JMP_blackfoot

For the British diesel aficionados, the following piece by Chris Escritt in the October 1988 issue of SAM 35 Speaks (UK) will probably be of interest:

Decoding engine numbers

Examples :
BC 1790/52 Mk1 Baby, N°1790, March 1952
BB 63/53 Mk1 Baby, N°63, February 1953
1K 1853/8 Mk1 Bee, N°1853, October 1948
1B 1580/51 Mk1 Bee, N°1580, February 1951
XD 41/4 Mk2 Bee, N°41, April 1954
ZE 261/4 Hornet, N°261, May 1954
RE 1190/51 Mk1 Racer, N°1190, May 1951
68/9 Mk3 Racer, Reed Valve, N°68, during 1959
D3 606/8 MkIII, N°606, April 1948
B 1324/8 MkII Pennyslot, N°1324, February 1948
K 8/50C MkII, plunger cut-out, N°8, November 1950
FC 311/8 Mk1 Fury, N°311, March 1958
4C 74/4 MkIV, N°74, March 1954

The explanations are as follows:

General
- The last digit (or two) as we all know by now is the year of manufacture
- The second letter is the month. A->M corresponding to January->December, with "I" ommitted to avoid confusion with numeral "1". "M" was also sometimes skipped in favor of "N" if there was insufficient space for the whole number or the curvature of the surface at that point was yoo severe to accept reasonable stamping depth on a wide space letter.
- First letters/digits are :
"B" for Baby
"1" for Bee (since it was originally known as the ED Mk1)
"Z" for Hornet as in Zzz-Zzz (was there a humorist at ED?)
"R" for Racer 2.46
"F" for Fury
"4" for the MkIV
"V" or "X" or "Y" for the Mk2 Bee - (but I don't see the logic of that either!)
- Second letter as numeral "3" for the MkIII
- No coding prefix for all the lovable MkII other than the first letter that only indicates the month. Being the first volume production engine from ED before the availability of other different capacity motors, the MkII remained in producttion throughout its life without a letter designation.

Anomalies:
Well there have to be don't there as life just wouldn't be natural!
- The Mk3 Reed valve Racer (green head) seems to have been an odd-ball. It was made in relatively small numbers and, I believe, only during the year 1959 when it was designated with nothing more than a batch number and that year of maunufacture. Anyway I've never seen one with more than a number so far. It's interesting to note here that the Mk1 Fury (green head) reed valve available from January 1958 was supposed to be the inspiration for the reed valve Racer owing to the outstanding running and starting qualities of the smaller motor. So if you're lucky enough to have one of each of these you certainly appear to have a brother and sister motor.
- I've seen a number of MkII motors with the letter "C" at the end like the one above. Did this indicate the plunger cut-out type of which so few were made?
- A number "1" appearing after the first letter on the Fury motors seems to have co-incided with the arrival of the stack-less Super-Fury (Mk2)
- There is little distinction between the 1940's and 1950's when stamped at the end of the engine code. You must have to know which decade they were made!
- Some time ago now I saw a Mk1 Racer 2.46 (webless) with no "R" prefix and the number "3" as the second digit after the month. Presumably this had been coded at the factory to reflect the fact that the engine was originally intended to be called the MkIII series 2. Was this a rarity I wonder, I've never seen another one, and now of course wish that I'd not let it go quite so easily!

I think more than this may be boring right now, there is plenty...I am curious though to know if anyone can add to (or substract from) this information? If nothing else I may have provoked a lot of peering at engine lugs and crankcases for those inexplicable exceptions that now become just a little more tantalising!

oldboy1966

I have two E.D diesels and would love to know what year they were made, am I right to assume it was 1950. Two ED Aero Engines 1G389/50 and

1D536/50 Kind Regards Oldboy