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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Engine numbers

My 1976 midget 1500 has the usual Triumph Engine.
The engine is not original and the number begins with the letters YC. I know that this is not an MG number and can only assume that it has come from one of the Triumph models.
I posted this on the Triumph BBS on 17th March but got no response.
Visiting their site is akin to walking the decks of the Marie Celeste.
Can anyone on the MG site shed some light on it?

Cheers, Dave
Penwithian

this comes up fairly often - have you done an archive search yet, the answer is in there somewhere I'm sure...
David Smith(davidDOTsmithATstonesDOTcom

Hi Dave, had a couple of Spitfires in the past (once strayed from MG don't know why!), but don't recognise the number. Traced this for you:

Front Wheel Drive Triumphs and 1500 rwd
Model Commission Body Engine Gearbox Diff
1300 (fwd) RD.....#DL ....RD RD RD
1300TC (fwd) RF.....#DL ....RD RF RD
1500 (fwd) WB/YB..#DL ....WB WB/YB WB/YB
1500 (rwd) YC.....#DL ....YB YC YC/YD DM
1500 (rwd) auto YC.....#DLA ....YB YC 009B DM
# = L for LHS, nothing for RHS

I suspect your engine is a Dolomite base, hope this helps the link is:

http://club.triumph.org.uk/prefix1.htm#Spitfire

Regards Simon.
S McGregor

Check out the table at http://www.triumphspitfire.com/enginenumbers.html

Now, related to this is the question of serial numbers.
Is there anywhere you can find out which year a certain engine (1500 in my case) was manufactured? Chassie numbers are easy to pinpoint a manufacturing date, but can I do this with the engine numbers.
I suspect my 1975 1500 has a newer engine (FP52280) but the only way to be sure seems to be to buy a hreitage certificate for 35 pounds and spending that money to get a cert that proves the enginge has been replaced is no fun..

//Erik
E Lindgren

Thanks Simon & Erik,
Yes, it looks as if it is a Dolomite engine, in that case does anybody know if it has the same specification as the 1500 fitted to the Midget?

Dave
Penwithian

Horler says
FP1 - Sep 74
FP5332 - Feb75
FP6458 - Mar75
FP59424 - Mar78
FP79144 - Dec79
so you can probably extrapolate or interpolate from this.
David Smith(davidDOTsmithATstonesDOTcom

This thread was discussed between 21/03/2008 and 22/03/2008

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.