Re: 1955 Patrician engine number

Posted by HH56 On 2014/8/12 11:17:52

As O_D said, there is strong suspicion that is a service engine and the number was assigned -- but it appears there is no documentation anyone has found yet to back that theory up.

Calif was one of the states that registered by motor number. When an engine had to change, the motor number was no longer present so the speculation is Calif DMV had rules on how replacement engines were numbered and vehicles re-registered.

I will say that is the first V8 engine I recall in that situation. Several examples of inline engines with the N xxxxx CAL designation but vehicle and engine numbers were different on those cars. The fact that a V8 with the completely different factory numbering system where the engine was the same as the vehicle number now has a N xxx designation lends a lot more credence to the theory.

It would be interesting to know if the car was originally from Calif and what years it might have been here.