Year of Car for Block

Probably both I'd think..

Ford 289 V8 engine blocks were cast in very high numbers to keep up with the large number of cars requiring this powerplant. Since the beginning, casting date codes on 289 blocks probably reflect almost around the clock production, month after month, year after year. 289 production demand was so great that Ford added a second plant in Windsor, Canada to augment the maxed out Cleveland works by 1966. Consider how many Ford and Mercury vehicles use the 289 engine... It's very unlikely that engine blocks cast in mid June of 1966 would be found in production cars manufactured in 1967.

No documentation on this - BUT Ford like many other manufacturers had a summer break for vacations, factory maintance, and model change-over - I understand that this took place in the July/August time frame.

Late June / Early July would have been the last '65 models and August would have been the start of '66 model production. Same goes for any other years too.

Obviuosly there would be a lot of transition parts - I have an early '66 Coupe (late August '65) that has some of the '65 parts - like motor mounts - that didn't get changed immediately. The original motor and tranny were long gone when I got the car, but all the other tags and many parts were still there.

Based on what I know about casting dates and the time parts waited to be used - a 6F16 date code is June 16th 1966. If this is the casting date, then you also need to look at the machining/assembly date stamped into the front block flange - it probably took Ford 2-4 weeks to build a motor from the casting date - so this date will help BUT this part would probably NOT have made it to a vehicle for the '66 models unless they were running very lean on engines - which is possible - more likely an early '67. Any vehicle with a scheduled build date near the end of July to September or even early October '66 could use this block. Also, Ford probably took a little longer to transition to the '67 model year because of the body changes. They had a lot more tooling and procedures to change before ramping up the '67s.

From a "show" car stand point the majority of classes don't check date codes like this - so you are only doing it for yuorself and possibly resale value.

Edited by - RalphJr on 02/04/2007 13:43:52

Edited by - RalphJr on 02/04/2007 13:45:57

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Does anyone know when they stopped production of the 66 model year and started the 67 model year?

Gary

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The <i>scheduled</i> build dates for the last 1966 Mustangs found in the Smart and Haskell <i>Mustang Production Guide</i> are from the second week of August for cars made at Dearborn, and the last week of July for cars built at Metuchen and San Jose.

Ok my block has 5F16 (June 16 1965) one year before, to the day as the above block and its stamped 5R07K242883

Gary its the stamped date on block by the water pump on the driver side

Look one front "ear" on the drivers side for the assembly date.It's likely going to give you a better idea of when it might have been used