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MG TD TF 1500 - Engine numbers

I have been communicating with Pat Leask in British Colombia. He is restoring a TD that is 39 older than mine (4139 VS 4178).

What is interesting is my engine is 4421, His is 4322. So while his car is 39 younger than mine, his engine is 99 older.

Bruce Cunha

Yes, the engines were shipped scross from the Morris engines plant and parked in a cluster by the assembly line untill required. Its a similar story with body numbers.
M Magilton

Indeed, numbers are always all over the place. Some are nearly matching and others are way off, even by hundreds.

To get an idea, flip through this list:
http://www.mg-tabc.org/special-files/MG_TC_Provenance_List.pdf
Steve Simmons


I recently wrote an article for several MG Car Club magazines, about this very same matter, and some of the "matching numbers" folk were miffed about it.

My point was, and it is my understanding,that engines were never especially allocated to each car as it came down the production line, and it was hit and miss, to which car, a particular engine was fitted.

So on any given day of the production week, a bunch of engines were fitted that may have been manufactured several months before, or were factory rejects (rebuilt etc) and each car received an engine totally out of sequential order. I think it is so quirkily British, and I love the notion that my car had an engine number that was so far out of sequence, and had no relevance to the weekly production numbers it is rather funny.

Whilst I love the notion of having a matching numbers car, those matching numbers, were just fate, and a random selection on the day it was fitted. The beautiful human error factor!
R M Prior

We were thinking that since they produced 125+ cars a week, there were probably around 100 engines in the storage area. First in was not necessarily first out.

This is one of the interesting areas I hope to do some research on at the British Car Museum once this virus is behind us.
Bruce Cunha

As the engines were being produced in a foundry, they would be sequentially numbered at the end of the foundry's production line.

More than likely,once these engines left the foundry they'd be placed on shipping pallets, (groups of 4 or 6(?), and shipped out in batches to different locations throughout the year . So the sequential engine numbering would vary at the MG assembly line.

Consider also, these engines were used in farming and industrial applications so the numbering sequence for automotive is further interrupted.

Cheers

Gary
79 MGB

Gary Hansen

This thread was discussed between 16/11/2020 and 17/11/2020

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