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mg motor id

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: mg motor id
From: Johnmowog@aol.com
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 18:23:00 EDT
Lec089 correctly reminds me: ( I read the post a little carelessly!)
( I wrote)<< Your motor is a 3 main bearing motor from around 1963-64 
vintage.  >>
(He writes) :18G-WE-H-43400.
>The number of engines made at that time did not go up to 43400.
>They also did not have synchro which is what the WE states.
>It is more likely that the engine number is missing a letter
>after the G than for it to be earlier because of the two mentioned reasons

So now we have another mystery.What letter is missing? Pre-68 they didn't use 
the more than the U prefix, (or maybe also R?) since there was no full syncro 
or automatic.
 have an 18GK motor, which would be around 1969, on my scrap pile that has 
RWE as part of the prefix, R being overdrive, WE being center change full 
syncro, So it could be a post '67 motor with 2 letters missing from the plate.
By the time the 18V motor came along, the letter combinations were dropped 
for a combo number-letter set. According to my leyland factory MGB parts 
catalog at least, the allowable combinations for the 18v motor do not 
actually contain the We prefix but rather a code such as 581f,584z, etc...(18 
V581F L ### is the example they give)
For example the 584z would include Negative earth alternator, exhaust emision 
controls, pre-engaged starter, and center all syncro gear change. Further, 
the 18 no longer stands for 1800cc MG motor, but rather 1800cc Vertical 
in-line. Love that corporate stuff! The later 18V also had but a single row 
timing chain.
        So, unless there are numbers and letters missing from the plate, this 
motor a big a mystery according to what I have here, but the best guess would 
be from the production data listed would be that it would fall between '68 
and early '71. Of course engine plates can also be redone, and redone wrong.
Of course after all this effort it occurs to me that the presence (or lack 
there of) of a tach drive on the block will settle the whole discussion, no 
tach drive means it's a five main, and then you just have to see if the 
pre-engaged starter you have will line up properly in the starter mounting 
holes, which will at least tell you if the backing plate is post 67 (if it 
does.) At this point you could use the motor unmodified.
Anyone else have some references for this??

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