66 Skylark, 7? 455 and 19?? HEI distributor

[superman_jjs]

Hi all,

I have finally managed to get my 66 started, a little rough mind you, but started none the less. Here are my questions and I sure hope to use your experience to my advantage.

Just a little background on the 66. I purchased her unrunning from a guy that had a 'friend' working on the engine but he moved so no more work was being done. When I got her the rotor was on the intake.
I found thier problem, while I was beating my head against the fender, they were using a power wire, to the distro, that was not powered on the start cycle of the switch. It had 12V when the key was turned on but when the key was moved to the start portion the 12V was not there. Of course I only found this after I rebuilt the distro and was going crazy racking my brain. The actual start power wire was just sitting there bare just below the radiator hose. It is my guess that was what made the other guy quit and move away, because I sure did.


1. Where is the VIN on the block. I have not been able to find one. I have attached a pic of the back of the block. I am trying to figure out exatly what year the engine is.

2. Is there a way to determine what year the HEI is from and what should the gap be?

3. Any other tips or tricks you can suggest on getting her purring?

Thanks,

[bob k. mando]

id codes for the big block are supposed to be stamped into the deck of the block on the drivers side, between spark plugs. EIN should be stamped between #1 and #3. Engine code should be stamped between #5 and #7.

http://www.teambuick.com/forums/view...t_engine_where

of course, the PROBLEM with this placement for the id numbers is that if someone decks the block they're going to shave off all of the id info ...

your pic of the block isn't showing, i don't know if you need more posts before you have rights to post pics or what.

[superman_jjs]

Thanks for the info. I will have to get in there and see what I can find. Unfortunataly the pervious owner painted the engine (orange for some reason) and I might have to do some scraping to see what I can find.

As for the photo I am not sure why it did not show. I have attempted to upload the pic again.