70-71 6 cyl short block.?

A could be a 1970 199 or 71-79 258. The block casting number is 3218618, which is a 70-72 casting number, and could be a 70 199 (same block casting for 199 and 232, 66-70).

704A11:

7 = year code. Could be 65 or 74.

04 = April (4th month)

A = 1970 199 or 71-79 258 (or 60-65 195.6 L-head... obviously not that!)

11 = day of month

The engine code number isn't fool-proof, you have to do a little investigating. Since the casting number is a 70-72 number (as far as I know, it may have been used later though the sources I had said 70-72) the letter code seems to be out of place. Don't know if it was a mis-stamp (it happened, and with this one not being in-line with the other numbers it could be) or my source for the casting number was wrong on the years. No real way to tell. The only thing you can do is measure the stroke or get the number from the crankshaft.

Or better yet measure the block deck. I would really like to know if this is a short deck 65-70 or tall deck 71+ block. It can't be a 70-72 casting number as I have listed -- the block deck height changed by about 1/8" taller for 1971 to allow for the longer stroke of the 258. That's one reason the 199 was dropped -- the taller deck would have needed a longer rod to make a 199.