1966 canadian polara 880

[Bill Watson]

The car is fifty years old, so there has been a lot of time to make an engine change. Being a wagon I can see someone installing a 383 to get more power. Your car has been repainted, looking at the engine compartment, so changes have been made over the years.

On the inner fender on the driver's side of the car there is a body tag. The bottom row should read -

DH45 61 5 34 A01 234567 (or whatever is entered on the tag)

The DH45 is for Dodge, Polara 880, 4 door, 2-seat wagon.

61 is for a 383 V8. A 318 would be 41. So, if the engine was changed that would be confirmed if the engine code is 41. If the code is 61 it was built with a 383 and someone made a mistake on the VIN.

5 is for Torqueflite, 34 for the tires, A01 for the scheduled built date, and combined with 234567 forms the Shipping Order Number.

The engine serial number should be stamped on the block, left (passenger) side, rear of block near oil pan flange. Should begin with PT383, and followed with four digits for the build date and four digits for the daily sequential number.

A short engine number may be stamped on the left side, front of block, below the distributor. Consists of a letter, 383 and then month and day of assembly.

Not sure when Chrysler starting stamping the last six digits on the engine block, but it was no earlier than 1968. On the V8 blocks it was stamped on an identification pad, just above the oil pan, right (passenger) side of the block. just to the rear, and below, the engine mount.

 

[1Fury1]

61 is for a 383 V8. A 318 would be 41. So, if the engine was changed that would be confirmed if the engine code is 41. If the code is 61 it was built with a 383 and someone made a mistake on the VIN.

My suspicion confirmed. Looks like the 383 is an original plant. Maybe because the 318 was standard in the Canadian version the guy creating the VIN made a wrong assumption. Thanks very much Bill.

 

[Bill Watson]

Don't know if anyone has decoded your body tag, but there few options on the car (well, four actually) -
The 3 under the 4 is for sales code 543 - Moulding, upper door frames and quarter windows
61 - Engine - 383 V8, 2-bbl carb
5 - Sales Code 395 - Torqueflite automatic
63 - Tires - 8.55x14", whitewall tires

Other codes -
424 - Scheduled Build Date - April 24, 1968
H5X - Interior Code -
H - Sales code - 32H - High Price Class
5 - Sales code - 335 - Vinyl Bench, Split
X - Sales code - 34X - Colour - Black
UBS - Where U = "B" - Interior paint colour - Black
The B in UBS was for "Buffed Paint" (708) and S was for "Stripes" (310-319).

The only code I have problems with is the Paint - JJ1. The "1" means the car is a single tone colour, and the "J" is the colour. Chrysler had a "J" in 1968, but was Medium Gold Metallic. And that does not appear to be the colour under the hood of your car.

 

[1Fury1]

Thank you again for the de-code Bill. Everything seems to add up. Not sure what the "stripes" would be in the interior though. Since it's had a color change I was also wondering if it may have originally had wood grain sides but apparently not. The engine bay does look gold to me so I think JJ1 would be correct. Inside the trunk is the same.