Thought you all would like to read a bit of history from the Father, Bill Weertmen.
Hi Pete -
I found those photos you sent of the 426 Hemi block very interesting. My thoughts on the photos are as follows:
The casting date of 10-17-63 certainly puts the block in the time zone of when Indianapolis Foundry was casting the first blocks for the Hemi program. I recall that November 1963 was the month when Hemi engine building was underway in the Motor Room. I think Bob Patterson and Forest Petcock were our two race engine builders at the time but I could be mistaken.
The block would have been one of a small group of six or twelve similar blocks cast at the same time on the regular production line since that is how Indy Foundry prefered to handle these types of special blocks. The three letters on the front of the block "AQA" indentify Indianapolis Foundry as the casting source.
I know that the first Hemi engine to run on the dynamometer on December 6, 1963 was steel-stamped A864 EX1. It lasted for months and months of dyno testing of camshafts, cylinder heads, manifolds, etc. I remember Bob Lechner was reluctant to retire it because it ran so reliably with good, dependable test results.
The steel-stamped A864 EX0 on the block in the photos is a bit of a puzzle. Almost certainly it was not built into an operating engine because it would have received a number instead of the zero. A possibility is that it was used as the base of a valve gear test fixture. The pipe plug in the side of the water jacket indicates it was used for some kind of test.
The A864 portion of its designator is, as we all know, the Engineering Program Number. I have no idea what the numbers below it "1356" stand for.
So the cylinder block in the photos appears to be among the first Hemi blocks created but was not used in the first operating 426 Hemi engine.
Thanks for providing me some mental exercise and memory stimulation.
Bill
