Block ID 1300 vs 1500?

MikeHynes

MikeHynes

True Classic
I should probably let it lie, but - oh well.

Apologies to Nate for drifting off of topic on his '86 X for sale thread. (BTW - '86 is a very good year, IMHO, because it's got the good stuff on it, and it doesn't have the plastic door guards. GLWTS - it looks like a good deal to me.)

Anyway...
I've currently got three engines in the prep stage so pics were pretty easy to get. Therefore I'll post some pics. :)
P1050195.JPG
No mistake - this is a 1300 block. Looks like the part number, or casting number, is 4321056.
P1050207.JPG
The numbers stamped next to the thermostat confirm it's a 1300. 128A1.040
I'm not sure what the 2162797 number is, maybe the car's serial number?
The 4311 number is stamped on the main caps so it's easy to keep them with the correct block.
P1050199.JPG
This is another 1300 block. Looks like the part number, or casting number, is 4390368.
P1050201.JPG
The numbers stamped next to the thermostat confirm it's a 1300. 128A1.040
I'm not sure what the 6203426 number is, maybe the car's serial number?
P1050202.JPG
This is another 1300 block. Looks like the part number, or casting number, is 4390368 too.
P1050204.JPG
The numbers stamped next to the thermostat confirm it's a 1300. 128A1.040
I'm not sure what the 3155801 number is, maybe the car's serial number?

I'll stamp the numbers that are on the main caps on these last two blocks before I finish them because that's a good method to ID each engine.
 
I believe the numbers stamped under the 128A1.040 are indeed the vehicle serial number or VIN. Mine matches the body stampings.
 
How high did the VIN numbers go? I thought they only made about 165,000 X1/9s. I've got my original 1300 in the basement. I think I'll see if it has a number matching my VIN.
 
MikeHynes said:
I should probably let it lie, but - oh well.

Apologies to Nate for drifting off of topic on his '86 X for sale thread. (BTW - '86 is a very good year, IMHO, because it's got the good stuff on it, and it doesn't have the plastic door guards. GLWTS - it looks like a good deal to me.)

Anyway...
I've currently got three engines in the prep stage so pics were pretty easy to get. Therefore I'll post some pics. :)
View attachment 28297
No mistake - this is a 1300 block. Looks like the part number, or casting number, is 4321056.
View attachment 28302
The numbers stamped next to the thermostat confirm it's a 1300. 128A1.040
I'm not sure what the 2162797 number is, maybe the car's serial number?
The 4311 number is stamped on the main caps so it's easy to keep them with the correct block.
View attachment 28298
This is another 1300 block. Looks like the part number, or casting number, is 4390368.
View attachment 28299
The numbers stamped next to the thermostat confirm it's a 1300. 128A1.040
I'm not sure what the 6203426 number is, maybe the car's serial number?
View attachment 28300
This is another 1300 block. Looks like the part number, or casting number, is 4390368 too.
View attachment 28301
The numbers stamped next to the thermostat confirm it's a 1300. 128A1.040
I'm not sure what the 3155801 number is, maybe the car's serial number?

I'll stamp the numbers that are on the main caps on these last two blocks before I finish them because that's a good method to ID each engine.
Click to expand...

I think this is a good thread and worth putting out there. I certainly learned something.
 
I believe the stamped numbers are the "engine" serial number rather than the chassis serial number. In many cases that may be one and the same, but not always. Some manufacturers did not bother to keep the engines and chassis together during assembly, others did. Especially in later years of a given production run as things got more and more out of sync the two could easily be different. However I don't know how the later Bertone manufactured/assembled ones went, could have been better or worse in this respect. And these are general comments for most vehicles of that era, not necessarily specific to Fiat's or the X1/9. I'll be interested to learn more on this.
 
Mike,

In Nate's FS&W you said you have been collecting 1300s for quite a while. "Collecting" infers you may need more.
 
JimD said:
Mike,

In Nate's FS&W you said you have been collecting 1300s for quite a while. "Collecting" infers you may need more.
Click to expand...
Jim,
OK, I probably should have said I was collecting. I think I now have a lifetime supply. They are not hard to find.
 
The two or three pix that I have that can be enlarged to see some of the stamped numbers on the back of the block on my early '86 (10 bolt head VIN 157161) show the top row as "13XBS X31" and the second row as "56224XX" with the X being a number I can't read in the pic.

My understanding is that what looks like serial numbers stamped in that second row are not supposed to match the vehicle VIN. Given that FIAT made millions of SOHC engines for the many cars it used them in, more likely that's just an engine production sequence number. Perhaps there were records of which engine number landed in which car? IIRC not too long ago someone posted pix of what we used to call IBM punch cards that associated an engine number to a particular car.
 
Last edited:
MikeHynes said:
Jim,
OK, I probably should have said I was collecting. I think I now have a lifetime supply. They are not hard to find.
Click to expand...

OK Mike, I guess that one in the corner of my garage can stay there a while longer. I was thinking I might sneak it over the state line and put it in your mailbox. :)
 
Jim I tried to do something similar with a 1300 block I had laying around last summer. Even offered to deliver it to the track. Makes me wonder how many 1300 blocks he really has? :rolleyes:
 
bg82x said:
Jim I tried to do something similar with a 1300 block I had laying around last summer. Even offered to deliver it to the track. Makes me wonder how many 1300 blocks he really has? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Not counting the engines currently installed in cars I have an even dozen. But, I'm not crazy, I have fewer 1500s so that proves I'm not nuts or anything like that.
 
Dan Sarandrea (Phila) said:
IIRC not too long ago someone posted pix of what we used to call IBM punch cards that associated an engine number to a particular car.
Click to expand...
Also known as Hollerith cards for the inventor. When I was taking computer science classes at college, I sometimes waited hours to get on a card punch machine to assemble a deck for submission to the IBM 370 batch input queue. Usually there was a typo or some other problem that you found out about hours later when the job came out and you had to start over again. I've also got an old British time clock that uses Hollerith cards to stamp the worker's in/out time on.
 
MikeHynes said:
Not counting the engines currently installed in cars I have an even dozen. But, I'm not crazy, I have fewer 1500s so that proves I'm not nuts or anything like that.
Click to expand...
So, I guess you need more cars to go with the extra engines? ;)
 
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