1973 Fiat Sport Spider 1600 - Engine ID

[BigDaddyJoe]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking at purchasing a red sport spider 1600 and the inspector took a picture and called it the engine serial number. When emailing Vick Autosports, they wanted a photo of the rear end and identified the motor by the tail lights and stated that my engine serial number was placed on a plug & not the actual engine.

Bearing in mind, as a novice knowing what is true and untrue can be difficult to gauge. Presently, I'm unable to upload photos to the forum, would anyone be willing to accept an email and provide a point of view on this matter.

Please and thank you.

Joe

[18Fiatsandcounting]

The only definitive way to determine the engine serial number is to read it directly off of the engine block. For your model year, this serial number should be stamped on a boss that is right above the oil filter housing, to the left of where the oil dipstick is. Clean it off really good, use a strong light, and sometimes a mirror helps to be able to read the numbers and letters.

For the list of engine (and chassis) serial numbers, see: https://autoricambi.us/pages/engine-id-chart

Note that the original owner could have swapped engines at some point, so engine numbers located elsewhere on the car may not be correct. Note also that the engine serial number as above will tell you about the block, but you'd have to do some more research if you think the cylinder head or camshafts or whatnot are not original.

-Bryan

[BigDaddyJoe]

Thanks for the tip. Two spots, 1- on the body and 2 - on the engine both point to a 125BC000 which until disproved (even by tail lights) I'm going to go with.

Appreciate the response and the tip. One step closer to have a fun vintage ride to turn wrenches on.

Joe