Mid year 273 in 64 Darts?
The Mustangs and Barrcuda's were mid year. The discussion I was having with the guy was the release of the 273. It was not available in 1963 but was put into production in 64 and not 64 1/2. Yes, blocks were cast in 63 because the 64 production year started in August of 63. He swore that 273's were a mid year production change in 64. Nope.
And being a new engine and block, they would have not waited until the last minute to make batch runs of block castings to make sure that the tooling was good and the parts were in spec...
They would need some blocks (very many) to run through the block machining line to verify/validate the machines are running properly and the parts are to spec... They walk the parts through each station, one at a time and measure all of the parts to make sure that they are in spec and to make adjustments to the machines as they get to know them....
Not to mention that they would need castings to fill the block machine line... With a new line, it starts out empty, you have to run some blocks through all of the stations to fill the line...
After the block machine line is verified, then they need to run some engines down the engine assembly line to test the tooling in each station on the assembly line...
Now you have to fill the engine assembly line with engines.... (requiring more blocks...)
Then the car assembly plants are going to need some engines to test their tooling on the engine dress line, and the engine drop station...
Once the new blocks are machined, then built into engines, it's a guarantee that the first dozen will be sent to Design Engineering to be tested ASAP... They have to test the parts before they are released to the public to make sure that there are no defects/problems.... They need to put run time on them to verify that they are good... They will have a batch that will go on engine dynos at the design center, then put some in cars and have them driving around the proving grounds to get miles on them ASAP and shake out any problems....
All of this has to happen before they are able to ship any of them out to customers....
So it wouldn't be out of the question to see some early 63 cast date blocks....
