I am with a Beater: 3836848 is a head casting number first used in '56 on a 235.
Yes, that much I have known since I got it a couple months ago.
I have a feeling that the serial number on your particular block was transferred there from another engine.
I think that's possible, but don't know how probable it is. Everything seems to check out on the VIN with what is on the cowl plate, located on the passenger side, the VIN of my truck is 14DPF2135. It's hard to read the 14 in the beginning but is there. I haven't tried to remove any paint yet, there's Rustoleum slathered over the entire truck, both green and black. I kinda like the patina and plan to leave it as-is on the outside.
The transmission does in fact have a number that matches the YAP, here's a pic. This would make sense for DO being for a truck and the D coincides with '46 from what I have seen, although it seems to be for '45, somewhere it seems I saw '46 was D. My truck is also a DP, which is one of the early models after the switch. So mine is the newer style and the DP fits that as well as the DO on the transmission. My understanding is that the O designates it was in a truck.
Back in the day there were several states where Titles and Bills-of-Sale carried the engine serial number as the vehicle identification.
Yes, that could be true, but from the paperwork from original and 2nd owner, the VIN seems to be what is on the cowl plate.
So when this newer engine was swapped into the vehicle the old number was transferred in order to jibe with the paper work on the vehicle.
I will wire brush some more and see if I can find anything else around the engine. I don't seem to see all the numbers that Langdon's site show, as pic'd above in the '58-'62 picture.
The second series had engine codes of DAA and DAM. This is for the light (1/2 ton) trucks that had 'car' engines.
That's interesting as passenger cars and light trucks (i.e., 1/2 ton) had the same transmission and rear end, AFAICT.
This is interesting, it shows DBM as an engine designation of DBM and there's a possibility that it is DBM, but that is not clear at the start yet. I will try to clean that flat boss and see if I can see anything prior to the B.
So a BM is a 216ci truck engine for a 3100 series built in Tonawanda. But the Year is missing . . . e.g. DBM - '46, EBM - '47 , FBM - '48 etc.
Yes, that is one of the confusing pieces to this puzzle.
Thanks for your reply, it's helping to bring some of the pieces together that are unclear.
