Original Engine Serial Numbers

[Fairfax]

I am trying to find out if the engine in my 74 2.0 is the original or if it has been replaced. Is there a web site that tracks this information or shows the original engine serial numbers for our cars??

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

No, there is no free public source for that information.

User "djpateman" over on the 914world forum can usually give a date range for a given engine number, but that's not exact.

Porsche can, for a fee, confirm if a specific engine number is original to your car's VIN. They won't tell you what the original number is, they will just say "yes, that's the one" or "no, that's not it". My guess is that it's to cut down on fraud. They give you this info on their "certificate of authenticity", and last I checked the price was $100. It may be more now.

A US-spec 74 2-liter would have an engine number starting with "GA", and the numbers after that would likely be above ~12000. There may be sources out there that mention what the earlier 74 2-liter engine codes are, but I don't see them right now.

Generally the numbers went up as the model year progressed, and given the above number you can roughly estimate a range for the engine number based on the build date. But it's a rough estimate, as engines were not installed in cars in strictly numeric order.

--DD

[Fairfax]

Thank you Dave, I have always enjoyed reading your replies to other posts. I will explore that here shortly. I thought the certificates were no longer availble.

[djpateman]

The only way to know for certain is through a certificate. PCNA now has the PPS and may confirm the numbers if proof of the numbers in your possession is provided.
I also can provide a pseudo certificate (Unofficial since I am not an authorized Porsche employee), but my data comes from original documentation. Also, the engine #'s can jump around a lot. In my Mar 914 LE the engine should have been in a previous October car, but sat around a good 4 months. My data suggests that it far from being alone in being out of sequence.
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