Help ID engine

[Ich bin ein E9er]

I spent a good part of this morning cleaning years of caked on oil and grease from my engine trying to locate the source of all the caked on oil. Looks like most of it is coming from the valve cover gasket and the lower timing cover near the timing chain adjuster boss. Anyway, ever since I got the car (about a month ago) I have been wondering which block is in my car. My car is a 70 2800cs but I was told the engine was a 3.0. So today while cleaning I found a couple of numbers that may be a clue. On the exhaust side of the block just above the A/C bracket “1259525” is cast into the block and on the same side just above the motor mount “9M 77” is cast. Do the numbers give any indication on the year and displacement of my engine?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[BlauMitWeiss]

Steve, the engine vin should be stamped on the block, above the starter motor, on the flat top of the cast iron. The number may or may not match your E9's vin number.

Kevin

Please see:

http://www.jaypix.com/files/engine.pdf

 

[Bill Riblett]

This reference would be a little more useful if the diagrams weren't upside down!

 

[Ich bin ein E9er]

I went back out this morning and climbed back into the engine bay (I just about had all the grime off my hands from yesterday) looking for more numbers, here is what I found. Stamped above the starter is “5085830”. If this a vin number my search shows that this block came out of a 530i manufactured in April of 1978. Can someone verify this?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[coupeking]

That is correct. The early 3.0 530i's had VIN numbers starting 50XXXXX. Not sure if it would be a US or Euro motor, and there may have been a difference in compression ratio between them, at 8.0:1 US vs 9.5:1 Euro.

 

[2275xxx]

This VIN is from a US 530i.

There has never been a 530 or 530i in Europe, with the exception of a handful of cars assembled by Motorsport, before the M535i was launched.

On special request they installed 3.0i or 3.3i engines in Euro-528i bodies, with 5-speed dogleg boxes, LSD, BBS 7x14 wheels and sometimes sport seats.

Very few of these cars survived.

[Broken External Image]:http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/1425/530i3aqh2.jpg

 

[BlauMitWeiss]

Well, I guess you know what it now is....

Please see for RealOem description of that vin:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do?vin=5085830&kind=P&arch=0


As far as the upside down photos, please know that no germans were actually involved in that malady, that document is from BMW NA.

Just in fun.

k (the self righteous german guy)

 

[Ich bin ein E9er]

Thanks for the help guys. At least now I know what I have under the hood. Well at least for the block. What about the head, are there numbers there that can be deciphered?

Steve