MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - engine numbers 3

Just got back in town and found a little time to locate the sump numbers I recorded earlier when doing my engine rebuild. I found several numbers on the lower end including a few around the bearing caps, rear cork gasket groove. The ones that I found that were discussed earlier were from along the sump perimeter and read as follows:
96
14
60
E

This from a 1960 MGA roadster #89981, 1600 block
I hope this can be of some help to those trying to decipher the "code".I also took a few photos of them in case anyone wants more detail.
Ken Bowen

Many times people have asked how to tell if the engine that came with the car was original, and we have tried to match up the engine numbers approximately. It seems that this might be a closer match rather than the engine numbers on the plate. Any thoughts on this?
mike parker

Ken:

Thank you.

Members of the twin cam group are attempting to decipher these numbers. It has been generally agreed that the first number is from 1 to 100 and denotes the block (96) within a batch.

The second number, 14, denotes the batch.

The third number, 60 denotes the year.

We don't know the significance of the E, but one of my twin cam blocks has it. Other letters seen are M and G. But most of them are E. There's a good chance these are an inspector's or an acceptance stamp.

If there were enough batch numbers covering the entire year then one might be able to extrapolate the month and perhaps week a given block was assigned the numbers.

The other thing is the twin cam blocks had numbers assigned to the main bearing caps and also next to the caps on the block. These were sequential up about engine 2100 and then started over.

The only problem with any of these numbers, is the engine number was assigned as each one was pulled from a "pile". Thus the block numbers don't match the engine number.

Blake

Bullwinkle

Thanks for the info Blake. I would love to be able to confirm that these numbers are in fact the ones that came with the car. I have no reason to suspect that they are not but since the engine tag was missing when I bought the car two years ago it is impossible to verify.

I would love for some supernatural force to impart the actual engine number upon me so that I might feel whole again!! My only consolation is that I might not think of it so much when I finally get it running so I can enjoy the experience and not worry so much about the metal!

Ken
Ken

This thread was discussed between 08/01/2005 and 10/01/2005

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.