1971 340 Owners - What's Wrong With These Pictures?

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Yes sir!


This is the third 1971 340 car I've documented with an orange engine installed way past the orange to blue color changeover (late March/early April or so). This cars SPD is May 21, 1971, yet the engines assembly date is WAY earlier (3373 10,000 day calendar date = Thursday October 22, 1970) and has an original VIN# sequence stamping that matches the cars VIN and fender tag. The other two cars were Demons and were Hamtramck plant cars, this one is the first B-body and the first Los Angeles car I've seen this way.

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Typically issues like this can be explained by some sort of quality control measure that set a component (in this case an engine) aside from the production line for repair or re-work. The engine was likely removed from production at an earlier date. It was then re-worked and finally re-introduced back into production some time later. This type of event was not so uncommon then and still happens today.

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Yes sir!


This is the third 1971 340 car I've documented with an orange engine installed way past the orange to blue color changeover (late March/early April or so). This cars SPD is May 21, 1971, yet the engines assembly date is WAY earlier (3373 10,000 day calendar date = Thursday October 22, 1970) and has an original VIN# sequence stamping that matches the cars VIN and fender tag. The other two cars were Demons and were Hamtramck plant cars, this one is the first B-body and the first Los Angeles car I've seen this way.

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Typically issues like this can be explained by some sort of quality control measure that set a component (in this case an engine) aside from the production line for repair or re-work. The engine was likely removed from production at an earlier date. It was then re-worked and finally re-introduced back into production some time later. This type of event was not so uncommon then and still happens today.

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Mine has the sideways X with the Maltese cross and a A4 after the numbers. not sure if something is .010 under i think the Maltese cross is -.010 mains, and an A4 might have meant an oversize bore but not sure.

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Yep they pushed a rack or two of orange 340 engines into a corner and forgot about them till the first week of April, my demon is a SPD of April 2nd with a engine build date of I think November something 1970. You probably have the details of my engine better than I do Scott!

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exactly correct!

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Wow....you were there to witness these racks of engines being pushed into the corner.....forgotten about for several months and then being found again?? That is quite a coincidence.

I don't buy these engines as being misplaced as being the gospel truth!!! I still suspect some type of quality control measure took place and the engines were quarantined for a period of time until the issue was resolved. I saw this type of action on a daily basis while working at GM and a couple of large automotive suppliers. However, we will never know what really happened.....will we.

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Is there any way to re-stamp those numbers just below the left head? Nothing sinister, just the fact that the numbers can barely be read on my block. My VIN is fine...

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No,(good way to ruin your blocks authenticity having been altered though)..........and barely readable is plenty good enough.

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Is there any way to re-stamp those numbers just below the left head? Nothing sinister, just the fact that the numbers can barely be read on my block. My VIN is fine...

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No,(good way to ruin your blocks authenticity having been altered though)..........and barely readable is plenty good enough.

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Yeah, no doubt. All it would be doing is adding an element of suspicion.

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