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MG MG Y Type - Identifying Y-Types

I recently obtained a list of all MG's registered in the state of Ohio. The pertinent information for each car consists of VIN, year, license number, etc.

Many of the records, particularly the older records (before 1960) do not seem to be correct. In Ohio, if a car is rescued from a barn or scrapyard and restored, it must be inspected by the Highway Patrol and the VIN must be verified. Many of these old cars do not have the car number plate that was originally attached at Abingdon. In this case, the Highway Patrol uses the engine number in place of the original car number. Therein lies the rub. Many of the cars listed from the forties and early fifties have VIN's that begin with XPAG or XPEG.

I have an MGB, so I know the car number prefixes that correspond to those cars. I have found the correct prefixes for modern Midgets, MGC's, MGA's and T-series.

I know that the Y-types were contemporaries of the TC and TD. I believe that they used the same engines as the T's, so I can't differentiate between the T's and the Y's in the list. I was hoping that someone on this list could help answer a couple of questions.

Did the Y-types, in fact, use the same engines as the TC's and TD's?

What years were the Y-types produced?

What is the proper car number prefix for a Y-type and can it be used to differentiate between a YA, YB and YT?

Were there any Y-type variations other than the YA, YB and YT?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer.
Paul Noble

Answers as far as possible.

There are no records of 'Y' from production, as they were all destroyed in the 1950's. So MG cannot verify any 'Y' type data. John Lawson of the UK 'Y' Register does have a full production list, with chassis numbers and dates of when the car left the production line.

The engine in the 'YA' is a XPAG/SC. The SC stands for single carburetter. The TD uses the 'Y' engine and chassis, not the other way around. ( 'Y' is from 1947, the TD from 1949.) the 'YB' uses a XPAG/SC2. The YT right hand drive uses a XPAG/TR, the 'YT' left hand drive uses a XPAG/TL. Basically, the 'Y's use a single carburetter version of the TC, except that the YT has twin carburetters.

YA- 1947 to 1951
YT- 1948-1950
YB- 1952-1953

YA has just a letter 'Y' prefix to its chassis number.
YB has the prefix 'YB'. ( The YA was only called that after the YB arrived.)
YT has the prefix 'YT'.

Only these three versions were made.

I intend to make up a file of John Lawsons data. It will take a few weeks. Give me an email in about a months time and I will send it to you.

Neil.
Neil Cairns

Thanks, Neil. That's exactly what I was looking for.
Paul Noble

You may or may not know that the chassis no.(VIN) was stamped onto the outside of the left hand front chassis rail extension (the bit that the bumper mounts to). Could this be used for I.D. purposes. (You should be able to buy a repro I.D. plate and have it stamped up, if yours is missing.)

Also, it was common practise when the engine was tired to just swap it for another from a scrapped car. Therefore, the engine in your car may not tie up with the correct chassis no. if you try to find it in production lists.

Just a couple of thoughts that might help.
Bob Simpson

Bob,

Thanks, but I'm not looking at any actual cars. I have a list from the state of all MG's registered in the state. The only way to identify which model of MG it is, is by using the car number. Some of the cars, especially the older ones that may have been restored from a relic found in a barn, obviously did not have the car number plate. In this case, the Highway Patrol uses the engine number in place of the car number.

I'm trying to "fix up" the list and distinguish between Y-types and T-types, which are of the same vintage and shared engines.
Paul Noble

Note that the 'Y'and the 'T' types used the Morris 'X' series engine of 1250cc, both models ran a separate engine number list. IE you can get a 'T' and a 'Y'with what apparently appears to be the same engine number. The differing item will be the engines prefix, ( ie SC, TL, TR, or SC2 for the 'Y', or , TC, TDC, TD2, TD3, or TF for a Midget.

If the engine plate is missing, the original blocks number will be stamped into the cast iron just above it. This is where the problem arises, as if you have an ex-'Y' type cylinder block in a Midget, the prefix is missing, so it is possible to get two cars with the same engine number!! ( One ex 'Y' and the other ex 'T'. ) In the UK there was another parallel numbering system, that of the XPAW Wolseley engines, identical to the 'Y' SC2, and the block identical to the later TD and TF engines. So if by pure chance someone has used an engine in a 'T' type from a 'Y' type, and another a block from a 4/44, you can have THREE engines with apparently the same number if the brass plaques are missing, and you use the stamped in number above the little boss, under the manifolds.

Note this number is very hard to find sometimes.

Neil.
Neil Cairns

This thread was discussed between 14/06/2001 and 27/06/2001

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