I bought a 69 SS Chevelle that was supposedly an original 396/325. It has a 350 as we speak. I want to restore the car to as original as possible. Can the VIN # tell me when the car was made so I can start lookin for a properly date coded engine? Anyone know where a correct engine could be picked up? Thanks.

Hello Carmen. Your Trim Tag will have codes on it and one of them shows the week that your car was built. The 3rd row of numbers will show it as something like 01C or 10A, 2 numbers and a letter. That stands for
January 3rd week and Oct. 1st week respectively.

If you want to post all the codes on here we can give you more info about your car.

If you look in Hemmings Motor News or Hemmings.com, they have many parts for sale, including engines.

Check the classifieds here, check ebay, check the local trader paper....

Ask for dates, if at all possible ask if the block has been checked for cracks.