where is the engine serial number?
 

i owned 1961 FHC 885020 for 34 years, sold it and it is now restored and in a private collection. in the late seventies i bought a spare engine transmission combination (3.8) from a man in Connecticut who was restoring an early 60s e-type but ran out of money. he was selling the car separately. the engine and transmission were completely dissembled and cleaned in boxes. i still have the engine and transmission and can't find the serial number on the engine block. if the car still exists, the owner might like to have the matching engine and transmission. is there a way to find the number on the block and match it to the car and search to see if it still exists?

serial number
 

additional info: there is a casting number on the side of the transmission "DA 15590" , don't see any other number on the transmission.

The engine number will be on the LH side of the block on the flat area above the oil filter. The same number should be on the head at the front vertical wall of the spark plug valley. The number should Rxxxx - 9 or 8.

Thanks, i will check both places. do you know the location on the transmission? thanks for your assistance....

Hi Mu2rick
I just reread my post and I messed up it should read:
The engine number will be on the RH side of the block on the flat area above the oil filter.

Believe it is on the trans cover but I'll confirm it tomorrow.

Gearbox # is stamped on a lug at the LH rear of the gearbox case and on the top cover. Prefix EB suffix JS.

You can't be sure what car these came from because Jaguar didn't alway go in sequence - body/engine/trans. You can make a guess but there is no guarantee.

Bob_s thanks for the excellent help. engine is R 3942-9, gear box is EB3054 JS, Do you know if there is a way to find the VIN that went with that engine? I have check xkedata.com with no results.

Hi Mu2rick,
The only ones who would have this info would be Jaguar Cars Archive and they will only confirm the info you send then from your car's data plate.

The closest I can find for your engine number is the it most likely came from a car around:
877071 to 877546 LH OTS or 885541 to 885620 LH FHC:
850357 to 850562 RH OTS or 860194 to 860530 RH FHC.
But as I said Jaguar didn't always go in order it could be several hundred off from these ranges.

But it looks like it should have been from a car that was dispatched around February 1962.

This info came from Dr. Thomas F. Haddock's book "The Early E-Type Production and Registration Handbook". Copyright 1994.

+1. Bob is perfectly correct on both the non-synchronicity of chassis & engine numbers (they weren't called VINs back then) and I can also confirm that Jaguar Australia, Jaguar UK and/or Jaguar Heritage Register use your car's chassis number or VIN to supply the "as manufactured" manifest of fitments, options etc. They will not supply that info to anyone other than the current owner and proof of ownership is required.

Regarding the non-sequential or non-synchronicity of chassis & engine numbers . . . In the late 70s, I had occasion to meet up with the identical twin to our '64 Series1 FHC. Ours came via Melbourne port while its twin came into Sydney 2 days later on the same ship. The colours were identical (OEW with RED trim); the chassis numbers were sequential; but even though both carried 4.2L engines, the engine numbers were nearly 100 apart, and . . . the newer car (ours, by 1) had the older engine (by 100)!!!

Cheers.
:icon_beerchug:
Ken

XKE engine R 3942-9, gearbox EB3054-JS
 

thanks again to both of you! It would appear then, that it will not be possible to match the engine - gearbox back to the original chassis, unfortunate. Bob_s thanks for looking this up, i have heard of Haddock's book but do not have access to it. I do miss my '61 FHC but it has a new home in the Netherlands and a happy owner, so all is good in XKE land.

Rick

Hi Mu2rich,
So your car 885020 was the last of the LHD OBL FHC. A very rare car. I hoped you enjoyed it before selling it. How long did you own it. Can you shed any light on it's history? Always interested in the early cars. At one point I had a Sept 61 flat floor roadster that I had to sell many years (20+) ago to pay-off some bills. I'm sorry I did that.