Early and very early cylinder head?

[Bertil]

Came across a early head serial no LP365 and dated may 16th 1963.

The other dont have a serial number. It has longer inlets and the crankcase ventilation "box" is not there. Can anybody tell what this head is about? Have found one more in the net in Australia but they also wonder what it is.

Both are for sale.View attachment 3View attachment 4View attachment 2View attachment 1

 

[Keith Halstead]

Looks like it may have come from a very early (Mid 63) car as the heads either side of it (364 & 366) went on two consecutive VINs according to the records.

 

[Bertil]

Keith,
Are you saying there are records of what engine that went into what car?

 

[Keith Halstead]

Keith,
Are you saying there are records of what engine that went into what car?

Yes they are held by the club if provided by the owner.

 

[Rick]

LP365 is not on the Register, it is also not on the Lotus Elan register, engines around that number were fitted to Elans in September 63, It may have been fitted to a Cortina but we don't have the car on the register, or the engine went into something else, maybe a 7 or a single seat.

 

[CNO510B]

You may find these two documents interesting.
Also this is a good read. https://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=3551

 

[Bertil]

Found an engine here today, block and head same number LP4040 what can be said about that?

 

[SilverSpur]

The engine in one of my cars also has matching numbers on the head and block
LP5623 is this unusual ?

 

[Bertil]

From what I have seen I should say it is quite rare yes.

 

[Andy M]

Hi All,

Having both matching head and block numbers is desirable and of course carries a slight premium, but with these cars back in the day engines were being swapped on a regular basis by the home mechanic.

So although nice to have it is not an essential MUST have with UK vehicles.

In the US however, matching numbers on any vehicle is everything and then some.
All component parts including dynamo's, heater matrix and lights etc it is essential they display the specific month and year code.
Therefore instead of junking a non running engine as you would in the UK (because there was an abundant supply of Elan's, Sevens and Kit cars using these engines) in the US it was repaired as opposed to being replaced or to use our cousins terminology "swapped out"!

Best regards

Andy M

 

[SilverSpur]

That’s interesting thanks .
I am not sure that the engine is the original to the car , nor does it matter to me . It is however an engine that has seen very little use ,still on a standard bore and standard crank size , what I guess would be called a survivor.