i tried to decode my 302 using this http://www.fordification.com/castingno.htm it looks like D4DE-6015- A on my block according to the link that transulates to D-1970's 4-1974 D-Falcon (60-69) E-Engine (Engineering Departments) 6015-Basic number i kno i must be getting something wrong here
The casting date is 7B11. That translates into February 11, 1977, which is the exact day your block was cast on. Therefore, the second D in D4DE would stand for Maverick instead of Falcon, and D4 is telling you the last time the block design was changed was in 1974. Like with most Ford part numbers, you can't tell for sure that is what the block originally came out of though. That just means that is what it was intended for when the engineering department designed it. For example, the well known E7TE heads that came from the factory on later Mustangs, E7TE would tell you it's a truck head even though it really did come on a Mustang..
According to CaptainComet's post, http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=42973, the D also decodes as a 70-74 maverick. I didn't think they re-did the casting numbers for every year, only every revision
The reason for the D4 block in 1977 is because Granada's and Mavericks were the only cars still using the Z-bar style clutch setup and Ford had deleted the pivot hole for the Z-bar on blocks cast for Mustang II's. All the other cars used a D5AE casting. And so yes, that block had to come out of a Maverick/Comet or Granada/Monarch. Which is truly one of the few times you can use a casting number for a (almost) specific application.
well the motor did come from a 77 maverick but i thought i'd decode it anyway just to be sure. thanks for the help
