Engine Number

[Aaron IIA]

Earlier tonight I looked at a SIIa that is for sale. The engine number did not match what it should have been. Can anybody tell me when engine 231439xxC would have been produced, and what type of vehicle that it should have been fitted to?

Aaron.

[isuzurover]

According to this site: Land Rover, Range Rover chassis numbers - by Glencoyne 4x4 (Thetford)

231 (chassis number) should be a 109" one tonne 4-cyl. Have you found a one tonne???

[JDNSW]

I do not believe that engine numbers matched (even closely) chassis numbers after Series 2.

John

[Aaron IIA]

The number that I provided above is from a 2.25P engine, not a chassis. The vehicle is an 88" SIIa ex-army, hence how I know the engine is not original. The engine still has all the military features, but these may have been transferrred over. I was just wondering if there was any way of knowing what time period an engine came from, or what type of vehicle it was originally fitted to. I could not find the engine number listed anywhere on the REMLR ARN listings.

Aaron.

[B.S.F.]

I don't think 231 is a valid number.Have a look on this site.

Land Rover, Range Rover engine numbers - by Glencoyne 4x4 (Thetford)

[isuzurover]

I do not believe that engine numbers matched (even closely) chassis numbers after Series 2.

John

I have seen plenty where the first 3 digits of engine and chassis number matched.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

O.K. here goes:

• Prefix 231 is a valid number for 4 cylinder petrol 1 Ton models. (according to the SIIa parts catalogue with 1 Ton supplement. Part No. 608024 Jan 1972)
• Like earlier models after 1950 Series 2a engine numbers in RHD CKD used the same prefix as the RHD Home market model of the same specification (88, 109, 109 Sation Wagon, etc). e.g. my export model SIIB 331 prefix and my CKD SIIB 332 prefix both have 330 prefix (SIIB home market 2.6L) engine numbers.
• Engine number suffix don't always match the suffix of the chassis.

Hope this helps!

Diana

P.S. I wonder what happened to the vehicle the engine came out of?
P.P.S. Aaron - what do you refer to as military fittings on the engine?

Addit: I thought I would check my facts and it seems that the PMC Enfield plant were using 251 prefix (109 Home RHD) engines for all models 88 and 109 until they ran out of 251 engine numbers in 1965 - at which time they went to 252 prefix (109 Export RHD) this continued throughout 2 1/4P engines so by the late 1960s 253 prefix 109 chassis had 253 prefix engines.
2.6 engines started having the same 347 prefix as the chassis but reverted to the 345 (Home RHD 6cyl) prefix in Jan 1969 - the original practice quoted in the top section remained true for SII models.

[Yonks]

Hi Aaron, I'm pretty sure the 4th digit determes the year (applies to chassis and engine). So a 9 is 1959, 0=1960, 1=1961 etc. So a 1963 chassis may be fitted with a 1964 engine (or any other year). I'm not sure how long this logic was applied as obviously you would end up with a mess as the decades go by. So I'd suggest yours is a1964 engine.