Club 80-90 Forums

Was looking in the normal place for the code on a 1988 ? DG engine and all it says is 190 with possibly some sort of emblem? before it
It is stamped to the far right of the area and its blank to the left....
Is it a new engine??

vw exchange rebuilt, probably one more digit at the end it's basically a week and year code ie 1906 is week 19 2006
if you take a close look at the heads you'll find an actually date stamped with the initials of the guy who built it, I believe these were made in poland, certainly the new heads were cast there.

Once again, cheers Aiden.......

Should be getting on with some work but almost tempted to go scratting for those other codes

Wish the guy I bought it off had waited a bit longer before THROWING away all the paperwork that he said he had got

The engine does look cleaner than the gearbox....

The logbooks got a full DG code listed

Its in the van for sale and every time I drive it the "sell it/keep it" argument rolls around in my head, just wish it was a Holdsworth

Thanks again, Andy

Would these be the date codes and how do they translate or are they casting dates on every head???

toolsntat wrote:Was looking in the normal place for the code on a 1988 ? DG engine and all it says is 190 with possibly some sort of emblem? before it
It is stamped to the far right of the area and its blank to the left....
Is it a new engine??

isn't it a VW suffix is a replacement engine and a * (star) suffix is reconditioned?

This is a late exchange unit from early 2000s, you can find the case half match numbers stamped by hand on the top of the front of the case usually on each half and there is an actual date stamped on the head with initials around number 4 on side near exhaust and on the other head too. The date marks shown above are the casting dates, you can figure those out and there will be info about where they were cast, last ones I saw were polish. The VW in a recycle arrow is used on all recon parts it seems now. My prop had it on in white paint.
With these engines there's no way of knowing wether it's a dg or dj or mv for sure without investigation, there was a paper sticker with the engine part number and suffix on when it was delivered that won't be legible now, usually on top of jacket 1 and 2 under manifold. DJs came with a new 5 degree timing mark pulley. 2.1s complete with oil cooler and all came with plugs and oil filter fitted.
early exchange engines had the asterix, but anyone could fake that and most local rebuilders used it too so no provenance really without paperwork.

"With these engines there's no way of knowing wether it's a dg or dj or mv for sure without investigation, there was a paper sticker with the engine part number and suffix on when it was delivered that won't be legible now, usually on top of jacket"........

Deffo a dg as that sticker is still there

Cheers
Andy