My friend Keith did some searching in his library of Pontiac books and he came up with the original application of the block. The code 859P serial code no. 1764 stamped on the block interprets as ---8--Bonneville, 59--year, P--Pontiac Michigan plant. The 1764 means, it was the 763rd car off of the assembly line for 1959. The build code (1764) starts at 1001 for the code number. Which means the very first car is 1002, then the second one is 1003 and on. That is why this block was in the 763rd car off the line. With just those numbers I can get a print out of the build sheet and window sticker of that car that would tell me everything that was on the original car. It would be interesting to know.
The heads have turned out to be the star of the find. They were the first purpose made Super Duty program heads. There is nothing really great performance wise about them but they are a rare casting. They were made for the '61 model year, a point at which they had made changes to the intake bolt and water patterns. But, they were developed and in the 59-60 time frame so the pattern does not fit the '61 model year and up intakes etc. They had to make a specific aluminum intake for it. You can bolt the '55-'60 intakes to the heads but they are not as good of a performance manifold as the specific aluminum Super Duty intake. This engine I found had a stock '58 cast iron intake on it. So who ever built it did not get the aluminum intake or it could have been taken off at some time and replaced with a cheaper intake. But there is a lot of value in the heads and I can always use the block for a good engine project down the road. Although, being a 4 bolt '59 block they are a little rare too and someone may just want it more than I do. Just a note. This block is virtually identical to the block that I sought out and bought to build my turbo motor on. There are some minor differences due to the one year difference and how the two years differed in the way they equiped the two blocks for cooling. But if I had started with this 4 bolt block in th efirst place I ould nto have needed the splayed 4 bolts that I put on my '60 block and it would be almost as strong. I had one gentleman that deals in buying and selling these Super Duty parts tell me that he feels it would not be too far out to expect as much as $1500 for the heads as they came off of the engine. His concern was whether they had been altered. Such as deck cut or ported and from what I have seen, they look completely original and untouched. Which could up the value even more. I want to do a quick cleanup on them to look at their overall condition. This has been fun with all the expectations and then the realities of it all. At least I know I will recover all of my costs and more. So it is a good thing. And maybe it will result in someone finally completing a restoration that otherwise might have stalled waiting for a set of these heads to show up. Mark L
