MTFCA Forum

Can someone translate the engine date on this for me?

41495239

Thanks!

41,495,239 - Are you sure you don't have an extra digit inserted? The highest engine number called out in Bruce's book is 15,176,888.

Sorry, here was the pic

That's a body number, not an engine number; the engine number is stamped directly on the engine block. It looks like the date is April 1914; the remainder is the serial number.

Thanks guys!

Are you sure that is the engine number? It looks to be attached with pins or nails, perhaps to somewhere on the body? The engine number should be stamped on the block over the water inlet fitting on the left side of the engine. This is not always the original number either, because sometimes the number was ground off and the engine installed in a different car with a different number, or some after market blocks were manufactured without a number and were stamped with the number from the original block. You can look for casting numbers which are raised numbers cast into the block. These numbers will indicate what year the block was cast, but not always the number it was first installed in a car.
Norm

Yeah, I asked a seller for the engine number, that is what they sent me. I think they punched that out and fixed it over the engine where the real stamp would be. Thanks for telling me that’s a body number. I thought it looked strange too

But now that I look at it, that is the floorboard!

Here is the link to the engine serial numbers http://www.mtfca.com/encyclo/sernos.htm once you ID the year you can go to the HOME page and get for more info about the model year and differences. The engine number is above the water inlet. Get a picture of it for review by others - easy to stamp a 1 in front to make be another year.

Just for clarification what year is the T your looking at. But as others have said the engine number is on the block itself stamped over the water inlet. You probably know already but over time the engine number may not be the engine that came with the car. Most T engines would swap out and it was common to have a later engine in an earlier car. If your trying to buy it check to see if the current engine no. Is what’s on the title. Sometimes they don’t match.
Good luck.

It looks like the date is April 1914; the remainder is the serial number.

Would that remainder be the same as the engine serial number, or are the body numbers separate?

Seperate; AFAIK no one has developed a correlation between body assembly numbers and engine (chassis) numbers. Not certain you could, actually as the bodies arrived in groups from the maker to the assembly plant, so the numbers could be in any order as they were placed in the assembly line fixtures.

BODY number BODY number!
In the brass era, Ford did not build their own bodies. There were several different companies that supplied bodies to Ford those years. That steel plate is about one inch by six inches, and should be attached on the front seat riser or front floorboard sills. That particular style body number plate was used by Beaudette (otherwise sometimes called Pontiac in Ford's records), and maybe one or two other companies (still being researched?). Those numbers were used for bookkeeping and quality control, and have no other official value.
Before about 1926, the only place the engine serial number was put was on the engine itself. And it is the only serial number originally used for vehicle identification. Which created unanticipated problems when engines were replaced.

My 14 Touring has a Beaudette body number tag as described by Mr. Sheldon and similar to your body tag pictured. Interestingly my body tag is also a 4.14 date and my engine serial number is a build date of April 21, 1914. The kick panels on both my front and rear seats also have a "B" stamped in the top center of the sheet metal panels.

That tag is under the front seat where gas tank is. Sometimes that info was stamped into the wood, sometimes on a tag. Depends on who made body. Dan

Bmettli wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:31 pm

Can someone translate the engine date on this for me?
41495239
Thanks!

Think we all need to go back to the original question" "to date the engine" and to try and understand the intent of the question. Then Brian noted "Yeah, I asked a seller for the engine number, that is what they sent me". So we can assume that he is trying to authenticate the vehicle. As was pointed out, engines are often replaced so the engine number isn't always correct to the vehicles, the same is true for a title if it has one (that number may have been forced to meet state regulations and totally off). So best to get pictures of the T to understand what it is and for Brian to explain what he wants to verify; just the engine or the vehicle. Also what the seller claimed it to be

I asked a seller for the engine number, that is what they sent me.

As Frank says, those words suggest that this is a car Brian is considering buying. That the prospective seller thought the body number was the engine number implies unfamiliarity with Model T's. This may be one of those cases where the seller knows nothing about the car. Whether that's the case or not, I would want to see lots of detailed photos to identify what the vehicle actually is. Pristine survivor? Put-together parts salad? Fifty-year-old restoration? Pathetic money pit? Glorious beauty? All things are possible, so lots of good photos are a start. Once the car is identified, the next requirement for me would be a personal inspection by me or a friend who knows Model T's, or both. Buying a car without it is risky enough to be a bad idea.

AND if the seller is unfamiliar with T's it could be a scam. "Send me the money and I'll ship the car to you" - right! And if poor English is used like he said "Soon I will transport the shipment when monies are received quickly" <- scam

It's a body number from an April 1914 body...