Hello everyone-
The sage continues...
So my sons have a 1978 Volare we are restoring and I suspect the motor is not original to the car - several reasons - the block is painted black (bellhousingis still era-correct blue), from peering into the oil fill hole into the rockers, I cannot see any adjusting nuts on the rocker arms, the carb appears to have a V8-style choke attachment for the heated choke, lastly, the casting numbers on the drivers side of the block start with 4343, which my Google-fu has indicated could be from 1983-1986.

With all that said, I've been looking for the stamped numbers on the side of the deck between the alternator and the valve cover and there aren't any, nor any indication they were there (the manifold casting number lines up with the 1978 casting numbers from our FAQ). My question is - did these move in later production engines or are they on the side of the block versus the deck of the motor? Of course, when I had the alternator and bracket off two weeks ago, I didn't look on the side.

This is really more for curiosity than anything else, but I would be interested in knowing more about what we have. As far as I can tell, all the Super Six and 1978 vacuum apparatus was moved in the swap - distributor, manfolds, etc... - so perhaps this was done as a dealership "fix" or, if the stamped numbers are supposed to be above number 1, then I'm guessing the block was decked as part of a rebuild.

I believe there was also an air injection "tube" at the back of the head (or engine) in the 1978 emmisions package, and while the air pump is gone, it appears that the tube was flattened and welded up.

Thanks

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Cree