[kevin993]

Bumping this story for a bit of an update...

Made contact with someone at CWC who confirmed that many old records were destroyed. They were also able to help with diagnosing some of the casting codes. Some clearly reflected a year and day of the year of manufacture. A single digit gets you to the last number of the year, but they do NOT clearly designate the full year of manufacture. In other words, the codes tell us that the engine block was cast in the 6th year of the decade, but they don't tell us whether that means 1936, 1946, 1956, etc.

Other codes appear to be unique to the client for whom the engine was cast, but we don't know what those mean yet.

We've been unable to trace the engine to any production road car or truck. CWC cast many engines for military vehicles, so our working theory is/was that the engine came from some kind of US military truck or tractor. The engine is a big thing - straight 6 cylinder and a 6.8 liter size.

We made a visit to a local museum with lots of US military gear (mostly WWII and later) with thoughts that a particular truck might fit the bill. On site, the guy there told us that no way the engine was from that truck and no way was it from WWII - he wasn't familiar with it and thought it clearly looked older.

If all that is correct, then our engine was made before WWII which means 1926 or 1936. And that's where we are at this point... Not sure where we go from here, but stay tuned.