Engine numbers for factory replacement engines

[timdaw]

My 3rd series B20 has an unusual engine number of 0022. It is a shell bearing 4th series engine. It's known that the car had this engine already fitted by around 1960. I'm suspecting that the engine might be a factory replacement, perhaps done during the early life of the car. Can anyone shed some light on this unusual engine number please?

[chriswgawne]

I have a new unused 2.5l B20 cylinder head which is stamped B20*0012 and I have assumed it is a period  factory replacement.
Is it just your block stamped or are the heads stamper 0022 also?

[timdaw]

The cylinder heads only have 'B20' stamped on the front end facing the radiator. No number.

[chriswgawne]

Thats unusual to have nu numbers at all. The heads are usually stamped on the ends up behind the radiator together with a date.
Maybe your car had had a completely new engine from the factory in period?
The timing chain cover is also usually stamped as of course is the crankshaft.
Chris

[Zetaman]

I have been collecting engine numbers as part of my Aurelia Register activities and have something to add to the discussion, although not conclusive.

NON-STANDARD ENGINE NUMBERS

The following are the few non-standard numbers I have recorded. Some are likely mistakes made in locating the engine number & maybe casting numbers found on the engine.
Francesco Gandolfi offered some notes in an email, 22-23 Sept 2014:
"Not all engines went onto a car, maybe some were sent to dealers who had sold a car which quite quickly showed engine problems, & the original was replaced without this showing on the production records". FG also notes [some editing by PM]: "..Franco De Virgilio once told me that the replacement engines were not numbered at the factory& that this was not recorded in the Production documents as would have been a long & expensive procedure. When a dealer needed an engine to replace one which was too expensive to repair, he would inform the factory of the number of the engine to be replaced, & the new unit would have been engraved with the same number.  This however, was only in Italy, but I am positive that importers/distributors abroad kept a stock of spares." FG then agrees with me that numbers such as B20.0011 may have been stamped by the local distributor when a replacement engine was supplied under warranty.

[Zetaman]

I could not understand how to insert a table or an image in the text of the message.
I can see how to add the tags, but what then!? 
Can someone advise please!
Paul

[timdaw]

Thank you for that most interesting information Paul. It seems that the block was a factory supplied 4th series replacement then, and possibly cylinder heads too, since they have no number. The original engine would have been a series 3 so the crank must have also been replaced for the shell bearing block. So, as I suspected, possibly a factory replacement engine under warranty?

Chris: I checked the cylinder heads again and no number. Starngely, the timing cover has the chassis number stamped on it, if I am reading a photo from the rebuild correctly!

[chriswgawne]

Thats a bit odd Tim. I have never seen an engine stamoped anywhere with the chassis number of the car it was fitted to except in the case where someone in ignorance thought Lancia engine and chassis numbers coincided. So they restamped the engine to make it appear 'matching numbers'!
This was never actually the case with Aurelias back in the day.
Chris

[timdaw]

Yes Chris, of course I also thought that was strange as the numbers didn't correspond between chassis and engines. I can't be exactly sure of the number because it's not visible with the engine in the car...looks like 2857 to me, upside down, in the only photo I have of it?

[timdaw]

By the way Paul (Zetaman) there is no evidence in the history that the engine of 2857 was changed in the 1960's, as it says on your table, and the car may well have been imported a few years earlier and not registered until some years later. I've confirmed this with the previous owner who had the car for over 50 years...most of those years spent in a lockup garage, never being used.

[Zetaman]

Hi Tim,  I sent you a personal message, which included a query about Pininfarina numbers.  I could not enter an image into the message so here it is attached, to show where I think it is located on the right side of the boot, in front of the fuel tank.  This one is off a 2nd series.
Thanks for note about your car.

Paul