Collection of Early LT5 VIN, MM Numbers

[A26B]

Some of this has already been offered in other recent threads about miss-stamped or revised VIN & Serial Numbers. With the recent interest in early ZR-1's, I'm publishing some data acquired in the LT5 engine acquisition I made a few years back which contained some great pieces of LT5 history. I hope it will be interesting, possibly answer some questions or spark new possibilities.

I do have a lot of pictures of these engines. Unfortunately, I didn't photo-document them as well as I would now.

Jerry

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z224/A26B/LT5VINInventoryList.jpg

[QB93Z]

Thanks for posting that list Jerry.

I don't have any data on the pre-1990 cars.

For the 1990's:
L5800005 is an RPO YE8 (Engineerling Test Vehicle)
L5800017 is an RPO ACM (Vehicle Lead Unit)
L5800079 no special RPO's
L5800130 no special RPO's
L5800703 no special RPO's
L5801085 is a Europe Export car, no special RPO's
L5802610 no special RPO's

For the 1991's:
M5800029 no special RPO's
M5800064 no special RPO's
M5800739 no special RPO's
M5801454 no special RPO's
M5802008 no special RPO's

For the 1992's:
N5800002 is an RPO YE8 (Engineerling Test Vehicle) & WD1 (Pilot Vehicle)
N5800004 is an RPO YE8 (Engineerling Test Vehicle) & WD1 (Pilot Vehicle)

Jim

[1989ZR1#74]

Oil pan stamping on #004: MM 0418

[1989ZR1#74]

1989 ZR-1 #074 has a upper LT5 case casting date of 12/19/1988.

[1989ZR1#74]

There is a picture in the January 1990 Vette of 3 "Pilot" LT5s taken in 12/1988. Two of them have numbers on the tags:


#375
http://www.syreal.com/lt5n375.jpg

Number 376:
http://www.syreal.com/lt5n376.jpg

Looks like 89 #62 had LT5 #373 so these must be around #62.

[1989ZR1#74]

Update on 1989 MM numbers:

#004 is MM 0418 CZA 218
#026 is MM 0514 CZA 230
#029 is MM 0421 CZA 223
#045 is MM 1020 CZA 352
#058 is MM 1220 CZA 375
#062 is MM 1216 CZA 373
#074 is MM 0308 CZA 612

[Toranamat69]

Hi Guys,

I was hoping to find out a little more about my LT5 I have fitted in my Torana.

I was told by the importer back in 2000 that it was a test engine when I bought it. I always thought it was a 1990 engine as all the parts seemed to correspond and fit.

I make the engine number out to be 1L5700024.
The engine number seems to be mis-stamped or something and the 'L' is a little shallow in the stamping but I have checked really closely and had others check and verify.

Going by other numbers in this thread, the 8 has been stamped as a 7 - this character is very clearly stamped.

The stamping on the pan rail is MM 0602 ZSH 656 - this is nice and clearly marked.

The date code on the block (from memory) is 04 24 89. My headers are too close to see this number whilst assembled in the car but I am pretty sure.

Where do I find the number on the heads? I seem to remember seeing them before - is it on the back face of the heads?

The wiring loom that came with the car was the manual A/C type which I understand was not very common.

There was 1 or 2 very minor differences to some of the other '90 engines I have seen such as the 1 mounting tab on the alloy PCV pipe rather than 2 that I see on most '90's and something else I can't remember at the moment. I have changed these items anyhow to improve it slightly.

It did not look like the engine had ever been fitted to a car. The clutch had certainly never been used to move a vehicle when I got it.

Any info on my engine would be appreciated.

Engine still runs great with the only thing the oil pressure being slightly lower than some of the figures I have seen for these engines but not by too much - I give it hell still so it is obviously not an issue.

Matt

[LGAFF]

I posted some pics of your car a few months ago

[LGAFF]

http://www.zr1.net/forum/showthread.php?t=13154

[Blue Flame Restorations]

I bet that Torana screams. It looks about like the size of a Vega.

[Toranamat69]

Hi guys.

To resurrect a thread from the depths, I have currently got my engine out of my car and have had a really good look at the engine number and other stampings.

It is poorly stamped on the K and the 1 but I now realise it is K5100024.

The date stamp is 04 25 89.

The MM numbers I quoted previously are correct.

Does this mean the engine came out of one of the 89 Pilot cars?

Matt

[1989ZR1#74]

Matt, Are you sure its K51?

Here is the vin stamp from the LT5 from a France press car:

http://www.syreal.com/058lt5vin.jpg

[1989ZR1#74]

MM stamp by oil sump:

http://www.syreal.com/058lt5mmstamp.jpg

[1989ZR1#74]

K5100024 would be an L98 stamp for the 24th car

K = MY89
5 = Corvette
1 = Standard L98 Corvette

8 = Lt5

[1989ZR1#74]

what interesting is the build sheet from Active #25 is dated 4/26/88 with a run date of 5/6/88. If your date was 4/25/88it would line up with Active #24

Wait a minute.. I just checked my data Car #24 was ab 1989 Narrow body Lt5 so that is indeed a pilot Lt5 but from a narrow body corvette. Hmmmm very neat

[1989ZR1#74]

http://www.syreal.com/Narrow_zr1prod.bmp

Hat tip to Tyler...

[Bruce]

Does anyone know how many complete production engines were actually made by Mercury?

We know the production cars is 6939, but how many other engines were made? I mean like warranty spares, crate engines etc.

What happened to the very first engine the guys assembled at Mercruiser on that Christmas eve? Did it have a number? How many engine blocks were cast by Dennisons?

What happened to all those engines that Lotus built when they were developing the engine? And how many did they build before they arrived at the final, definitive engine?

[1989ZR1#74]

Not sure we can ever truly know, but we could come up with very educated guess.

The MM#s on the early pilots seem to line up with their actual sequence. By the end of the 1989 in released production run they where in the 400s. Not sure how we can count warranty engines or "crate engines" so we are looking at somewhere around 7,500 I would think

[TexasZR1]

Necro thread raised from the dead for the potential interest of original posters...






It looks like L5800008 potentially mfg. on 032189 could be for sale on BaT. The donor engine swapped into the car seems to be L580008 (or L580003?).



Sale also includes the engine original to the car (but not transmission).


Full VIN may be: 1G1YZ23J3L5800008


VIN corresponds to a Pilot car with YE8 option.



https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1990-chevrolet-corvette-zr-1-83/


Not my sale, but when I'm looking for things, I often find them with help of others in a similar way.

[AirbusDriver]

1989 #78...
https://i.postimg.cc/XJ0V0tc7/IMG-0948.jpg (https://postimg.cc/f3B4c2r6)