Crazy serial numbers

[TwinFast]

I have a problem with the serial numbers of my car
(Fiat 124 Spider from California year 1978 with a chassis number 124 CS1 0136302)

On the VIN plate, the engine Number is 132A1 031.6 but when i check the engine number on the top of the oil filter i see 132A1040.6 and 0779961. and on another place of the engine i see 131AB.40/7 with 4381917

A look to the Fiat database shows that the chassis after 126001 should have an engine number like this : 132A1.040.5 or 132A1.031.5

The previous owner told me that the car is stock, chassis, engine and transmission.

What's wrong ?

[rdv]

Hi,
from german website fiatspider.de I found a table which shows different versions for the carb version of the Fiat Spider 2000.
CS2 / 2000 Spider (carb.):
- 132C2.040
- 132C2.031 (CA Version)

So perhaps the car wasn't a real California version?

I found your car in the worldwide spider registry. First entry from 06/2003 by "Thommy". But no further informations like color ext/int/top etc.
https://www.fiatspider.de/der-spider/re ... l&=Filtern
Would be great to get more informations about the car. Thanks a lot!

Bye, Ralf (registry admin)
https://www.fiatspider.de

[TwinFast]

Thanks Ralf,
i already have a look to the spider registry and i found few informations about my car. But the german language don't help me to go further.

After few research on the web, i understand that the real engine number is the one stamped on the small area on top of the oil filter : 132A1040.6 - The other number on the left side of the engine is only the casting reference and it's similar for number of Fiat engines.

For the rest, the engine number on the engine block doesn't match with the one stamped on the VIN plate in the engine bay, with is 132A1031.6 (even if the 2 doesn't match both number refer to a 1978 spider and 1756cc engines).

We know that since 1975 Fiat started a dual identifying system for the 124 Spider sold in the US market due to the Californian smog législation. 132A1.031.6 stamped on the VIN plate refer to an engine ready for the Californian market when 132A1 040.6 is the reference for an engine for the rest of the US.

I supposed firstly that the car has an engine swap but after reading the documentation of the previous owners i found no swap in the car history ... Could the two numbers be related to the same car ?