Ok so I bought this 69 Z28 8 months ago, seller says, no way it could me matching, how could it be, everything on the car correct, 6A car, pad stamp VO0515DZ, fan may 69, brake booster original and correct, carb may 2, anyway, not a issue, nice car nice price so I bought it, so it starts driving me crazy, the block is 010 so that is correct era block, I can not find any vin by oil filter, it is not there, so tonight I take off hood to finally get a good look at the date pad behind dist, and ahhhggggggg, nothing there, the pad behind the dist on pass side is blank, nothing ground off, you can tell, all the little metal dimples correct metal surface, so what ya think, they forget to put the little date code thing on it when casting block, or is this a later era 010 block and the date code somewhere else, Joe

does anyone know how to identify a 69 010 block form a later 010 block, if there is such a way

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii152/tjs69_photos/location%20of%20engine%20numbers/endinedetail1.jpg

Thanks Tom, I went and ran my fingers down the ridge behind the dist and did not feel anything, I do not know, I have been unde,r over,, on top of ,inside, just about everywhere on this motor and cannot find it :confused:

If you look at the VIN pad on that picture Tom posted, I believe they are much smaller on the later model blocks. I have a '78 010 block and the VIN pad is less than 3" wide or so.

On these 69 Norwood Z's they stamped the VIN on a ridge next to the oil filter starting around April, they got tired of taking the alternator off too stamp the VIN on the pad, I just measured my pad and it is 4 1/2 inches long, wonder what era that gets me:sad:

It was common practice for machine shops to deck the head surface area and machine off the Engine ID number/V.I.N. code, I did that to many a block back in the 80's when I worked at Wayne's Engine and head Exchange in southern california, we had no reason to put the numbers back, we were just building Motors that worked and didn't care about date coding, number matching, or any of that

Yes I am Aware of the decking process, as stated in above post vin on this car would be on pad near oil filter, the norwood plant changed the process

Here’s a picture of a 010 that is close to yours.
Hope it helps

Going through some of my books I found that the 010 block was put into production late April early May of 69, in both 2 and 4 blot configurations, and was used through 1975. As mentioned by others, the casting date should be stamped on the top right rear of the block by bellhousing flange, opposite the block casting number. The book states that some blocks have the casting date on the long side of the block by one of the freeze plugs. Maybe? Generally the block would have been cast 1 - 3 weeks before the assembly date.

Take a good pic of the pad stamping and post it here.

The pad stamping is not the issue, here is the issue-----if the date code is not on the bellhousing flange, where else could it be, or is there cases where it has been omitted, I also have a 66L78 and I can tell you horror stories about block discrepancies and omitted vins or stamps