I'm trying to determine what car line an engine I have may have come from. It appears to be a 70 BBO both from the E code heads and the partial vin on the block but there are other conflicting clues as well. The partial vin on the block is 30M402183. The 0 should be from 70, the M means Lansing but what body had vins beginning with 4. The A bodies were 1, the Toronados were 6 (i believe) but what would this likely have been out of?

 

That's not a body style number. The last six digits of that number (402183) match the last six digits of the VIN of the car the engine was originally installed in. Those are the numbers that match in a "matching numbers" situation.


The numbers you are looking at (30M402183) together are called the VIN derivative, and I think you have deciphered it to the extent possible. It contains part of the VIN (division, model year, plant, serial number) but does not contain the series and style numbers.

 

Kaunty,


Thanks, I guess my phraseology may have been inaccurate. Let me try again. It was my understanding that the production sequence number - the last six digits of the vin number - had a different starting point for each of the body styles, A bodies, B bodies, Toronado, etc. The A's began at 100000, I believe that the Toronados started at 600000. My question really is, does anyone know which car line would have started with 400000?

 

I see what you're saying.


It appears that Oldsmobile did not start using this coding system until later. The 1970 Olds Chassis Service Manual does not have any information about the starting serial number for each of the model lines. The first service manual that shows any information like this is 1972, and it shows 100001 starting number for A-bodies at all plants, 400001 for B and C bodies at the Lansing plant but 100001 for the other plants. Toros started with 700001 that year.


If they were using the 400001 starting number in 1970 but just not documenting this in the manual, then the number on your engine would suggest that it originally came in an 88 or 98 built at Lansing. But this is just a guess.




From the '72 chassis service manual.

 

Jaunty,


Thanks for the additional info. From the leading zero and M it must have been from a Lansing built 70 car of some type. The exhaust manifolds had a crossover from the P side to the D side so it was single exhaust. It would seem most likely that, as you state, it was from an 88 or 98. Thanks again

 

1970 Lansing
Toronado had its own sequence numbers 600001+

everything else was using the 100001+ sequence range

 

I know that, for the '68 model year, Lansing A-body sequence numbers started with at least a 1, 2, or 3. My '68 Lansing A-body sequence number starts with a 3 and it is an early-April 1968 production.

Randy C.