Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

My dad worked at the Flint plant for 18 years.

Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

At the St.Catharines Ontario plant we assembled 1500 small block engines in an 8 hour shift using blocks cast on site in the foundry. This was mid to late 70''s.

Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

The Target master I am disassembling was dated '89. The block,crank,heads and pistons all marked Mexico. It was purchased about 1989 or 1990 installed briefly and then involved in an accident (write off). I am not sure of the mileage but so far it looks really clean and decent inside. Owner was a Valvoline diehard. I did notice the crank casting looks very rough and the finish almost appears as if a coarse wire wheel was used on counterweight flash.
(4 bolt main, cast crank, cast dished pistons, 993 heads, single link timing chain...)

Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

my understanding is that these engines "did not last very long" generally til a little while after the WARRANTY expired--- never had one never saw one I have no experience wit them other than GM supposedly discontinued them due to numerous complaints relating to quality and engine life---these engines were sold at a lower price than the "regular" GM replacement stuff--- I guess it all comes down to you get what you pay for!!

Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

How many people were assembling engines?

Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

Two assembly line's, can't recall total number of workers. Iirc engines came by 3 or so a minute, we had 16 guys pushing pistons. It was 40 years ago.

Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

1500 per shift thats about 190 engines per hour or 3 engines per minute-- no standing around here folks--

Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

Further to this discussion,I found this post on the NCRS site

When I was the Senior Process Engineer at the Chevrolet Pilot Line in Flint in '66-'69, a good friend was the supervisor of the Piston Department at Flint V-8 next door, and I spent time there on several occasions. They didn't stamp the rods and caps when they machined the rods and made up the piston/rod assemblies for the engine assembly lines at 2400 rod/piston/pin/ring/bearing assemblies per hour; they just placed the size-gaged cam-ground pistons in the correct position in the 8-piston conveyor trays to match the teleprocessed bore sizes for that engine from the bore air-gage station at the head of the line.

Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

At St. Catharines blocks would come down line upside down. Bore size was stamped on pan rail ( A,B,C ) etc. Workers would choose matching piston-rod assembly and install main bearings. Then place in order beside engine. Then we would pop them in and install cap and nuts.

Re: Chevy engine blocks origin ?
 

Ya think all those ring end gaps were in position? :-)