Another Mystery 394

[Starfire61]

I recently looked at an interesting '62 Starfire coupe. The car was built in Southgate, CA & was extremely early production: Body #150, built in the second week of September, 1961. The car was originally Heather Mist with a white roof.

The engine number on the driver's head was N213396. No question about it. The passenger-side head was blank.

The engine was definitely '62 or older, & sported a correct 1962 PCV setup typical of many (or all?) California-built cars.

That number doesn't fit with any '59-64 394 codes. Could it be another service head perhaps? Any thoughts?

Chuck

[Guest Bob Call]

Chuck

My book says that your engine number starting with 2 is a Series 88 394 ci. The red color indicates it is a high compression engine, and, my book shows all 62 and 63 cars were standard with high compression (10.25 to 1) engines. The low compression engine (light green) was an option on the 62 Dynamic 88 and on the 63 Starfire.

You can check to see if this the correct engine for the car by the car serial number on the door hinge post. The first is the model year and then the engine code. For 61-63 model years code 2 = Series 88, code 5 = Series Super 88 and code 8 = Series 98.

[Starfire61]

Thanks for the input, Bob.

What's really throwing me is the "N" prefix.

According to the service manuals in my collection, the Starfire engines in '61-2 had a "G" prefix & an "S" suffix.

Skyrocket engines as found in the Super 88 & Ninety Eight had only the "G" prefix.

88 engines for these years had an "F" prefix, while the low-compression, green version also had an "L" suffix.

Furthermore, 1962 engine numbers began at 300001. The number on this particular engine is too low for 1962, yet the "N" prefix doesn't fit with any 1959-61 394 that's documented in the service manuals.

Chuck

[Guest Bob Call]

Chuck

The N prefix is a mystery top me. G and L prefixes are all I know about.