What is a ford engine with casting number d8ve-6015-asa?

With Ford, they began using this form of block casting in the late 1950's. They assigned each decade a letter which begins the casting number. 1950 began the coding with letter 'B'. Each subsequent decade received the following letter. The first number after the first letter is the year of that decade in which the part was modeled for.

This means that your block casting number D8VE-6015-ASA is for a:

D = 1970's

8= 1978

V = the model is a Lincoln

E = the part is an engine component (or, in this case, an engine)

6015 = it is an engine base assembly piece (or, again, the actual engine)

ASA = the engineering version

In conclusion, this casting number tells you that the part (the engine) is for a 1978 Lincoln Mark V continental. The engineering number tells us that it is a Ford 400 cu in, 6.6 L engine.