400 ENGINE

D7TE-A2? is the cast code for the block, the cast date code should be nearby / under that

D is code for the decade 1970

7 is the year of that decade but not necessarily the year that the block was cast,

that's why you need the cast date code

FYI coincidentally the 351M engine uses the same castings as the 400 so final ID of the engine will depend upon the crankshaft and pistons present in the engine

and another closer to home link to the same page

i think that's where all the cast date codes are ... ?

hopefully that's far enough after the 'March xx, 1977' date to be a good block.

in the 1st link i posted above Tim Meyer says there's overlap of good & bad blocks around that date

these might be the pics missing from that thread

Yes the various foundries are covered in the Bubba info,

i'm curious if the cracking issue goes all the way back to MCC's first block or when it actually began?

It is most likely why my car is not carrying the original engine.

Posting pics is kind of tricky to figure out at first.  I press the back icon after the keyboard appears. This erases a block with an X and turns on upper case. Then go to picture icon. Choose gallery, upload, when upload is complete your pucture appears in the box. Hit OK. Then it shows up in the original reply box. You can then type in your question etc.  Then post teply, done.   No garrantee the picture is right side up. Screen rotation must be turned off as this seems to be my problem on a droid.