38 Lasalle

[Art Laing]

Good morning. Would like to know the location of engine serial number (on the block) of my 38 Lasalle coupe. Would like to send these numbers and style, body, trim and paint numbers to GM to obtain a build sheet. Thanks for any assistance I can get on this matter. Art Laing

[Doug Houston]

The engine number is metal stamped on the crankcase behind the LH cylinder bank. Youll need to clean off a lot of dirt and grease to find it. It will have 7 digits, and no letters. Near the engine number will be the engine unit number, which is an alpha-numeric number. It will be of no value to identifying the car. The surface that youll be looking for is between the LH cylinder block and the bell housing. Good Luck.

[John Tozer #7946]

Doug,

I have a spare 38 La Salle engine for my 37 Cad that has the engine number as you describe but has a star at each end of the number. Is this standard or something different?

Regards,


JOHN TOZER

[JIM CLC # 15000]

03-04-05
John, the stars may mean that it is a replacement engine. Do you have the car it came out of and does the numbers on the engine match the numbers on the frame?
Never saw an engine with stars by the S/Ns.
Good Luck, Jim

[John Tozer #7946]

Jim,

The engine number is 2274403 which is, according to all my reference books, correct for a 38 La Salle and in the first 30 percent of production.

This engine was in an export chassis to Australia and has long since been seperated from its chassis and body. Perhaps the export status explains the stars?

If Matt Larson picks up on this post, given his comprehensive research into the La Salles of this era, he might be able to shed some light on the matter.

Regards,


John Tozer

[Jeff Hansen, #4225]

I always believed, and this is just a guess on my part, that the stars were put on both ends of the number so that nobody could add an extra digit or digits on either end to alter the number.  My 1942 Cadillac has the star treatment on both the engine and frame numbers.

Hope this helps.

Jeff

[JIM CLC # 15000]

03-05-05
Jeff, you are most likely correct.
Or, 99.44/100th percent correct.
Good Luck, Jim

[Doug Houston]

Youse guys got it right. The stars were just another touch to make the numbers harder to change. Now, as far as the age of the car goes, the date on the windshield glass (If original,of course) is generally within a month of the cars manufacture.