Earlies date for 3964291 L78/L72 heads?

[Jeff H]

A guy in our club has a set of 3964291 heads that look like they are dated K288. I didn't think those heads became available until Mar-Apr 69 time frame. He has them listed on Ebay but I couldn't give him a good idea of value since the dates seemed too early. Those couldn't be 1978 dated heads could they? What is the earliest known date for the 291 heads?

[mockingbird812]

Colvin's shows it as a 1969 application and states: "this was the last closed chamber square port cast iron head produced. It was produced in both plug designs (N & peanut) for service replacement, including 1965-1969 model years. Casting symbol is a single hump."

[COPO]

Quite often an "8" and a "9" look extremely similar on casting dates for heads, blocks, waterpumps, etc. I would say it is a "9".

[Jeff H]

That's what I told him but it looks like an '8'.
http://i2.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/fb/10/b728_1.JPG

[Mr70]

Have him do a pencil tracing.

[Rixls6]

I saw the ad for these on Ebay. This is the 3rd set of this style '291' head I've seen. I think these must be '78 or maybe even (though doubtful) `88 castings.
I saw a set like these that had a casting date something like 'E080' which would not be 1970, as those 70 dated heads had 70 as their casting date, not just an 0 for the year.
Hope I haven't confused the situation.
Notice the 'CFD" that is not on the original style 69 thru 75 castings. Also the casting number '3964291' looks completely different than the early design.

[John Brown]

Maybe they aren't K 28 8, but really K 2 88 instead. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

[bigchevydaddy]

Are they big or small sparkplug? Wouldn't the small 'peanut' plugs mean a later manufacture date?

[Jeff H]

Yeah, that "CFD" looked odd to me. Thanks for all the suggestions. I really think they are later dated 291 heads and not late 68/early 69 heads.