Engine s/n verification

[Rustyfe]

I recently purchased a tii engine s/n 5411123.  Trying to verify the number vintage.  Found a few casting numbers with 74 on intakes.  Any help appreciated.

thanks,

Rusty 

[bergie33]

That isn't a tii vin number.  Can you post a few pics of the engine and the vin where you got that number?  That's not even a 2002 vin at all.

[visionaut]

That block VIN matches a BMW 320i, USA manual produced Oct 1977…

[Conserv]

Rusty,

 

The block should have a casting date, likely one to four months before the original car’s October 1977 manufacturing date. Check the head’s type and casting date, as well, to see if it was originally a tii head. Most factory tii heads through U.S. VIN 2762372 were type 121 heads. From U.S. VIN 2762373 onward, tii’s had E12 heads.

 

Here’s an article that will help you find the block and head casting dates:

 

And, yes, many of the original tii bits — such as the aluminum runners, front engine covers, and injection pumps — will have casting dates as well. It sounds as if tii components were swapped onto an e21 block after the original block failed.

 

If you see 1974 casting dates on the four aluminum intake runners, dollars to doughnuts the tii equipment came off a 1974 tii…

 

If you show us a photo of the left side of the accumulator (plenum), to which those runners mount, we can see in a flash whether it’s a 1974 model year component.

 

Regards,

 

Steve