New Holden short motors

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gklS74076C4&NR=1

anyone know wot engine number these motors wought have had

  Thanks Rob

[Dr_Terry]

To my knowledge all motors sold through Holden spare parts, prior to 1970, had no engine numbers. It was up to the owner or the fitter to go to the pits (or similar) & get a new number stamped on the block.

I believe that the law changed in this regard & the engines had to be stamped before sale from 1970 onwards. This later type of replacement engine then had prefixes which differed from regular production.

This may be different from state to state.

Dr Terry

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Thanks Dr Terry

  Rob

[mcl1959]

These motors were stamped with what are now known as "police" numbers Before the RTA, engine numbers were stamped at your local station. Victorian cars were stamped VXXYYYYYP, New South Wales had NXXYYYYP etc
The XX is the year the block was stamped and the YYYY is a sequential number.

Ken

[Dr_Terry]

Ken,

That is what was supposed to happen, that is why the law was changed around 1970. Police numbers were usually stamped after fitting, not prior to sale at the spare parts outlet.

Police numbers are still used today, in the case of stolen or imported engines, in fact in any situation where there is an issue with the existing number.

The problem was that many owners (or fitters) used any number. Many, for convenience, just re-used their old one, which saved the need to inform the authorities after an engine swap. Others didn't bother using any number, just left them blank. After decades of this nonsense the RTA etc. had duplicate numbers appearing in their files, so something had to be done.

Dr Terry.

[Stewy]

That might explain why the FC wagon I purchased for parts in the end had a reasonable grey motor in it,(complete with speco rocker cover)
had no evidence of ever having any engine number stamped.
I am using it for bits as I have the original block with the correct engine number for FErgus and is repairable.
And if I ever needed to use this block I would stamp it with the number I would be replacing it with and make sure the other one was destroyed.

Cheers Stewy