Chevy engine blocks origin ?

[Ed Carpenter]

My dad worked at the Flint plant for 18 years.

[Pat6868]

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.

[Tim H]

Originally Posted by FED 387

Possibly Toluca Mex foundry

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...)

[FED 387]

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!!

[Glenn Briglio]

Originally Posted by Pat6868

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.

How many people were assembling engines?

[Pat6868]

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.

[FED 387]

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

[Tim H]

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.

[Pat6868]

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.

[Bruce Fulper]

Originally Posted by Pat6868

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.

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