Vin 311287? or not

[arctoad]

At the beginning of, dare I say the word... Covid, I came across a discussion of a T/A block for sale on Facebook. The picture of the block was posted and a couple of the members of e-bodies mention of a car, (my 70' T/A) to which was looking for the original motor. I periodically check in on all of the mopar sites that I am a member of, and out of coincidence came a cross the post. After one of the kind members gave the contact information to me, I then began hunting the potential original block of my car.
Most T/A and AAR followers are aware of the limited sequence numbers to which these cars were given based on the 6 or so weeks of production run for these vehicles.
If you check the existing registries of these cars, they roughly start:
0B246000 - 0B312000 (Not exact but in the ballpark) This is important because looking at the attached pictures, the first 3 digits are not at all very clear, in fact the forth digit is not very clear. However, the last 4 digits look to be clear enough to confirm 1287. I'll leave it up to the members here to decide.
The other stamps and casting numbers are clear enough to know this is a real T/A block.
My question: Would this block be considered a potential for 0B311287 or not.
Thanks looking forward to hear everyone's response.

 

[Katfish]

Sure looks like a match, maybe a pencil rubbing of the area would clear up the first 3 digits

 

[moparlee]

Can't tell for sure. Looks like 0B(?)11287. Can't tell that the third digit is a 3 or not.

 

[arctoad]

It’s difficult for me because I might be a little bias about it maybe being the original engine.
Thanks for Your comments!

 

[MoparCarGuy]

I see there are other posts about this block on a different forum with a different VIN stamping picture showing the potential for this VIN as ending in 71287.
That would potentially be JH23J0B271287 or BS23J0B271287. The other site has a this block as a Plymouth AAR block but 271287 would be 3,000 cars too early.
The first "7" is also in question as a restamp because the font does not match the last "7". Strange and suspect.
A well-known aficionado suggests this is the 0B311287.

 

[MoparCarGuy]

The casting date is also posted on the other forum posting for this block. Much clearer VIN stamping as well.
Note that first "7" is completely different from the last, and correct, "7".

 

[MoparCarGuy]

The posting also mentions this TA Challenger ad for sale. JH23J0B311287. Makes you wonder if the person who restamped it actually changed it to 71287 and used the incorrect font 7 to do it. It also looks like it could be a numeral 4 under that 7 but 311287 makes sense for the known group of TA/AAR production VINs.

 

[arctoad]

I would agree that even if the forth digit was a 1 and not a 7 the vin stamp is too badly damaged to make the assumption that this would be the block to 311287. The picture that you posted was the original picture on facebook, I was able to contact the current owner of the block, (through a couple of other people who owned it) and was ready to make a deal after he sent me better photos of the block. as well the production assembly stamp. It fell through due to logistical issues from covid.
I believe that somewhere along the line, the block had been sandblasted with a medium much too coarse and therefore took a lot of the detail out of the stamp, maybe to hide some suspicious work.. Nevertheless I am not interested in purchasing an expensive questionable numbers block, Too risky.
Thanks for the feedback

 

[arctoad]

Attached is another photo from a different angle. I have enhanced the lighting with Microsoft just to see a little more of the detail of the stamp.
I did not take these pictures. They were taken from the current or recent owner of the block.