Numbers on exchange engines

[js]

Does anyone have any idea how to interpret the numbers starting with an S on the exchange engines often found in Fordsons?

[Brian]

There are no records available so the only method is to use the casting codes on the head and block.

[js]

Ok, thanks.

[Grani]

Does anyone have any idea how to interpret the numbers starting with an S on the exchange engines often found in Fordsons?

While I registerd I think this S number problem would be my first question, but You asked it allready.

[Brian]

Welcome Grani,

The problem is that the S numbered engines went into so many different applications with different ancillary equipment. They could have been fitted to an irrigation pump, a road roller or a combine as well as being sent out as a replacement on a tractor. Normally a tractor engine would have been serviced rather than a replacement unit. We built up engines from spare parts in our dealership. If you fitted a new block you would transfer the number from the old one.

The best way to date your engine is to get the date codes from the block and the one from the clutch housing and other parts. These will give you a guide to when the tractor was produced and when the engine was cast. It will give a close date but not exact.

[Grani]

Thank you for the ansver. I am familiar with the serialnumbers and castcodes on Fordson Majors, but are the castcodes the same for Thames Trader 590E engines? I have fev of those engines and two of them has the S number, but one of them has a castcode that seems to be casted many years after the production of the engines had ceaced. The castcode is 6K17 or 8K17. (the first digit is a bit fuzzy).
I understand the last one was buildt in 1965 but the code tell the date 17.9. 1966 or 1968.

[Brian]

The 1966 date is OK. The engines were still being built as industrial units at that time. Production also continued when the line was moved to Spain. Whole engines were being sold over here as replacements for the Super and other Majors all sourced from Spain.

[Grani]

Do the Spanisch 590E engines have some identification that it is made in Spain? For how long was the production in Spain?

[BarryM]

Grani & Brian,

Four cylinder engines that had numbers prefixed with the letter 'S' means that they left the factory as a Skid Unit. Engines that were reconditioned by the factory normally had the prefix 'R' or 'TR'. If they left the factory as a Skid Unit, it would be natural to assume they were for Industrial use.

As for the engines in Spain, they were built under license by Ebro, so they may have had Ebro markings instead of Ford markings on them.I think the Thames Trader engine was developed from the tractor engine rather than the other way around. The Thames Truck prior to the Trader series could be had with a V8 Petrol, a P6 Perkins, and towards the end the 4 cylinder Fordson Diesel.

[Brian]

Barry,
All the engines were developed together. The diesels and petrols that went into the tractor were also used in the Fordson ET6 lorry, with a few mods.

Fords made thousands of engines for other manufactures such as road rollers, generating plants, compressors etc. and these were the engines that had serial numbers starting with an "S". It was probably because the number would not be used as the serial number as in a tractor.

We did not get any Ford recon. engines here. These were all done by the dealers. The only people who got them as far as I know were the industrial boys but we "poor" tractor boys had to build our own from parts.

[Grani]

An interesting S engine has been dismantled by a member of the swedish forum. It looks on the outside like a -56 with the through block trottle linkage and an old model head, but the inside is a 63 Super Major with spigoted sleeves and double rubber seals. The block is casted 63. These don´t pop up every day.
It´s all written in swedish of course but the pics still tell´s
http://fordson.se/phpBB2/viewtopic.php? ... sc&start=0

[Brian]

There are a number of these engines appearing. I posted pictures of one in a Major at the Aston Bank show three years ago. No one seems to know much about them other than they might have been built for petrol applications where the governor is mounted in place of the fuel pump and the control rod goes through the block from the governor to the throttle butterfly.

As the block is the same and will take either petrol or diesel parts this would work. I think that they were also cast in Spain after production of the tractors were moved there in 1965.