where is the number located? on one of the bolt on parts or on the block proper? if the block, WHERE on the block.
help us help you.
I have a number on my 400 - 81160125. What does it mean?
where is the number located? on one of the bolt on parts or on the block proper? if the block, WHERE on the block.
help us help you.
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Vladimir Lenin
Government schooling is about "the perfect organization of the hive."
H.H. Goddard, Human Efficiency (1920)
It's on the right-hand side deck face between #6 & #8 cylinders.
Just in case it helps, there is a fair amount of id info in the buicks.net shop...
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it's too many digits to be the casting number and a buick VIN would start with a 4.
IOW, i'm clueless here.
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Vladimir Lenin
Government schooling is about "the perfect organization of the hive."
H.H. Goddard, Human Efficiency (1920)
My thoughts exactly. The number doesn't make any sense. I'm sure it means something, I just don't know what. It's an original, un-touched engine and the number is stamped on the deck.
Johnny, the number would be easy to decode if the first 1 turns out to be an H. Some times the stampings have faint impressions. Too, if the block has been decked, the numbers can become obliterated.
8= model year-1968
H= Flint, Mich. plant (home plant)
160125= production sequence number of the original engine (and car). Beginning engine was 100001.
One question remains, the position of the number on the block matches for a 67 engine, but not for a 68. There are pictures of both in the Shop tab of this site under Identify your Buick Engine.
The engine production code number (in the form of AB123) should be nearby in the other gap between the plugs. If that number can be located, it will clear up the mystery.
The prefix number 4- (for Buick Division) on the engine serial number did not come into use until the early 70s. That was about the time the divisions really ramped up on supplying engines to the other GM brands.
What has been, can be again. (Bob Wills, 1942)
wasn't there a city coded to 'I' as well? it'd be a lot easier to confuse an 'I' for a '1' than for an 'H' to be mistaken that way.
of course, i have no idea where all of the buick blocks were built so that may be moot.
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Vladimir Lenin
Government schooling is about "the perfect organization of the hive."
H.H. Goddard, Human Efficiency (1920)
Bob, off-hand I would say no. I have seen reader reports where the letter "I" was used for the number "1" in VIN and serial numbers. This might have been done because an I would be harder to deface than a 1, or maybe somebody on the assembly line just didn't want to roll the die back around to 1? There was a year code assigned to the letter I - 1962.
Maybe this is going out on a limb to state, but it appears all Buick-design engines up to around 1980 were assembled in Flint regardless of where the car was built. Where the partial VIN was used as the engine serial number, we just don't see any variety in the H character like there is in the plant letter for the VIN of the entire car.
For some reason it seems that Buick did not perform super-critical tasks like engine assembly in the branch assembly plants. In all the years of old service bulletins, there is no mention of engine assembly troubles keyed to a particular plant like there was for body assembly problems.
What has been, can be again. (Bob Wills, 1942)
It gets better. The engine production code contains no numbers, only the letters 'PDR' (1968 430?), and is stamped on the OTHER side of the block! It's also near the back of the engine between #5 & #7 cylinders on the deck face. Does the 'R' stand for 'Replacement'? Is it possible the car was assembled during a year change and a 430 was put in instead of the 400 due to some unknown problem?
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