[TJH]

I still haven't looked deeply into this on a car that I have, but I was wondering what the rest of you have found with respect to engine VIN stampings on Van Nuys, California-built 1971 Firebirds. On the Fremont, CA built GTO's, the plant used a much smaller font size for the stamping as compared to the other Pontiac A-body assembly plants, and the location that Fremont used was nowhere near the generally-accepted "correct" VIN stamp location (it is almost always up closer to the deck surface, instead of being next to the timing chain cover). I'm wondering if the Van Nuys plant did something similar, or did they use the standard font/size, and adhere to the official Pontiac VIN stamping location?
Any pictures or descriptions would be helpful. I know I had thought my Fremont 1970 455 GTO did NOT have the correct engine, until the engine was completely torn down and on an engine strand. ONLY then, could I actually see and make out the VIN stamping- it was THAT small, THAT light, and in THAT strange of a location. The engine is still in the T/A, and I would rather not have to pull it out to track this down. So, knowing what to look for, and where to look, would help a bunch. Obviously, this is my first Van Nuys (L-code VIN) F-body...

[68bird400HO]

I have two 1971 Van Nuys 455HOs. Both motors have the vin in the standard location. The font appears to be standard font (about half as big as the block code). Both of these cars were built in Nov-Dec 1970. I had a 1979 10th Anniversary TA that was a Van Nuys car. That motor had the vin stamped up by the head deck.

[TJH]

It sounds like Van Nuys used about the same method as I have seen from other assembly plants for the 1970 model year. I have a 1971 engine, that came out of an A-body built in Pontiac. That engine shows the VIN stamp with the exact same sized lettering as the engine MUN and manifest code- 1/4 inch. Almost every other engine I have seen had the VIN in a smaller font- generally about 1/8", but more like 3/32" for the Fremont cars.
This is interesting- it seems like I have stumbled onto another of the Pontiac production variability between plants and plant-specific processes or practices.