Hello,

Can anyone let me know how many digits should be in a vauxhall engine number? Are there just numbers or letters too??

We have a donor engine that is extremely rusty on the engine number side and can jut about make out a few digits. We thought we might have to call in Time Team at one point

We've taken a rubbing and think we know what it is but just need confirmation of the amount of digits plus if letters were used.


Cheers


G

If you're happy to wait til monday I'm picking up my 2ltr xe on saturday, so can have a look and let you know....

Andrew.

I've been informed for the J plate GSI engine we've got its gonna be along the lines of :

C20XE 123456

If you can confirm that it would be great.


Cheers


G

will do, will prob. be tuesday as monday bank holiday and i'm off to stoneleigh (unless you're there and fancy meeting up?)

Andrew.

i do remember hearing that c20xe is the correct engine code, will confirm.

A.

Mr G,

My engine is 20XE followed by 8 digits. i know anything marked c20xe is the later engine that used a cat.

hope this helps.

Andrew.

don't forget - they also made the x20 as well as the c20

the x20? any further info RobS?

I know they made 20xej and some other suffix no's, assumed these are all later / turbo'd cavaliers/calibra's didn't know of other prefixed engine no's for the 2ltr 16v xe (I'm talking early astra engine's which are the best - coscast heads etc.)

Andrew.

Thanks for that Andy, managed to find a westfield in the hall at stoneleigh with its bonnet off and would you believe it - it had a 2.0 16 vaux lump there for us to gander at.


Cheers


G

the x2.0xe is the ecotech engine
20xe is the redtop without cat(156)
c20xe is with cat(150bhp)

quote:

---

Thanks for that Andy, managed to find a westfield in the hall at stoneleigh with its bonnet off and would you believe it - it had a 2.0 16 vaux lump there for us to gander at.

---

i was told cosworth done the heads on some of the red-top engines and they are the ones they all want to get there hands on, im told if it was a cossie head on your red-top there was a stamp on the base of the head ,where the head meets the block in a place where it overlaps it and sticks out

Coscast (Cosworth manufactured) cylinder heads can be identified as follows:
Under number 2 exhaust port there is the 'Coscast' insignia (cant be seen with exhaust fitted) , and there isnt a core plug on the end of head (dizzy end) as there is on the the VX produced heads. The quick and easy way of telling....

HTH Stu.

The xe engine ive got in my mk is c20xe out of a early '94 astra gsi, and for some odd reason it's got a coscast head on it!.
The guy that i bought it off had the full history, and it had'nt been tampered with.
Figure that one out.
The only reason i can think of is, with the xe coming to the end of production they used heads that they had left...lucky for me!

Skippad, check THIS out....

(THIS is a link)

Cheers, Stu.

well i aint looked at mine yet but soon will.but is there any better performance from the concost head then???
Rescued attachment AUT_0341.JPG

no performance benifits really
the cast is better by cosworth, less likely to go pourous. as for tuning there aint a noticeable difference between the 2

stu16v was yours the one with the digidash ?? it didnt hve to bonnet up when i was looking around if it was.

In racing terms I've been told the early 20xe ones are better than the later c20xe ones because the bottom end is slightly lighter and they have forged pistons. this makes them better if the formula specifies use of standard engine parts, and they produced 5bhp more, don't know if this was due to the cat on the later engines making them lose 5bhp. you can identify the early 20xe blocks by a bit of diagonal webbing by the starter on the block that the later engines didn't have.

Andrew.

the cat held back the 5bhp difference

Nah me and Billy went on the Sunday Stu, by the time we got to the locost owners club up at the top of the arena everyone was jumping in and leaving..

The engine number on the gearbox mounting web really is mullered, i can just about make out a few numbers, its quite strange because if i remember rightly the numbers look home made with a centre punch anyway (going by the westfield xe installation we saw). Can someone confirm the number grouping ie C20XE then 3 digits space 3 digits space 2 digits???? Or via versa i.e 2 digits space 3 digits space 3 digits???? I know there are 8 digits in total after the C20XE part. Does the number on the side of the block (exhaust side at the bottom between 3 & 4 cylinder) have any relevance? i.e its something like 400045. I was presuming it does'nt - maybe just like a casting type like the ford 200 205 markings.

Any ideas appreciated.

Cheers


G

[Edited on 12/5/03 by Mr G]

Mine didn't look as if it had spaces in it, then again it was very grubby.

the other numbers won't the engine no, just casting or batch numbers. gm wouldn't be bothered to put the engine no in more than one place surely!

o you not have the registration document from the vehicle that donated the engine? otherwise find a knackered engine and 'borrow' it's engine no. we have a block that had a rod out the side of the block - that's never going to go anywhere!

you could grind the current number back and restamp another one?!

Andrew.

The Coscast heads flow better

Rgv stu, yes, it was the one with the digidash in
It all works, except the rev counter. I'm working on that bit at the mo....
I lifted the bonnet off a bit later on in the day.

Cheers, Stu.

have you got an oversize chassis ?? it seemed huuuge are you using the manta box then ?? or does the speedo sensor work on a ford box?

coscast heads do not really flow any better than the gm ones, they are better finished though

The rear of the chassis (the 'parallel' cab section) is +4 inches, tapering down to a standard sized nose (dont ask, it seemed the best idea at the time.....). The cab section is minus 3" in length (I'm a shortarse).
Digidash was a bit of a nightmare to begin with, but once I worked out WTF was going on, it was no probs. Most of the guage inputs are identical to 'normal' car guages (fuel, temp etc). But the speedo....
Initial experiment started by temporarily wiring up a sensor off a Cavalier TD (which also drives a cable) with the digidash and wiring up onto on the other halfs GTE and comparing readings, which were identical. Then I placed the sensor and dash into my Westfield using the original cable drive. The digidash was reading approx quarter of the correct speed!
So then I dissected the sensor, which is merely a hall effect sensor counting magnets. So in theory, all I had to do was to glue the correct amount of magnets onto a driveshaft and place the butchered sensor close by....just needed to find out how many. A friend made a little circuit board up with an LED, which we wired into the other halfs GTE to see how many pulses we had per wheel revolution, which turned out to be 32. Trouble was, one 'pulse' is created by the sensor 'seeing' a north and then a south pole of a magnet, which meant either a) I would need to stick 32 magnets 'on end' or b) stick 64 magnets on, with alternating north/south Even with tiny magnets, it would of been pretty impossible. But then I remembered that the prop is travelling 3.62 times faster than the prop..... So 18 magnets later, and just 4mph out at 70 mph and a proud owner of a digital dash for 20 quid (and a lot of pissing about).
P.s. they dont like water much, and will need sealing from the elements. After washing my car before Stoneleigh the dash packed up, but thankfully worked again after it dried. I have now sealed it.

HTH Stu.