Hmmmmmmmmm wonder if Chrysler just did that to fudge the street Hemi homologation numbers for NASCAR ('66), (and NHRA) after boycotting NASCAR in '65 ....just saying

5-19-69 is the date of this one!

I hate to say always or never but the topic of '67 casting Hemi blocks has been bandied about numerous times. The consensus was that there were NO 1967 castings as none have ever been found. My personal OPINION is that Chrysler thought they were going to sell a lot of Hemi engines in 1966 and when that didn't happen, there was no need for '67 castings as they had plenty left over from 1966.

True, but so far no one has produced a block with a 1967 casting date.

On a side note, I was curious what day of the week the blocks were cast on.

5/4/1964 Monday
9/24/1964 Thursday
8/16/1965 Monday
8/17/1965 Tuesday
1/17/1966 Monday
1/18/1966 Tuesday
6/14/1966 Tuesday
6/27/1966 Monday
8/16/1966 Tuesday
8/23/1966 Tuesday
8/28/1966 Sunday
10/10/1966 Monday
10/31/1966 Monday
1/15/1968 Monday
4/15/1968 Monday
9/30/1968 Monday
11/11/1968 Monday
11/18/1968 Monday
3/3/1969 Monday
5/10/1969 Saturday
5/19/1969 Monday
5/26/1969 Monday
1/19/1970 Monday
1/20/1970 Tuesday
1/21/1970 Wednesday
1/26/1970 Monday
1/27/1970 Tuesday
5/13/1971 Thursday
3/18/1974 Monday

Where the hemi's cast along with all the other blocks at the same facility, or, was it a separate vendor?
I know that over the years it's been mentioned Chrysler blocks were high nickle alloy always lead me to believe it was the same source.

The date is definitely 5/19/69. Here is a picture of a matching block.

You mean FOR the 67 model year.

That's correct because there were none cast during that time period.

*Also, forgot to add one of mine to the list, 3-28-66

Looks like a dead ringer to me.

Hello all. My name is Tom Kelly and I'm retired from Chrysler. I have some info that may help. I started at the Chrysler Indianapolis Foundry in July 1972 in Production Control. Being the Newby I ended up on night shift taking inventory. At that time there were over 100,000 rough castings of various displacement palleted in the outdoor storage yard and a few thousand more of high demand block in a late storage warehouse on the site. The castings were primarily stacked in rows by displacement. At that time if the engine machining plant called for a quantity of blocks and they were in production, they loaded straight on the trucks and headed to the Engine Plants. We produced all of the V8 (though I do recall some were outsourced to International Harvester Foundry across town in Indy when we couldn't keep up with demand; primarily 318s while I was there.) The B/RBs went to Trenton MI for machining, 318 & 340s to Mound Road MI and the 360 to Windsor Ontario CA for machining and assy. We only did rough grinding of the blocks. Of interest, though no demand in 1972, there were still rough casting 273, 361, early and late style 383, 413. And a few hundred HEMIs still palleted in the yard. I was drafted into the Army in October 1972. We didn't ship any Hemi blocks during my time in 1972 to my knowledge. I had a 69 340 Dart Swinger at the time and was in awe of those HEMIs so kept an eye on them. Also of interest, the Hemi tooling was still in a caged area of the warehouse at that time. I even loved looking at it when walking the area. Regarding usage of blocks, when demand exceeded live production or a block order came in for a casting not being produced at the time (we had two production lines and one was generally dedicated to 318s due to demand) they would be pulled from warehouse first and if none they were pulled from the yard. Yard block were depalleted, hung on conveyor hooks & sent through one of two shot blast machines (Wheelabrator & other was a Pangborn Mfrs). Blocks were put back on wooden pallets (24 small blocks & 18 big blocks per pallet). Also of note, depending on demand old casting date blocks would have set in the yard for a long time before being pulled out for blasting & shipment. That would explain old casting dates with much later machine/assembled stamped dates at the Machine Plants. (To be continued)

(Continued) when I got back from the army and called back to the Foundry it was late 1975 and things had changed due to gas/oil embargo etc. Chrysler had tightened its belt and yard storage of blocks was eliminated. Don't remember seeing the HEMI blocks. The out of production blocks were gone too and don't remember seeing that tooling anymore. The plant (originally the American Foundry in the 1890s, before being purchased by Chrysler around 1949 and officially becoming the Chrysler Indianapolis Foundry in 1958) was closed by the 'braintrust' of Daimler in 2005 and subsequently bulldozed. Its rich heritage was producing the 426 Hemi blocks that won the 1964 Daytona 500, thousands of 340s (including the TA and race blocks), 360, 383, 400, 413, 426w, 440 and production 426 HEMIs. Even the 2.2,2.5, 3.9, 3.5 and later 4.0 L Jeep blocks were produced there. I'll end this long winded note with this info: one of the accountants at the plant gave my a copy of the Plant Gross Production Record from 1961 thru closing. Columns list blocks by displacement and I was told the 426w & 426 Hemi could have been combined in 1964 (evidently not all accountants are car guys!). Anyway the list showed the following rough 426 castings poured in the following years (numbers in 000): 1964-3; 1965-3; 1966-11; 1967-0; 1968-6; 1969-3; 1970-3; 1973-1; 1974-1.
I have a few more interesting Foundry related docs I'll try to get out here in future. Tom

Re: the "-1" or other "-#" . I contacted one of friends from Foundry pattern/tooling dept to verify my understanding. The dash number after the part number did designate the specific tooling pattern set used to make the block mold. That was used to track in event of a defect found from tooling wear. Same reason for date, clock & day/night characters that are cast into the block. Regarding the count info: As I noted in my text, the accountant that gave me the report told me the 1964 '426 count' was 426W & 426 Hemi because accounting evidently didn't need to differentiate. From accounts in articles by Chrysler's Tom Hoover and Willem Weertman regarding work on the blocks in late 1963 until the 11th hour before Daytona, those blocks were likely considered non production and were not included since such a low count. Production was counting in 'thousands' so makes sense that 426 Wedge blocks were folded into the 1964 count.

This is excellent information! Thanks Tom Kelly!

Stan

Tom, do you know if the yearly counts are stated as "calendar year" or "model year"?

I would think 426 block production was combined for '65 also

from a couple different sources -
model year 426 HEMI production cars w/VIN (426 cu.in. production):
1964 ~ 180
1965 ~ 203 (6,929)
1966 ~ 2,731 (3,629)
1967 ~ 1,274 (1,258)
1968 ~ 2,511 (2,400 "rounded to 100s" * & I'd bet B0/L0 not counted)
1969 ~ 2,100
1970 ~ 1,656
1971 ~ 403 (486)

11,058+ 426 HEMI cars

Dan, not sure on the model year vs calendar year question but I'd guess those are calendar year counts. In the Chrysler world hierarchy we were a component plant so life didn't seem to revolve around model year like the assembly plants. Not sure what corp planning group called the shots on our production run counts but they would have included warranty replacement blocks & 'over the counter' sales projections too.
Dan, by the way, I've been on this and some of the other Mopar sites for awhile now and have always appreciated the excellent information and help you've provided the groups. You are an outstanding asset to our hobby! Thank you! Tom