........agree on the truck engines - think I remember that inspection cover on top of the bell housing in vans and other delivery type vehicles.........mind you that is about 52 years ago when I was last fixing those.....Truck engines were what I was thinking as well.Those big blocks also don't appear to have car exhaust manifolds[at least not Chevelle] either.
The big blocks are definitely 366's and 427T's the manifolds are the big truck style if you could see the other side it would look like they used a driver side manifold on that side too but the outlet is angled to the back.I think Phil is asking about the engines to the middle left they appear to be smallblocks too but for some reason they're facing the opposite direction of all the other engines.The guy leaning over has his elbow resting on the distributor of the one,and you can see the big thermostat housing and what looks like some kind of protective cover over the waterpump snout.Truck engines were what I was thinking as well.Those big blocks also don't appear to have car exhaust manifolds[at least not Chevelle] either.
Those pics were taken in two different time periods. The first pic with truck engines was from 1970-73 and was Tonawanda. the second pic of the car engines was from 59, I believe from a Life Magazine article but I don't remember if it was Tonawanda or Flint. I believe the process changed in the late 60's where exhaust manifolds weren't painted probably because they were installed after engine was painted.Does anyone know if the smallblock truck engines were built in a different plant than the passenger car engine?I'm asking because of the difference of the painted manifolds versus the unpainted manifolds,maybe it was a practice they stopped since the car smallblocks are obviously a few years older than the truck engines(chevrolet script valve covers)?