VCCA Home Forums Thread Like Summary - 1928 Engine Block

Hello VCCA, this is my first post on this forum. I just dug out a 1927 Chevrolet Capitol One Ton LM Series in my grandma's backyard. I've confirmed the truck itself is a 1927 model year from multiple factors. One of which being that the king bolts are 9/16 as opposed to 3/4 used on the 1928 Capitol One Ton. The engine was replaced at sometime during its life. It's a 1928 348532 dated August 13, 1928. One question I have is the casting of the bowtie logo. Every 348532 block I've seen has a casted dot in the middle of the bowtie. Mine doesn't have a dot. I was wondering what this meant. Does it signify an export block? Or a late model block? [img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EH1D5Nb3J1a4Jt0vW--zA6noFsfibBR6/view?usp=sharing[/img]

Another good thread on 4 cylinder engine rebuild is "school is in session" by Ray Holland who was a prolific poster on here but I dont recall seeing any lately. I dont remember much discussion about the numbers (cast or stamped) on the engine.
Tony

Welcome to the VCCA's website!

I never noticed the dot in the middle of the bowtie before your post. ;-)

The engine (block) number that Steelin_Time mentioned is stamped into the flat boss above the casting date.

As he mentioned, if the number is preceded with a T, it was a truck block. If the number was preceded with an X, it was meant for export. I think the blocks put into cars had no letter preceding the engine number. There are other letters that mean other things, but I don't know what they are.

The number itself indicates the block's number in the sequence of ALL the four cylinder blocks made. I believe the total number was around 5.3 million!

The block that I used in my rebuild in 2017 has the dot in the bowtie, but I don't know what the block number is because I didn't look at it before putting the side covers on. ;-(

At the bottom of this post is a photo of that block before it was cleaned up. You can see the dot in the bowtie, but there's too much rust on the engine number boss to see the number.

I did find a photo of an engine block with the dot that has an X preceding the block number. That photo is below also. That photo came from this thread: 1928 Truck Puzzle

If you are interested in my engine rebuild adventure, it is documented here: Resurrecting a '28 4 Banger

Cheers, Dean

Tony is correct. Ray's 'School is in Session" is a great document. It is a 250 page PDF that can be downloaded and printed. My copy has ragged edges and greasy finger prints all over it!

The catch to gaining access to it is that you have to be a member of the VCCA club.

The document resides in the Members Only area off the main web page (vcca.org) and can be found in the list of Technical Articles.

Gaining access to great information like this is just one of many good reasons to join the club!

Cheers, Dean

It may be a 1928 LO as they used the same running gear as a 1927 LM, the only difference being the engine, One way to tell the engine is the engine number starts with a T for trucks.