Ron,
Thanks to you for the info, and to Dick Barker for pointing me to a very
interesting and informative article titled "Alphabet Soup - What's it All
About Alphi?" by Norm Miller that he wrote for his erstwhile Tiger Press.
Through persistence and a liberal dose of good luck, Norm was able to get in
touch with an old Ford Industrial Division employee, one Hector Serrano, who
explained to him, among other interesting facts, what the suffice means,
which is the assembly date of the engine, and how to decipher it. The
numbers 0-12 correspond to the letters, M,G,B,L,A,C,K,H,T,R,S,E,F,
respectively. Hence, as Ron says, F21KA signifies an engine assembly date of
Dec. 21, 1964.
According to Norm, these numbers are indeed Ford originated numbers, not
Rootes numbers, but in a special arcane format used by the Industrial
Division. However Ron, you upset the logic of the story by saying your
engine has a build date of 1/16/65, but a Rootes engine code build date of
12/21/64. Now, I would speculate that there are really two 'build' or
'assembly' dates - that for the bare engine, and another for the final
assembly with accessories, as ordered by Rootes or whomever. But if this
were the case, the dates seem to be reversed. I don't suppose there is any
chance that your engine isn't original? Naw, I didn't think so. So maybe
there are still a few things for our inquiring minds yet to be revealed.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tigers@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-tigers@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Ron Fraser
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 1:22 PM
To: 'Steve Laifman'
Cc: 'Tiger List'
Subject: RE: Engine Date Code
Steve and all
I made a typo with my response. "Sorry about that ....."
F21KA = 12/21/64 according to the decode I have.
I'm not sure the Rootes engine numbers has much to do with the Ford numbers
and the Rootes numbers are definitely not in the same format as the Ford
numbers.
My 260 was cast 4F27 = June 27,1964; build date 5A16B = Jan 16, 1965; Rootes
engine code F21KA = 12/21/64
F21KA shows up in TBON in March 1965 build date and mostly ends Oct 1965
with a few into Dec 1965.
It would seem to me that the Rootes engine number code has something to do
with the Rootes Purchase order for, or the Ship load, of the engines
received, but I can only venture a best guess. :)
Ron Fraser
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