1970 L-78 Engine Code & Car Vin # Question

[JoeC]

ElCamino - Thanks for your input. I believe you are correct that it is a Nova L78. I disagree that the digit 2 is "just" a sequence and does not indicate any model information. The first digit of the sequence number can be different for different models. For example the 1970 Nova VIN sequence begins 100001 the 1970 Camaro begins 500001 and 1970 Monte Carlo built in Arlington begins 200001. That made the "2" digit look odd. The vin W274985 is the 174985 Nova built but the engine date code is February. I thought that also looked odd because of such a high VIN number until I looked up the total production units of 1970 Nova's. Willow Run built over 307000 Novas. That's a lot of Novas. I guess this car being the 174985 unit built could have had a February engine date since it would have been assembled during a little over half the production year.

[JoeC]

CamarosRus - According to my books the 70 Nova vin sequence started with W100001 and went all the way up to W4xxxxx. Your other CKO block with the 1xxxxx sequence no. could be a Chevelle, Nova, Chev/Pass, or Monte Carlo (built in plant other then Arlington). You may be able to rule out the Nova if it is true that Willow Run only used the block deck vin number pad.

[elcamino]

I stand by answer!! It is a Nova Engine, no doubt what so ever for me!!

As for the other engine being Chevelle I can't say just by where the VIN code is stamped allthough Camaro plants were doing this before others but it appeared to be to speed operations because engine accessories were having to be removed to stamp the code on some models. As you can see from the image there were quite a few assembly plants putting cars together. They did not always do things in harmony. The reason for stamping the VIn code on the rough surface was to prevent theft (called the cop VIN). For someone to alter the VIn they would have to disturb the rough surface and would be a dead give away of tampering.

274985 is just a sequence number, i.e. the last 6 digits from the Nova's VIN. It has no reference to the car line what so ever, the books are not always right, they very often changed the methods because of sellin more cars than predicted. Just because that 2 does not agree you cannot throw out the other code meanings. The VIN code on the engine is in a diffferent form that on the VIN tag and title.

Here's what my book says on the Engine numbers.

I scanned in some info about this, take a look and print it out (it will gone soon). I had to cram the info onto one sheet to make is easy for me.

www.synthetic-oil.com/images/70.jpg


[Edited by elcamino (01-26-2001 at 08:33 AM).]

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

JoeC;
I have also read Colvin's book regarding decoding the engine stamping, and also think that the first digit of the last six should start with a '1' to denote the Nova line.

I agree with both you and Elcamino, the Willow Run plant only built Novas in '69/'70 to my knowledge, so the engine is out of a Nova. The last six digits probably started off with a 100001. By the 4th week of May when the '70 COPO Novas started production, the last six digits are in the '348900' range, and the COPO run ends with the last six digits in the '370900'. The 175 Yenko Novas and the 2 Canadian COPO Novas are sprinkled throughout this range of approximately 22,000 VIN's.

As for the VIN stamping location, I have never seen a Nova VIN stamping anywhere else but the cylinder pad. All original engined Yenko Novas have the VIN stamped on the pad. I cannot speak for Camaros, Chevelles ect, but the Novas seem very consistent with this location.

Marlin

[Steven J]

According to information from another reliable source, it's a 1970 Nova with a full VIN of 114270W274985.

[JoeC]

Marlin, the way I understand it, the last six digits are the sequence numbers, which increased one digit for each car built. For some reason they do not start the count from one. They start the count from a six-digit number. For the 1970 Nova the sequence begins W100001 and gets bumped up for each unit built. When the count gets up to 100000 units the Nova number becomes W200000. Therefore only an early Nova (less then 100, 000 units built) will have W1xxxxx. The Nova production total shows 307280 units. The VIN for the last Nova built at Willow Run should be W407280. Not all models started with 100001. The 1970 Camaro begins 500001 and 1970 Monte Carlo built in Arlington begins 200001. From your numbers it appears all COPO NovaÃs were built in a short time frame.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

JoeC;
You are 100% correct, the sequence numbers started at 100001 and then continued into the 2xxxxx series. This is what confused me about Colvin's book. I read it as all Novas had their sequence number starting with 1, but that is not the case after the first 100k are built.

The COPO Novas were all built within 3 weeks, 05D, 06A and 06B. This is an easy way to spot clones!
Marlin