Casting dates vs. build dates

[Nova Research Project]

Think of it this way. You have a stack of blocks. Let's say 100. As engines are built you take some off the stack. Lets say 50. Then you get a new batch of 100 castings. Depending on the type of engine and the demand in the plants, you could have a wide difference in dates on a less popular block (396), and a short range of dates for a popular block (307).

I doubt they would haul out all of the blocks in a storage area just to rotate stock.

While there are certain observable norms, it is entirely possible that you can have a block cast the first week of the model year in the last car built that model year.

And there is no reason you can't have a engine built the day after it was cast.

If you could capture enough cast dates and build dates you can come up with an average time to build.

You would probably see the date difference swing back and forth from days to weeks.

This would apply to all of the dated parts used on the car. However there should be certain minimum from assembly date of the part to the assembly date of the car. After all, the part had to get shipped from the plant to the assembly line. It took time to paint, test, pallet, load, ship, unload, stock, move to assembly line, install.

Two weeks for an engine is a good rule of thumb between assembly and install. However there is no perfect number.

Greg