69 SS block #3955272 with cast date G30 -8. This would be late July 68?
Did factory use leftover 68 block for this 69 engine build? I thought Sept. was first cast month in build year. Body tag is 12 B.

John,

Yes, you've got the date decoded correctly. That does seem a bit early for a 12B car, but I suppose it's possible :confused:

Thanks for your help. I guess thats why the eng. is rusty, It just sat through August till 69 orders came in.

I thought Sept. was first cast month in build year.
Wrong. In order to start building cars in August they had to start casting and assembling engines early so as to ship to the plants all over the US and Canada to be ready to ramp up production.


Everyday there were blocks that got pulled off the line for every reason you could think of and got sent to a repair area to be fixed. Sometimes they sat for weeks or months until they were repaired and shipped. So who knows what ended up where?

Mike -elcamino
Thanks for the info, that 69 ss blocks can be cast date july 30,1968.
:beers:

Traditionally GM shuts down for 2 weeks every July which includes the 4th I believe. I think they do that to give workers a vacation and to prevent wide spread loss of workers to vacations at in opportune times for production schedules. After the resume they start gearing up for new model production. Back in the old days new vehicles rarely came out before then but today, you just never know. Some 2008 GM vehicles are already at dealers and in customer hands, e.g. the Buick Enclave.