How to tell years on Ford blocks
 

Pretty much explains itself. I'm going out to a shop to noisy through 351w blocks and want an older one (they're stronger, right?) and just was wondering how you tell the different years apart with the casting numbers and all. ~Brian

Check the boss by the starter mounting place. There should be a cast-in tag that has a whole bunch of letters and numbers in it. This will easily and quickly tell you the year of the block. For example, if the casting tag starts out with "D8CS-xxxx-xx", the first letter is the decade. "C" is for 1960's, "D" is for 1970's, etc. The second character is the year in the decade. So in the example I just gave, the year would be 1978. The "D" corresponds to the 1970's, and "8" is the exact year in the 70's. Very simple, no? BTW, if you find older than 1974, email me ASAP!!!

Alright thanks, I'll let you know tonight what I find. ~Brian

BestI found was a '79 so I guess that's going to have to do it. There was a '74 out there but it was taken already. If I find one in the future I'll let you know. Still stronger than a roller 302 so I'm going to make use of it:) ~Brian

I got a 74 351 block out of a salvage yard but when i took it apart it has alot of rust in the water jackets. Is it still safe to use? It was in a 75 LTD.

I think so, just have your local machine shop bake it, clean it, and glass bead it. That's how the machine shop I volunteer at does it. I've them completely turn around a lot of blocks. ~Brian