VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1955-1957 57 283 or 265 engine???

Just bought a nice 57 bel air. He said he thought it was a 265. I decoded the intake to be 3731398 which shows to be 283 4 bbl. I cannot see the block casting. I did get the engine stamp off of the front of engine which is T826F can some one tell me if that identifies the engine. All I can tell is maybe Tonawanda plant... maybe Aug. 2 of 56????
Any help would be great.
Thanks

The only 1957's that came with a 265 engine was the standard transmission cars with a 2 barrel carburetor (with or with out overdrive)
All automatics had a 283 and all 4 barrels had a 283. Both the 265 and 283 had the smae block casting numer, 3731548. The 265 was the same casting but bored out to 3 3/4" where as the 283 was bored to 3 7/8". The F indicates that the engine is a 283 2 barrel Power Glide Engine.
The 1957 used two different 4 barrel intakes, the early cars had casting #3731398 and the late had 3746829. Seeing your engine is coded F it came with a 2 barrel and at some point was changed to a 4 barrel. The blocks and the internal parts are the same for either, the 4 barrel had higher compresion heads. The 2 bbl heads were cast 3731554 and the 4 bbl 3731549. It common to find engines that have been switched to 4 bbl. The 4 bbl also had dual exhaust. The 2 bbl cars had the brake line and fuel line on the inside of the right frame rail, the 4 bbl cars had it on the outside of the rail.

Thanks, that helps alot. Looks like the brake and fuel lines are on the inside of the frame rail. This should help the value of this very nice car cause I was looking at Gold Book and it said to deduct 10% if 6 cyl. or 265. Would have been happier if original 4 bbl.
Again, thanks

I'm wrong....The fuel lines and brake lines are running on the outside of the frame rail on the passenger side of car. So what does this tell us with the engine being T826F???? maybe not original engine but replaced a 4 bbl engine at some point with 2 bbl engine block??? Is there no way possible that those numbers could be original 4 bbl set up??
Thanks

It is remotely possible that the lines were changed. The left side was the normal side for the single exhaust. Do the right brackets and hangers look like those of the left side?
Check the head casting numbers-under the valve cover.
The T826F would be an Aug of 1956 engine which would be one of the first engines produced, making it a very early car. What is the serial number? The body number? For an early 1957 the body number tag would be behind the distributor. The other thing would be the casting dates for the heads and intake. They all should be in the Aug 1956 range.
If you don't want to give the full serial number use an X in the place of the last two digets.
The Power Glide 4 Bbl engine would be a FC

looks like the body number on the body tag is 1067DTX (conv) and then L4643XXXXX
Vin # is VC57N2425xxxxxxxxx.

Serial # V= eight cylinder engine
C = Bel Air
57 = the year
N = car assembled in Norwood, Ohio
If the serial number is between 211619 and 227221 the car was assembled in June of 1957. A car assembled in Oct. of 1956 would have a number from 1001 through 112003.

The body tag (for a car assembled in June would have had the tag near the heater valve) The L indiactes the body was made at the Fisher Body plant in Lansing, Mi...all convertibles bodies were made there except in 1957 a small number were made in St. Louis.
An early body would have had a very low body number.

I would suspect this is a later car with an engine from an early car. If the car is correct the wheels will be silver. Wheels were changed from body color to silver in March.

Checking the cars birthday I find it was made on Sept. 21 1956 so the engine being Aug. of 1956 pretty much tells me it is correct engine. I guess somebody swapped to the 4 bbl. set up at some point in time. Swapping to correct would be no big deal.

I got around to pulling the valve covers to find 3731554 heads so it looks like the 283 2BBl with a 4 bbl set up. Thanks for the help.