Short version: When did the deck height of 351w change from 9.48 to 9.503"???
Long version: I finally scraped enough gunk off of the side of the block to see the casting number on my 351w. It reads D2AE-6015-BA13 and 3K26. So if I'm decoding this correctly its a 72 casting produced on Nov 26 1973. So I started searching around to verify when the deck height changed and seem to find three answers:
1) All 69-70 blocks were 9.48, all 71 and later are 9.503
2) Change over in 72, Casting D2AE-B represents the start of 9.503 blocks (from Wikipedia)
3) Change over in 74'
I had always thought it was option 1, all 71' and later blocks were 9.503. The FRPP catalog has engine specs in the back, and backs this up. I tend to believe that Ford would get it right in a technical publication like that.
What say the rest of you?
Long version: I finally scraped enough gunk off of the side of the block to see the casting number on my 351w. It reads D2AE-6015-BA13 and 3K26. So if I'm decoding this correctly its a 72 casting produced on Nov 26 1973. So I started searching around to verify when the deck height changed and seem to find three answers:
1) All 69-70 blocks were 9.48, all 71 and later are 9.503
2) Change over in 72, Casting D2AE-B represents the start of 9.503 blocks (from Wikipedia)
3) Change over in 74'
I had always thought it was option 1, all 71' and later blocks were 9.503. The FRPP catalog has engine specs in the back, and backs this up. I tend to believe that Ford would get it right in a technical publication like that.
What say the rest of you?