How To: Determine casting date
B16 SiRII
04-17-2008, 12:11 PM
This is probably a pretty stupid write up but I was in another website I subscribe to and alot of people wanted to know where this was. So, to find out when your motor was probably made you should look at the head.
There are 4 little circles in the center above the exhaust manifold, the first represents the year, the second represents the month. The lines in the middle don't matter. It should look something like this: 9/8:0/6:*/*:*/*. (The stars are for the other two numbers which don't matter.) So, this engine was made in June of 1998.
The only tricky thing to this is that most auto factories begin casting their motors for the coming year early, so if your motor was made in October, or any month past it was most likely the next years. September is a toss up. So if it's 9/8:1/1:*/*:*/*=November, 1998 then it was most likely a 99 motor.
This should come as useful information when looking through junkyards, engine wholesalers, or the guy that's selling that "1999 GSR for $500" motor. This is especially useful in determining the type of B20 that you have. JDM B20s are ALL B20Bs unlike the USDM ones that are either Bs or Zs.
To make the whole "circles" thing clearer, here's a picture:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/fakter1/HeadCastingLocation.jpg
Of course there's other things that can clue you in to what generation the motor is, but this way will tell you exactly when it was made. Once again, this might be just a pointless write up but I hope it helps somebody. Also, if you mods know of a better place for this please move it, thanks.
There are 4 little circles in the center above the exhaust manifold, the first represents the year, the second represents the month. The lines in the middle don't matter. It should look something like this: 9/8:0/6:*/*:*/*. (The stars are for the other two numbers which don't matter.) So, this engine was made in June of 1998.
The only tricky thing to this is that most auto factories begin casting their motors for the coming year early, so if your motor was made in October, or any month past it was most likely the next years. September is a toss up. So if it's 9/8:1/1:*/*:*/*=November, 1998 then it was most likely a 99 motor.
This should come as useful information when looking through junkyards, engine wholesalers, or the guy that's selling that "1999 GSR for $500" motor. This is especially useful in determining the type of B20 that you have. JDM B20s are ALL B20Bs unlike the USDM ones that are either Bs or Zs.
To make the whole "circles" thing clearer, here's a picture:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/fakter1/HeadCastingLocation.jpg
Of course there's other things that can clue you in to what generation the motor is, but this way will tell you exactly when it was made. Once again, this might be just a pointless write up but I hope it helps somebody. Also, if you mods know of a better place for this please move it, thanks.
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