Engine #'s on Cadillac Engines

[Allan Paton]

Gentlemen,
When did Cadillac first start using/stamping engine #'s  on their engines. I had a potential vendor tell me regarding an engine for the 1967 Eldorado that there was no # for the car because they didn't put engine #'s on the cars in those days. This sounds unlikely
What is correct. Allan

[Tim Pawl CLC#4383]

Cadillac's have had engine numbers stamped on them since 1902.     The 1967 Eldorado number should be stamped on a pad at the right front of the engine just in front of the head (doing this from memory). I wrote an article on the various locations of the engine number stampings by year in The Self-Starter Magazine   , I believe it was May or June 2007.

[Glen]

My 68 ELDO has a replacement engine in it.  It has no number on it.  Nor does the transmission.  I believe the replacements came without numbers so the dealer could stamp the numbers on.   

Glen

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I am with Glen here,

From what I understand, when a replacement Block is purchased from a Dealer, it is unstamped, and as the normal thing when purchasing a Block, it was to replace a damaged Block from a car.

The New Block was then stamped with the same numbers that were stamped on the original Block, and then the old damaged block destroyed, as it would have been considered useless.

This simplifies the continuation of the Number, and also means that the Registration, Title and Insurance papers don't require altering.

I also believe that only "Certified Personnel" within a Dealership are authorised to apply these Stampings, and the vehicle records would be notorised as well.

I had in my possession a replacement BB Chev Block and that was completely free of any stampings, so when I put the engine into a road car, I had to make up a number that was nothing like a Chevrolet Number, to keep from having the possibility of Duplicate Numbers floating around the Computer Systems of the world.

Bruce.