Engine number

[paul jorgensen]

Hi all, I have a 73 mk 2 which I have had for 31 years, The engine number is LF/2553 ESS, looking through technical specifications etc, I don't see an engine number ending with ESS they are either HE or UE. Has anyone come across this before or have a similar number themselves??

Paul

[jleyton]

Hi Paul.

Engines with an ESS suffix are ones that were reconditioned by Triumph themselves.

Cheers

Julian

[paul jorgensen]

Thanks Julian, A reconditioned engine did cross my mind but I dismissed that thought.. Would Be nice to know when it was done because I rebuilt it 10 thousand miles ago at around 65k.

Thanks again Paul

[jleyton]

I certainly remember sending back quite a few engines to Triumph at Canley during the warranty period and bearing in mind that the company had virtually died out (Acclaim excluded) by the 80's I would have thought the factory recon units would all have been done in the 70s - willing to be proven wrong though !

Cheers

Julian

[Princejohny]

My red K reg 72 project has LF 3051 ESS. Not far removed from Paul's number.
I think this thread could be a good opportunity to build up some info on these exchange engines, such as the period fitted and the total build number because they are rarely mentioned. Mine looks like the original last numbers were ground off and overstamped.
Cheers Johny

[paul5tag]

Hi , I also have a engine no ending in ESS can't remember the rest but will find out, the car is 1970 on a J . They could'nt even get the first one's right. On the positve side you might hope they would be about the same age as the car as they were done under warranty , if thats how it works.

[paul jorgensen]

Hi Guys, Sorry Julian think I might have confused you, I bought my Stag in 1982 and rebuilt the engine a year or so later. That engine is the same one which is LD 2553ESS. So it was probably reconditioned in the 70s...
I had to rebuild it because, when I did my first oil change along with new timing chains, the crank started knocking when I first started it up and on idle when it was hot!!! It was probably full of gearbox oil or some other additive. My car has been asleep for the last 23 + years...
Johny I think that is a good idea as there is no info on these engines that I could find . Julian you must have worked in the motor industry, because your knowledge on the Stag is VERY good?!!!

Paul

[4x4]

If it helps put everything in perspective - I had to rebuild my engine with a "new" block as 4 of the 5 main bearing caps had fractured (can anyone beat that then?).
Chassis number of the car is 12559 - but I'm told the new block was numbered somewhere in the 40,000's. That a lot more engines made than cars!

[flying farmer]

The engine number on my project stag is LF8ESS, now that is early!
Neil

[jleyton]

Julian you must have worked in the motor industry, because your knowledge on the Stag is VERY good?!!!

Paul

Hi Paul,

That's very kind of you to say so. I did spend about ten years working with Triumph and BL and the whole of my career was spent in the car industry , but a big, big chunk of what I know about Stags has been learnt from this excellent forum

Cheers

Julian

Btw being a service receptionist in a Triumph dealer when Stags were on sale wasn't an easy job

[davidf]

I understood these were new engines built as spares rather than for new car build. That's what I was told when I bought mine from Steve Barrat in 1984, and confirmed in Canley when I took it back a month later to be exchanged (for another ESS). In fact, if I understood the guy at Canley properly, they were built after the last Stags.

[jleyton]

I understood these were new engines built as spares rather than for new car build. That's what I was told when I bought mine from Steve Barrat in 1984, and confirmed in Canley when I took it back a month later to be exchanged (for another ESS). In fact, if I understood the guy at Canley properly, they were built after the last Stags.

Correct. As I said above, they were reconditioned and Triumph would never fit a reconditioned engine to a new car. They were rebuilt to be fitted when we fitted a replacement engine under warranty, or if a customer bought a replacement and so they would continue being produced after the Stag ceased production.

Many manufacturers had an exchange engine programme. Austin/Morris offered 'Gold Seal' reconditioned engines - it's just that not so many were fitted under warranty

Cheers

Julian

[paul jorgensen]

Hi Julian, I bet it wasn't an easy job back then!!! How long would the warranty have lasted on a stag engine, and could it have been extended??
Blimey Neil yours must have been one of the first engine casualties...... What year is your car?

Paul

[davidf]

Julian
I'm not clear. You said "Correct. As I said above, they were reconditioned"
As far as I know, as I said above, they were not reconditioned; they were brand new.
In my case, I bought a "Kit" from Steve Barrat in early 1984; new short engine, 2 new heads, new oil and water pumps, chain sets and all gaskets. I don't want to make you too green (you already are - no - that's your car), but the price for the "kit" was £650. I can't actually find the number of the first short engine I had (it was an LFxxxxESS), but I rejected it for casting sand in the water and oil passages, and eventually had it replaced at Canley (then Unipart major assemblies store) with LF3569ESS. The guy at Canley had been there when it was the Triumph factory, and told me that these ESS engines were new-build for spares after the final production of Stags.
I'm not an expert at identifying signs of re-work, but I would be fairly certain it was a brand new block. For example, the bores were completely unmarked, and standard size.

[jleyton]

Hi Paul,

Not only did I work on them but I was 'promoted' to service receptionist which was certainly not an easy job, but I'm glad I did it As far as many owners were concerned, WE were Triumph and they would often vent their understandable anger at us

Because a lot of customers were very unhappy to pay pretty large sums when their cars weren't that long out of warranty, we did have a lot of hassle and I remember one service manager instructing us that if any customer left a Stag with any indication of overheating we had to warn them that they could possibly be facing a bill of over £1,000 - bear in mind that when the Stag was launched, it cost just under £2,000 (That would be a bit like a £25k bill on a £50k Beemer when it's just out of warranty !)

I was talking about the warranty period to someone the other day and I don't remember exactly how long it was back then. It was certainly no longer than one year and I have a vague memory of it being just six months. It was called 'BL Supercover' and their was very little in the way of 'goodwill assistancer' from BL back then.

Ah well, happy days

Cheers

Julian