Thank you for your patience and your answers. I am a GM person and the Dodge world is a little new to me. I have a 70 Chevy truck that I am restoring and am going to have to take it off the road for a bit and needed something to drive and wanted something I could work on myself - brought home a 72 Dart.

Has set for a long time - original paint - very little rust - 225(I believe) - automatic

I believe at some point the engine has been swapped or gone through. It has been painted - gaskets and all.

Started an all of the "get it on the road" things - tires/brakes/fuel system/cooling system - even got the choke working

Running fairly well - not great when hot - so I decided to tune it up.

I read about the tubes on the older engines and pulled the dist cap and saw I have points and assumed I have a pre 74 engine - I know there are no guarantees

Pulled the first plug and discovered it was not what I bought. It was an Autolite 25, not a 66. I did not have a crush washer on it. I do not believe it has tubes. I can't feel them - my pinky just feels threads - and I cannot see one. I scratched around - lots of paint, they laid it on thick.

My questions:

How do I date my block? Where would the #s be?

I know they may have swapped out the engine and left the old points for ease, but that does not make sense to me. Have done enough old cars to know not everything makes sense......

Why do the newer style plugs that I removed not have crush washers?

Which plugs should I use?

Is there a chance they removed the tubes? Do I need to replace them?

No, it is not leaking oil around the plugs.

The 66s are longer at the diode end.

Do I leave the crush washers on?

Not interested in a long discussion about plug brands.

Again, thank you for your patience and answers.

Welcome!

Heads and ignitions can be mixed and matched, so dating the block won't necessarily tell you what head you have on it. At the passenger side, just behind the alternator, there's a small part of the block that sticks out. This pad, on the surface facing the hood (same surface that mates to the head), has the date code info on it. If the engine's been rebuilt and the block surface shaved for cleanup / compression the numbers may very well have been wiped.

Tubes... you mean the sparkplug hole tubes? Check thispic out. The top head is the later, no plug tube, taper seat plug (that uses no washer). The bottom head is a tube head with the tubes removed.

The sparkplugs you buy at the store for the early head still come with the washer and should be cut off.

After a quick googling - autolite 25 is the plug for the later taper seat head that comes with no washer. Autolite 66 is the plug for the earlier tube style head that comes with a washer but should be removed before installation.

Thank you - it's the pic that did the trick

I do have a later style head - hence the later style plugs

I did understand they were from a later head, just not sure they were the right plugs for my head or which head I had.

So no crush washers on the newer plugs either? Interesting

Thank you for you quick reply and helpful info. I am sure I will have more as I dig into it. At this point I think it just needs to get on the road and see what breaks next.............

There is nothing tougher on any vehicle than setting. Best thing I ever did for my truck was put it on the road

Thanks again

Nope no washers on the late (or early!) plug. On the early plugs with the tube - those are made of soft thin aluminum that does the sealing for you

On the later plugs ... follow the thread upwards. Where the threads stop and the cylindrical part of the body starts, there is a bevel. This bevel is what seats against the head, commonly called "taper seat" plugs