number, which is stamped on the small stainless steel VIN plate underneath the glove box. If your engine has block casting #3858180, it's not the original engine - all '64 Corvette small-blocks used casting #3782870.

[Lucy64]

JohnZ??? I know the number should be stamped in the pad in front of the passenger head...but my motor has been rebuild and numbers have been machined off. I was told that this is the correct 327, ang it has the casting number 3858180. I have read a number of places that this also was used on 64's. All the other numbers (intake, exhaust, carb.....) also match what should be on a 64. Since I have all the number machined off of the block, do you know anything else to verify the engine??

HERE IS MY BLOCK CASTING NUMBER 3903352 THE ENGINE SERIAL WAS TO816HC. THE HEAD CASTING NUMBERS ARE 3827186 GM 47, AND THE LEFT HEAD IS 3917293 GM 12. ARE THESE HEADS CORRECT FOR THE 64 CORVETTE ?

[KTM]

Piper-68,

3903352 327 2-bolt block is used in 1967:
-passanger 275 hp
-Chevelle 275, 325 hp
-Camaro 210, 275 hp
-Corvette 300, 350 hp

Suffix HC means 1967-68 Passanger 327cid/275hp + Powerglide transmission.

Cylinder head 3917293 is for 1968:
-passanger 327/250
-Chevelle 327/250
-Camaro 327/210

Valve size is 1.72"/1.50" and combustion chamber is 75.340 cc.

From cylinder head 3827186 I did not found anything, but head # 3927186 is known 1970:
-passanger 350/300
-Nova 350/300
-Yenko Deuce 350/360
-Chevelle 350/300
-Camaro 350/300 and 350/360
-Corvette 350/300 and 350/370

There were two different valve sizes for this head 1,94"/1.50" and 2.02"/1.60". Combustion chamber size is allways 63.305cc

[JohnZ]

Lucy - With the block decked during the rebuild, there's no way to tell what's inside without tearing it down. The 3858180 block was used in millions of '64-'67 passenger cars and trucks, but it was never used in Corvettes; that block was cast only at Tonawanda, and was never used at Flint Engine, which supplied all Corvette 327 engines. It's a rebuilt passenger car or truck engine.

Piper - Although some independent books show the 3352 block was used in '67 Corvettes, it was not, according to NCRS authentication records; your engine was built at Tonawanda and was taken out of a passenger car. Also, with those mis-matched heads, you have 8.5:1 compression on the side with the 293 head, and 9.7:1 compression on the side with the 186 head - not a good thing for smooth operation.

There are VERY FEW 30-40-year-old Corvettes with original engines, regardless of what the sellers claim; the more owners they've had, the more engines they've had. Most prior owners bought them cheap, ran them hard and put them away wet, blew them up, and replaced them with whatever engine they could find for the least money; Chevy built sixty million small-block engines, and all of them will bolt right in.