Thanks for the help guys. I think i got it figured out. The people over at the chevy talk forumn were alot of help too. Here's what I got.
The CE is for a dealer/warranty replacement. Nothing in the engine code gives you the displacement.

The first letter designates the GM division which produced the engine. C-Chevrolet, L-Oldsmobile, K-Cadillac, B-Buick and C-Pontiac. The second letter will designate the type of unit. E-Engine and T-Transmission. The following numder is for the model year "1" for 1971. The last five digits specify service replacement sequence number. The group of numbers to be used by Chevrolet munufacturing plant are as follows:
Flint motor plant (L-6 engines) 00001 to 19999
Flint V-8 engine plant 20000 to 49999
Tonowanda motor plant 50000 to 79999

So from this it looks like I have a 1971 chevy engine produced at the Tonowanda motor plant. The casting number tells me it's a 402, which I am told were still designated as 396's. The date code looks to be F1471 which i think translates to June-14-1971.

That solves that mystery. Once again thanks for all the help.