TR2/3/3A Locating Original Motor

[frankfast]

I've confirmed that my car does not have the original engine through the Heritage Trust. Knowing that many of us are running motors not original to our cars, I wonder if anyone has been lucky enough or successful in locating their original engines by posting the numbers online or by any other means. I'd love to find the original motor to my car if it still exists.

 

[glemon]

You might have a chance through forums like this or Vintage Triumph Register, but probably a pretty slim one. If it survived, and if someone happens to see that you are looking for the motor, and if they then care enough to dig through their parts stash and see if they have it, and if they want to sell it. But it doesn't hurt to try, post the number to as many British car clubs and forums and see what you get.

Of course if you have any ownership history records that would be your best bet.

 

[Geo Hahn]

It is certainly a long shot. I keep quite a few parts and so do many here -- but an extra engine block is not something most people will hang onto for long.

I recognize the appeal of the original engine but FWIW - if the non-original engine in yours is a TR3A engine with a higher number than the car I beleive it would be accepted w/o penalty in a concours judging. From the TRA Judging Standards & Restoration Guidelines:

Engine Block Number. The engine number is stamped on a flat surface on the left-hand-side of the engine. This is
just below the #3 spark plug, at the rear of the coil mounting bracket. Since more engines were made for use
outside the TR line, the engine number in a car should be greater than the commission number of the car. See
"Underhood - Engine" for judging guideline.

and...

Engine Production. Some TR engines were used outside the TR line (Doretti and Morgan); therefore, the engine
number in a TR should be equal to or greater than the commission number of the car. Beyond that, sufficient car
build records are not available for precise identification of engine numbers at model break points. During TR2
production, information available indicates that roughly 500 additional engines were built. After TR2 production,
records are lacking and information so inconsistent it is difficult to provide estimates.

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

I agree, I don't think it's essential in an old British Sportscar to have the original engine like it would be for a 50/60/70 American muscle car. It's nice though if it is the original...but, I don't think it should hurt the value.

Cheers
Tush

 

[frankfast]

The engine in my car predates the commission number by more than three thousand units and may have been used around the transition from the '59 to '60 model years. I'm not interested in having the original engine for concourse judging or for sake of originality. I don't think that some of the panels on my car are part of the original. I'm more curious that the engine block is sitting in someones garage unused. I would then try to get it.

So here it it - TS/68131-E I may have a better chance at winning the Powerball.

 

[Geo Hahn]

I agree, I don't think it's essential in an old British Sportscar to have the original engine like it would be for a 50/60/70 American muscle car...

Or perhaps an E-Type - where the original engine number is stamped on the same data plate as the commission number for all the world to see.

 

[CJD]

Most of the unoriginal motors being run are donations from cars that were totalled and parted out. Frequently it is much cheaper to buy a used motor from a wreck than to rebuild a blown motor. If your motor was bad enough to remove at some point...there is little chance that it was ever rebuilt.

But, you never know?!?

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

Or perhaps an E-Type - where the original engine number is stamped on the same data plate as the commission number for all the world to see.

Yes, I was a little too generic there with my comment I was thinking more along the Triumph/MG line. If I owned an old Aston, I'd want to make sure it was numbers matching....

Cheers
Tush

 

[Sarastro]

I have a '67 Porsche 912. There's a big premium on matching numbers in early Porsches--I can't see why, but it makes a few thousand in the value. The whole thing is pretty silly, when you start thinking about what it means. You can replace everything except the one small piece of the engine case that has the number on it, and it's "original." Even if it has been significantly modified, with oversize cylinders and the like. Conversely, there have been cars that received a replacement engine very early in their lives--sometimes the serial number was restamped, sometimes not. So, one is original, and the other, with exactly the same history, is not. And, in the end, absolutely none of this is relevant to anything real about the car.

My own 912 has a dead stock engine but no serial number, indicating that the engine was rebuilt, at one point, with a factory engine case. I'm just as happy that way, not to have to deal with the "matching numbers" silliness.

I don't mean to criticize your desire for an original engine. But I would like to make the point that the car will be absolutely no different with a well tuned, nonoriginal power plant, and you should enjoy it just as much.

 

[frankfast]

And I do. I have no interest in improving the value of the car because of "originality". As a matter of fact I've changed a few things lately that would modify a very original example of a TR3. I was interested in rebuilding a motor starting with a bare engine block and why not the original if it is laying in someones garage somewhere being unused. Chances are that it has been turned into scrap or better yet, it is running in some other TR. "Originality" was and is never my purpose.