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Cleveland casting date code

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Hey fella's

 

I just picked up a 351c for my XD. half an engine minus the heads for $500 bucks.

 

Its a Cleveland cast Block with "CF" and D2AE-CA (Cobra Jet block from what i found)

 

The casting date is 7H24. I cant seem to find anything on here or the net to find out what exact date that the block was cast (unless im not looking hard enough LOL)

 

Anyhelp will be greatly appeciated :)

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I thought the letters started at A for February?

Or maybe that was just for USA castings?

 

Haha, you're wrong Dave... A to M without I (because it looks like 1... and J). :P

 

It ain't rocket science... which is just a big kerosene shower-head anyway (but that's another story!). 

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From memory, which is always fuzzy, first number is year.  So, 1977. Then month, day, 

 

1977 correct...was poured on 24th August 1977. We only know that though because Mark's given us more info than the date stamp. Could have been 1967 but the 'D' in D2AE tell's us it is 1970's. 

 

Pay no attention to the rest of the D2AE... as they were all cast with this number here except the XE (experimental) blocks commissioned for NASCAR (3 runs total) of which the worst 300 from the 3rd run came back for refund in early 1982. They also found their way into Oz built cars with only two bolts in the caps. Wall thickness on most of them was down to 1/8" so no big deal anyway just beefier bottom end but weighed more than D2AE.   

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Hey fella's

 

I just picked up a 351c for my XD. half an engine minus the heads for $500 bucks.

 

Its a Cleveland cast Block with "CF" and D2AE-CA (Cobra Jet block from what i found)

 

The casting date is 7H24. I cant seem to find anything on here or the net to find out what exact date that the block was cast (unless im not looking hard enough LOL)

 

Anyhelp will be greatly appeciated :)

 

Pay no attention to the CJ notation, you are reading an American source.

 

'CF' should be 'GF'... have a closer look? Also Mark, if you can post a photo looking down the thermostat housing with thermostat removed if it isn't already. Does it have the Brass insert or is the restrictor plate cast in the block???

 

What are the distributor bore dims??? Better measure it. I notice you're running the electronic dizzy in the 302 you have now. This new block is most likely a 'blue' block, if so will require points dizzy.

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you can use any early dizzy be points or electronic ,MSD,ICE,MALLORY,plus the ebay bosch copys are ok for a std engine,XC had an electronic dizzy in the later model range and are quite rare to find these days,the best one on the market is the ICE dizzy as you can use them on any cleveland block late or early,but at around $1100 for a kit might be a bit steep for punters.

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you can use any early dizzy be points or electronic ,MSD,ICE,MALLORY,plus the ebay bosch copys are ok for a std engine,XC had an electronic dizzy in the later model range and are quite rare to find these days,the best one on the market is the ICE dizzy as you can use them on any cleveland block late or early,but at around $1100 for a kit might be a bit steep for punters.

 

I think the XC with the blue-oval-badge post the F-O-R-D lettering on the bonnet were E-dizzy. 1978 somewhere.

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only xd and xe had the GF all the older blocks have CF on them from the u.s. tooling made here,here is my 77 block

 

Just checked a couple of ZJ blocks I have stripped down (both from JH63... cars, Eagle-farm QLD). Neither is marked 'GF'. One is marked 'CF', like your '77 block (cast 8th March 1979) the other has no 'C/G' marking whatsoever (cast 5th October 1978)! Both are E-dizzy, as all XD stuff. Both have the Brass restrictor insert.

 

Oz-cast blocks are supposed to be marked 'GF' and have the restrictor cast-in according to literature. This is wrong I think.

 

Edit: All C-blocks post 1972-73 are cast here... starting 1975.

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yeah all day we can talk about this but who cares as long as it is a good core to start with,here is the one i am rebuilding today and she is a 7H27

 

Too true!

 

Oz blocks are higher nickel content so machining requires lower cutting speed (or insert tips)... other than that it's only the dizzy bore that matters besides the bores.  :)

 

Edit: ...and the original camshaft concentricity and how many times it's been machined previously...........

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yeah all day we can talk about this but who cares as long as it is a good core to start with,here is the one i am rebuilding today and she is a 7H27

 

It's a bit like matching numbers block blah blah too.

 

If you run a York compressor, you can't read the engine-number anyway.

 

I think i'd rather get in a non-matching numbers car with A/C if it's sat all day in the sun at a car show than a matching numbers car with no A/C.  :P

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and my 1982 pillowblock with GF 2015-08-27%2012.34.08_zpsbsokbmk2.jpg

 

Just checked the one in my ute and it's stamped 'GF' like yours^^^. Can't see the date or code... starter & manifold & stuff in the way.

 

Enough banter though... I should be doing other things, doh!  ;)

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