I read some GT-E parts as engines, carburetors, Dizzy are build in batches and have mostly same or very close date codes?
for example all my Holley 4088 are from 2 or 4 Nov. 67, never seen another date except Service Replacements
Also the Engine Dates and Heads of my Cars are a few days ahead only, both cars are build end of January 68.
Hows about Engine Castings?
Head Castings?
Intakes?
Exhaust Manifolds?
Third Member?
Transmissions?
Carburators?
Fuel Pumps?
I’ve been told the same thing. It makes sense that specialized items would be built in smaller production runs rather than all the time. If you could contribute to my thread on fuel pumps, I’m trying to gather some data about this very subject.
The parts that were used in smaller amounts were built in smaller quantities on fewer days. For the carburetors there are only two dates prior to the end of production. Distributors with C70F-12127-F were made for the 1967 model year and used on the 390GT, so there are several date codes that are very early, and the parts may have been used in 1968 production too.
Intakes for the GT-E do not have date codes.
Exhaust manifolds are same as 390GT so many date codes are possible. In all cases the date code must be prior to the assembly date of the car by at least 7 days.
Fuel pumps were used on the 428CJ so many date codes. In all cases the date code must be prior to the assembly date of the car by at least 14 days because this part was made by an outside vendor.
Carburetors ditto.
Third member is very rare, only used on the Shelby GT500 and the Cougar GT-E. I’ve only seen one date code for it.
Transmission has no date code except on the ID tag which is usually lost. The case was used on many applications. It will have the car’s VIN if it is the right one.
Cylinder heads and block there are only two or three possible date codes. They would have to exist before the car was built, so not many possibilities there.
My experience is different with 3rd members. The Shelbys. 427 Fairlanes and other exotic HP cars have been noted to have SPEC in the place of the date code. I have a 68 GT 350 that has this same SPEC case and 31 spline rear end. What is the date code for you original GTE(s)?
The SPEC cases are used in 1967 FOMOCO products such as 427 Comet / Fairlane and 1967 Shelby Mustangs.
Here are photos of what is typically found in the GT-E and 1968 Shelby Mustangs. It’s sometimes called the “N Case without the N”. There is only the one date code that I have seen on production GT-E’s. Pre - production cars like Phil Parcells and Stuart Hyman’s cars were made earlier and therefore would have had earlier date codes.
This is the tag found on the above case when I removed it from my car. The tag shows the 3.50 open ratio, and the January, third week of '68 assembly date.
Date code is 8AC:
8 = 1968
A = January
C = third week of month
Although it is not a GT-E, my May 1968 built 428CJ Cougar uses the exact same casting for the rear end center section with nearly the exact same date code. It is 7M21 instead of 7M20. Ford must have cast a whole bunch of them that two day period. This car happens to be a 3.91 Traction Lock, which was one of the ratios used in the GT-E.
The rear axle tag shows an assembly date code of 8DD.
This decodes as:
8 = 1968
D = April
D = fourth week of month
So again we see very rare parts made in batches that do not correspond with date code thinking that is appropriate for more common parts.
The December 1967 dates Royce shows were the last castings of the Nodular case again until April of 1968. Some of the May built cars like Royce’s have the Dec cases and some have the April like my May cars. Two cars built the same day can have different casting dates as inventory ages and gets replaced with new batches.
The first Nodular case with the large external N on the outside is 8K21. This would be 3 months into 1969 production.
There are some known original 68 cars with Spec cases but they are early 350 and pre KR for likely the same reason again. My May Cougar has an April 12 case and Royce has one of the last 7M cases. The cases dated prior to 1968 have the full C4AW-4025B inside and the cases dated 68 and later were abbreviated to C4AW-B only. Same case regardless with unique double rib and C5AW Daytona support.
Thanks Kerry. The tag on the rear end assembly should show an assembly date that is 30 - 45 days prior to the car being built, even though the casting could be much older or in the same date range - it could be either way. The key being the assembly date is early enough to have been used on the car. And the rest of the tag data matches the Marti Report.
