Road Runner Nest

I am trying to find out how to tell the year of an old mopar engine. when i bought this car I was told that it had a 1968 440hp in it, I just pulled the engine today and found some numbers on it and ones I dont like are 2 12 76. does that mean this is a 1976 engine or do i need to check the other numbers? this car is a 1973

Were they cast into the side of the block on the passenger side? If so, it does sound like you have a 76 motor. On the ID pad next to the distributor hole should also have at least a year stamping on it if I remember correctly. That could also help confirm the date of the block.

Still can be built just like any 440. Rule of thumb is you can't take a "thin wall" block to .060 over, but from stories I've heard, it's worth checking any individual block to see if it might have enough meat in the walls.

Actually the B blocks (361, 383, and 400) had the engine id pad by the distributor. The RB blocks (413, 426, & 440) had the engine id pad up front along the valley pan rail by the left head.

If the numbers are cast into the side of the block below the heads like bbeep mentioned, then those are the core casting numbers which tell when the block was cast. The engine id pad will tell when the engine was assembled.

Hope this helps...

hi 440 id b66 c67 d68 e69 f70 g71 h72 j73