By the no. engraved on the con rod end cap has my engine been worked on?

[sujitroy]

or is this something that was done at the factory?

Sujit

[staginhiding]

They were factory marked just like that..

[thebadleys]

I currently have my engine in bits and have a different twist on the numbering, I think this may be because I think my engine is a factory replacement with the number stamped on the rear of the block LF2069ES

Con Rod Markings.jpg

[davidf]

Engine numbers ending ESS were new Short Engines (block, crank, pistons etc., no heads, pumps, sump, timing covers, etc.) Part number UKC562

[flying farmer]

I currently have my engine in bits and have a different twist on the numbering, I think this may be because I think my engine is a factory replacement with the number stamped on the rear of the block LF2069ES

Con Rod Markings.jpg

I would be very worried about that.

Every set of rods I have ever seen has got matched numbers on the top and bottom half. This is done as the big end is machined to a perfect circle and each rod needs its matching cap.

The first V8 engine I built was a Rover which didn't have markings, and my Uncle came to have a look what I was doing.

He picked up a con rod cap to look at it, I saw him do it and asked him to make sure he put it back in exactly the same place he picked it up from. When I torqued up the big end caps, the engine locked solid! He had swapped its position and left one big end too tight to turn, it took a while to find which two had been swapped.

I suspect your engine has been rebuilt by someone who didn't know what they were doing, though I once read ESS engines were assembled using Green labour (as in unskilled) so it might have come out of the factory like that. My ESS engine was full of sand to the top of the block at the rear of the RH cylinder bank.

Those rods are all going to need to be assembled and measured before a rebuild!

Neil

[Peter]

Hi I actually purchased one of the last short service engines with an ESS code back in the days when Barrats did Triumph. It was just like a standard engine with graded pistons and marked rods all correct as in 1 to 8. I stripped it prior to using it and actually poked swarf out of one of the crank oilways! So quality wasn’t great but I too suspect the mismatched numbers are the work of a later rebuild.
Peter

[davidf]

Hi I actually purchased one of the last short service engines with an ESS code back in the days when Barrats did Triumph. It was just like a standard engine with graded pistons and marked rods all correct as in 1 to 8. I stripped it prior to using it and actually poked swarf out of one of the crank oilways! So quality wasn’t great but I too suspect the mismatched numbers are the work of a later rebuild.
Peter

I also had mine from there in early 1984; Steve Barrat told me he had had a delivery of 6 and had been told these were the last. I rejected the first one as it was full of core sand. I found it first in the waterways but what really concerned me was some I found in the oil passage from filter to transfer housing. I knew the MD of BL Heritage in those days so called him about it. He told me to go back to Barratt's and swap it. The next one I looked at was the same so I didn't swap. After many more episodes, I ended up at Canley (then Unipart Major Assemblies store) where there were only 6 left. I inspected all of them and found 1 good one. Even so, when I took it home and stripped it, I also found swarf in the crank oilways. Fortunately for me, I worked at an engineering company with a big machine shop, and we put all the components through the degreasing plant. The engine has now done about 80000 miles (many of which were towing the family caravan around Europe every summer) and is in its second Stag.