401 V8 Engine Production Code

[variablepitch]

Saturday, I took my '60 out for a drive and was reading about engine production codes. It's easy to find them on the 401, and mine is clean enough to read. The motor number matches the VIN number of the car, and that's a good thing. The engine production code reads: "4G I (or 1)03020. Just curious if it means anything significant. So I guess it could read 4GI03020 or 4G103020. It's a Kansas City built Buick, I know that to be true, and it was sold new in Pendleton, Oregon. I gave the original license plate frames to the Centurion, he's riden in this '60. I enjoy reading this forum, the stories and tech advice is great!

[RivNut]

Take a look at this link. The 4 and the G are the only identifiers for your engine. I don't think anyone has yet to figure out what the other numbers are for. I know that my '63 and '64 Rivieras and the '66 engine on a stand have only three numbers after this code and as far as I know they're meaningless as far as ID'ing anything.

http://www.teambuick.com/reference/ident_engine_59-62.php

Ed

[variablepitch]

Thank you for the link, Ed! I wonder if it could be a sequential number of some sort...just guessing.

[RivNut]

I think the closest guess is that is has to do with shift work when the engine was built. Could be the mark of the guy who did the test run on the bench, but ????. I think that dates have been ruled out, but who knows. For years many guys have been trying to think this out and all they been able to come up with is a headache from thinking about it.

Ed