Exhaust Manifold question What exactly do I have?

Discussion in 'The "Paper Trail"' started by speedygump, Oct 25, 2016.

  1. speedygump

    speedygump speedygump

    Looking to see exactly what I have here

    I have a 70 GS 455 with a build date of W46 , 11C or 3rd week of November 1969.
    When I had the Engine rebuilt I noticed that at some time or another Parts of the Motor had different codes on them.
    Through decoding the parts I found out that my Block and intake are correct for my car, but the heads were off 2 totally different cars with later build dates!
    (OK so its not a virgin car but the engine parts look to all be from other 1970 Buick 455 cars)!
    I recently posted an ad looking for a drivers side exhaust manifold ,and explained what I had.
    In a few responses I was told I have a 1971 drivers side exhaust Manifold Through the Part # 1233451 E
    I was told my correct part should be Part# 1233889

    What I am finding online is not clear

    Can anyone here chime in on decoding this?

    1233451 E
    6213M 217
    CFD 3
    There is a wagon wheel symbol before the CFD and the Shift/ Cast time has a dot on the 12 O clock position and the raindrop symbol is pointing to the 9 O clock position.

    Over the years I forgot how to decode this.
    Can anyone help?
     
  2. Art B

    Art B Well-Known Member

    Good Afternoon Speedygump:

    1233451 is the casting P/N. I can't tell you off hand what year, but '70-'71 is about right.
    The E is the engineering change level. If a change is made to the design, the letter would change to identify it.
    6213M is the material specification for the manifold. It is either a class 30 or 35 grey iron. I can't remember.
    217 is the date code- 217th day of the year.
    CFD- Central Foundry Division of GM.
    3 would be the pattern number. Several castings would have been poured at one time in the mold.
    The wagon wheel is a time clock to track which hour the casting was poured. It may or may not have been changed each hour.
    The shift marker would have an arrow held by a screw. It would be changed to fit the shift and perhaps pointed at a D, A or N to identify the shift made.

    I hope that helps. I have never seen a W46 build date. The only true build date, actual day, would be on factory paperwork. If you are going the restore the car, one paper document should be on top of the gas tank. The others could be stuffed in a A pillar, under the back seat, under the carpet or somewhere else. It may have been thrown away at the factory too.
    As you poke around, look for any scraps of paper, tags, tickets. Carefully remove them and save. They could be invaluable to document the vehicle.
    I'm sure someone more familiar with the P/N's can tell you the year(s) the the manifold fits.

    Art
     

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