Tonawanda small block?

[NCGuy68]

Gents,

Thanks for the replys.

I would keep a Tonawanda small block in any 67-69 Camaro/Chevelle if it is a original survivor. Many have been 'hacked-up' or converted to big blocks. Original, unmolested examples might be desirable in the future.

Bill S. Keep the wagon as original. There is a known 69 COPO Kingswood Estate wagon that could fetch high $$ if the owner ever wants to sell it.

[novadude]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: olredalert</div><div class="ubbcode-body">--------The aforementioned 69 Concours wagon is sitting in the driveway. 350/two-barrell single exhaust,F41,Posi,tilt,AC,M40. 38000 orig. miles,motor never out or apart. Oh, it had a waterpump and a rebuilt carb at sometime or other. What do you want to know?
--------Am trying to decide weather to keep it or not, as I am in the middle of a body-off on a 65 Chevelle wagon. I like wagons but am not sure I need two.............Bill S </div></div>

The block I used for my '65 Nova build was a '69 250hp 350 built in Tonawanda. There is something weird about those Tonawanda small blocks in that era. The oil galley plug in the rear of the left deck, and also the galley plug above the oil filter were press-in plugs and not pipe plugs. We had to remove them to clean the block properly, so we drilled oversize and tapped for the next largest size pipe thread. Every Flint block I've seen from that era had screw in pipe plugs.

[ds1]

Interested in this thread. No one answered why there is no VIN or where else it would be?

[SuperNovaSS]

Partial VINs were not required until 1968. Before that, the generally only came on &quot;high performance&quot; engines.


Jason

[ds1]

Thank you Jason. We picked up an Early 67 Tonowanda block car. The stamp looked right on but had no vin. Researching on the way home I found this thread and a picture of a 67 block stamped just like his. September built car with a T09I3MM stamping and no vin. Thanks Dan

[Hotrodpaul]

Here is mine from my old 70 SS 350 Camaro. Many of the base SS 350 300 Hp engines were built at Tonawanda.

[bigsixman]

I have a friend that purchased a 1969 El Camino that he ordered new with a 350/255 hp motor with a Hd 3 speed transmission and it was built in the Tonawanda engine plant. I do remember a Tonawanda valve cover sticker on the end of the passenger valve cover.

[ted]

Here we go. 3956618 L27 8 block suffix coding TO 111 HD Vin 19130xxxx with 2bbl 7029114 on intake 3916313 dated A9 9 - 3932441 heads dated A7 9 - 3927170 water pump dated A30 9 - distributors 111481 or 955 have dates not condusive to build date or me listing has an error(s). Gonna have to take a wee peek..

Hope this helps on the Tonawanda thread.

Ted

[bergy]

The Tonawanda foundry cast big blocks on mold line 1 and small blocks on mold line 2. Line 1 produced about 30% fewer blocks than line 2. So that was the mix. All went next door to the Tonawanda motor plant. However, Tonawanda blocks (unmachined small blocks) were sent to Flint V8 for machining/assembly when Saginaw gray iron ran short of capacity - this was rare.

[red67]

Here are some further photos of my Tonawnada block. Looks like it went down conveyor 1.