'58 corvette 283? Casting # questions

[steven warren]

I recently purchased a 283 that had been sitting in the back of a barn for the last 40-50 years and I'm having trouble identifying if it is a 'vette motor or just a hodge-podge of misc. chev. parts. I'm told the motor was a 58 corvette 283 that was put into a 54 chev PU in the late 60's and the owner totaled the truck on the test drive, pulled it and it has sat ever since. the block casting # is 3737739, build date D98, stamp on front right is F42IM. It has a cast iron 4-barrel manifold (all 4 holes are identical diameter) # 3837109. The heads have a single triangle on the end, #3731539 or 3731589, there is a T and a triangle right below the stamping and another stamping A2157. It looks like the stamping on the exhaust manifold is 3733975? It came with 2 dist. 1 w/mech tach and 1 w/oil tube. The valve covers are 7-fin aluminum Corvette. Any help or insight into what I'm looking at would be greatly appreciated. :W

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

The block casting date of D98 translates to April 9, 1958. The F42IM translates to F= Flint MI engine plant, 421 = April 21 assembly date , M= 160HP/2 bbl carb for a 1958 light truck.

 

[steven warren]

I am being told the heads #3731589, build date A2157, and the valve covers have staggered bolt holes with the intake side closer together than the exhaust side are 1957 283hp fuelies. Is that correct? If so I would think the right thing to do would be separate the heads and make them available to someone building a correct '57 fuelie motor and since I have the 3737739 block, 220hp intake, carb, dist etc purchase the correct 220hp heads and make the motor a correct although no matching motor? If this is correct logic any idea what the heads are worth, they are in excellent (very original) working condition or would it be better to a builder to keep the whole motor together and if so what is a rough value? I honestly do not have the time to do anything myself with this I'm organizing a st. championship rally cross series, rally sprint series and part of the Olympus Rally committee and am co-driving in both the RA and NASA national rally series. If these heads are 57 fuelies I appreciate their importance to the right party and would like to see them go that direction. I would be happy to let them go for less than ACV to the right party.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

The heads are actually 3731539 and not 3731589. They were used on all sorts of engines, not just fuelies. The fact that the date code has two digits for the year (A2157 = Jan. 21 1957) means that they were cast at the Tonawanda NY engine plant. No small block Corvette engines of the era came from that plant, they all came from the Flint MI plant. Sorry.

As noted up above, the block came from a light duty truck.

The intake 3837109 was used on '56 Chevs of many descriptions including, not '58.

Sounds like the only Corvette-only part you've got are the valve covers.

 

[steven warren]

The heads are actually 3731539 and not 3731589. They were used on all sorts of engines, not just fuelies. The fact that the date code has two digits for the year (A2157 = Jan. 21 1957) means that they were cast at the Tonawanda NY engine plant. No small block Corvette engines of the era came from that plant, they all came from the Flint MI plant. Sorry.

As noted up above, the block came from a light duty truck.

The intake 3837109 was used on '56 Chevs of many descriptions including, not '58.

And finally I have the straight answer, that is why I put it out to you and CAC...thank you. I still am having a hard time with the 39 though, the stamping is extremely clear and unadulterated but again I'm not vette-ucated. Thanks again.