Why does a 71 camaro Title VIN have the letter Y as the 3rd digit instead of a number 3 or 4 which is engine code?

Sounds like that's probably a typo by the Dmv or the Vin verifier. And I'm assuming that the Y is on the pink slip??? Because that definitely can't be the 3rd digit on the Vin tags on the car! Are you looking at the title or the car? Unless your Vin tag on the car is worn down and you're reading a 4 as a Y. That happens sometimes. A 3 wouldn't look like a Y even if it's worn down. Besides, if someone was trying to screw you over... It would make absolutely no sense to try to pass off a 3 or 4 as a Y!?!? You're saying you bought that from ebay right? Have you seen the car yet? or have them send you a picture of the Vin plate off the car! Anyways, what really matters is that the Vin is period correct on the car itself. I wouldn't worry about one number being off on the pink slip. Because a typo on the pink slip can always be corrected. And it's pretty much next to impossible to find 2 of the same Vin sequences with one digit off. All you need to do is get it verified and turn it into the Dmv. Just get a new pink slip with the correct Vin, easy. A similar thing happened to me before when I bought one of my 60's mustangs. Actually on more than one occasion. One of them, I bought the ride with a "one off" typo like you're talking about, except it was with an "S" vs. "5"... Just got it verified, turned in the correction and got a new title. Now, the other time... It was the stupid verifier's mistake! I bought a project from out of state, so I had to get it verified... But the guy made typos in the Vin number AND the odometer reading!!! So when I got my pink slip, it was totally off. Went back to Dmv, and I got a (sober!)verifier that made the corrections and got it fixed. The Dmv's not really full of "the-cream-of-the-crop" personnel, know what I mean? hahaha Now, if it was more than one letter or number that don't match, then yeah maybe i'd be concerned... But a one digit typo on the pink is a common clerical error... I wouldn't be too worried about it. Typical letter or number errors usually include the letters I/i, O/o, or Q/q because of their similarity with 1 & 0. That's why they don't use them anymore, because the older cars had so many of these typos. Anyways, i wouldn't be too concerned about the typo. But like i said, i've had S&5 getting mixed up... And heard of Y&4 or D&0/8 getting confused also... I've heard of crazier mistakes by the Dmv... trust me! But it can be fixed. Well, hope that helps! ************************************************ "He who turns least wins." -Ross Bentley ************************************************

isnt the 8th digit the engine code?

No the 8th digit is not the engine code. The 3rd digit is. Anyways, if it's on title, it seems like it was human error at the DMV since on those old VIN tags the 4 looks like a Y. Should be easily corrected with another verification.