MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGB Technical - Help me to identify my engine number

Hi,
I am facing a tricky problem with the identification of my engine - I actually is a rebuild motor (painted in gold) but the engine number correspond to nothing I know : it is BHM1087-785E
I really don't know where this identification comes from. Moreover, I've noticed a fuel pump on the left side of the motor that is of course unplugged. It seems to be a 3 main bearing engine, that is strange because my car is dated of 1971 - Does anyone knows where this engine number comes from ?
HEre's the other information I've found on the right side of the engine :
D13F9
12H3503 NV
1509 2
WYF

Any help will be welcome !
LM max

I have the same three letters on an A series engine .

According to British Motor Heritage archives,

BHM at the start denotes a "Factory Replacement" unit(New)

According to information from Gaydon, this ident was used to prevent confusion between "Gold Seal" engines which were "factory Reconditioned" rather then a brand new replacement.

HTH.

Mal.
malcolm watson

BHM1087 isn't an MGB replacement engine according to Clausager. Chronologically it dates to between September 74 and August 75, the correct MGB replacement engines for those periods would have been BHM1074 or BHM1105. Before that they had a 48G prefix, a 71 for France should have had a 48G 736. It probably comes from a Marina or Sherpa van. I can't recall an electric fuel pump on my Marina. I would be very surprised if 3-main engines were still being made for Marina and Sherpa use at either of those periods, and in fact 12H3503 is the pattern number for a five-bearing block.

My roadster has a correct 'factory replacement' engine prefix and is painted gold just like yours, which seems to go against what Mal says about the difference between 'factory replacement' and Gold Seal engines, and I don't see why a brand-new factory engine, as opposed to a rebuilt unit which were often better, wouldn't have the same engine number prefix as an original. If the engine number is put on the block when it is made I can't see them changing it just because it wasn't used on the line in a new car.
Paul Hunt

First and foremost, thank you for your answers. As Paul, I think it may be an Austin Marina five-bearing block. According to their site (http://www.austinmarina.com), there is an AC mechanical fuel pump on the side of the block and the reference correspond (12H3503) to austin block. I have found a documentation from http://www.mgcars.org.uk/ that confirms these block has also been used on MGs. My motor is certainly a rebuilt motor (external block from Austin but with an internal mechanic of MGB). Even if the marina block only is a 65.8 horsepower, and as my car is really running fast, I think I do have a MGB GT internal mechanic.

I still haven't found anything about BHM1087 block, but I assume I can order parts to Moss as if it was a 5-bearing block for a mgb roadster.

Thanks again for your help,
Kind regards,
Max.
LM max

This thread was discussed between 18/10/2004 and 20/10/2004

MG MGB Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGB Technical BBS is active now.