Need HELP !!!!!!!!

[charger-crazed]

I have a 70 rt & need help figuring out what date motor is correct. I have the build sheet & fender tag & I know its a 440 hp but not sure of the date.Any help will be appreciated. Thanks Wayne

[Chatt69chgr]

Check out the My Mopar website and then the 1970 Charger Registry site. 

[hemigeno]

When you say "what date motor", you'll have to be a bit more specific.  There are two dates to be concerned with - the casting date of the block, and the assembly date of the engine itself. 

Do you already have an engine block you're wondering about, or are you asking what to look for when searching for an engine block? 

We can help a lot with figuring out what the stampings/castings on a particular block mean, and can probably make a pretty good guess about what a car's original engine had stamped/cast on it - but if the original engine is gone there is no way to say with absolute certainty what dates it came with.

[charger-crazed]

I guess I wanted to know if there is somewhere on the broadcast sheet or the fender tag that would tell me the production date so that I could try to find a motor that would have the same or close to the same date on the block? Seeing how I dont have the original I want to try to get a correct date code motor.THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!!!

[hemigeno]

Well, we can start with when your car was scheduled to be built - and that information is on both the broadcast sheet and the fender tag.

Since you have a '70 Charger, it was built at the St. Louis plant so the easiest place to find out the Scheduled Production Date (SPD) is from the fender tag.

The build date will be on the second line up from the bottom, almost all the way to the right hand side.  There will be a series of six digits that are all the way on the right side, which represents the Special Order number (also referred to as the Vehicle Order number).  Just to the left of the S.O. number is the SPD.  The first number/letter of that three digit code is the month.  1=Jan, 2=Feb, etc... but when you get to October it switches to letters - so A=Oct, B=Nov, and C=Dec.  The last two digits are the day of the month the car was built.

My R/T has an SPD of 127, which is January 27th.  My Daytona has an SPD of 609, which is June 9th.  You get the idea, I'm sure.

Once you have the SPD figured out we'll take a stab at what your engine's information might have been.

[charger-crazed]

The SPD # is 929 ,so if i am understanding correctly that would be Sept 29th??? Thanks again for your help!!!!

[hemigeno]

Yep, that's how I would view that also.

As far as your engine's information goes...

The Casting Date could have varied widely, but if you found a block cast anywhere from May '69 through early Sept. '69 you'd be alright in that area.

Probably the more important date to worry about is the Assembly Date.  This is stamped on the ID pad to the right of the distributor as you're looking at the engine from the front.  There'll be several important stampings in this area that you'll be looking for. 

>>  The first thing to look for is the model series of the engine itself.  The letter "F" denoted the 1970 model year, so that will be stamped on the ID pad right in front of the CID stamping - usually in the upper left corner of the ID pad.

>>  The second thing to look for is that the block was originally prepped as a High Performance engine.  This will be denoted by an "HP" stamped towards the bottom (center/right) of the ID pad.  There might be a "2" following the HP stamping, but that only means that the engine was machined on the second shift and is immaterial.  The non-HP blocks were exactly the same as the HP blocks in every respect.  They were machined the same and were made from the same metal alloys, etc.  The ONLY difference was in the components that were installed within or bolted to the engine block.  Having an HP block is only important if you're trying to get a date-correct replacement engine - which it sounds like you're doing.  For those who just want a 440 engine, the HP stamp doesn't mean anything.

>>  The most important detail to look for is the Assembly Date, and this will be found in the lower left corner of the ID pad.  With your car's SPD, my guess (and it's just a guess) that your engine was assembled anywhere from a month to 1 week prior to when the car was built.  I have seen cars with numbers-matching engine assembly dates a few days AFTER that car's SPD, but those are unusual.  If you found an early/mid September assembly date, you'd be sitting pretty.

There might be some other stampings on the ID pad such as an "A", "C", or a maltese cross.  Those have to do with how the engine was originally machined, and they don't mean anything for an engine block that you're going to remachine anyway.

To sum it all up, here is an example of what an ideal engine block stamping for your car would look like:


F440

9  15     HP


If the stampings on the ID pad are correct for your car and original (not restamped), then the casting date almost doesn't matter - it will be correct no matter what it is.

Hope this helps!

Gene

[charger-crazed]

Gene, Thanks Again for all your help & if you know of anyone or anyplace I might be able to get a block like that PLEASE let me know. THANKS AGAIN WAYNE