Number match

For a RHD car, the archives of Maranello Concessionaires might have recorded the engine number.
Sometimes, it was also reported in the warranty booklet, but not always.
Otherwise, asking the factory, but they might not be ready to answer the question, and of course if they might be, they will ask for some £, but you might give it a try nevertheless.

Giving you a definitive answer without archives from the importer or factory is impossible: the sequence of the chassis numbers, and the one of the engine numbers put into each chassis, runs separately (as there were dry-sump and wet sump carbed engines, so different series) and furthermore, if it is true that the engines were fitted in a general growing order for their numbers, it never was fully strict: you might have engine 117 in car 26223, 118 in car 26225, then 115 in car 26227, 116 in 26229 and 119 in 26231.
You might find one or two owners of RHD cars with dry sump engine as close as possible to yours and check if their engine numbers are close to yours, this to see if they are "in the same bracket" shall we say, but without access to the archives you never will be 100% sure that the car has its original engine.

Rgds

 

I believe that you've run the engine family and engine serial number together -- should be:

Chassis 29973
engine family designation F106A021
engine serial number 01432

 

01432 certainly seems coherent to me for a dry sump engine in a car that comes towards the end of production. Our friend "Martin308GTB" in Germany, who has one of the very last dry sump carbed 308 GTB produced, #34379, has the highest-known engine number for a dry-sump 3,0 litre V8 in the 017xx range. Alberto's car, #34465, which is the one that came after Martin's, has a lower engine number, in the 16xx range, which again illustrate that there is a general tendency (= higher production number of the car, higher engine number) but with slight variations.

Rgds

 

Where does one mount that plate ?

 

I don't have one on my November 1978 build serial # 26533 engine # 00900
I do however have a blank plate that I purchased off of eBay. I wonder if I should have it stamped and mounted in the location you mentioned

 

Back around 2005 Ferrari offered a Heritage Certificate at no cost - As requested I provided Chassis, Engine and Gear Box numbers and they sent me a certificate confirming they were the same as when the car left the factory in 1977. I'm not sure if they still do this but start with a call or email to Ferrari North America. Mine was an early steel car. Later I called the factory and talked to an employee there and discovered that my car was among the first 200 built for homologation. Very pleasant people there. I also called about a 456 that was previously owned by the Sultan of Brunei. The car had been converted from a stick to an automatic using a Mercedes transmission - this was before the automatic 456 GTA was introduced. They provided me with an overwhelming amount of information and work orders that proved this was a factory build. I was amazed.

 

I forgot to add that the car was previously used as an airport pick up car by the Beverly Hills Hotel which was owned by the Sultan and managed by his son.

 

The 308 OMs Section 1 have a lot of good information about what's marked where -- IIRC, US and euro versions have differences so the OM for your exact year/version would be the best reference IMO.

 

This time is gone and it has change a lot

 

thanks Steve !

 

Is there any information on how many of the 308 engines were produced? The F106A Engine Numbers, when and at what number did that production cease? What other cars engines - besides 308's - carried that designation?

 

I think F106A... is essentially all of the 308 carb 2-Valve engines -- see the list/info in this thread:
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/engine-types.251323/

 

I don't think I have ever seen a figure for the total number of engines produced, but deductions might be done for a ballpark; for instance, we know the highest number known so far for dry sump engines, which is 17xx in Martin's car. So, about 1750 dry sump carbed V8s engines produced.
Some engines were kept as spares, see the history of Alberto's carbed dry sump 308, tested when new with an engine in the 17xx range, which was pulled out after the first road test as non-satisfactory, and exchanged with one in the 16xx range, with which the car was delivered as new and that the car still has today.

It has to be said that it is also important to record as many engines numbers as possible, for the sake of checking continuity of any serie. For instance, the 328's engine, F105s, have a large gap in the numerotation, which stops at about engine 03500, then starts again at about engine 10500: there are no known engines between engine # 3500 and # 10500. (This around car # 75500 or so).
Why is it so, well: I don't know...

Rgds

 

it's 01719.

Best Regards
Martin

 

Yes - a shame too - my point was that it's always worth a call to the factory - no guarantees but both times I called I received answers and more information than I asked for.

 

Danke Martin.

Rgds

 

Really ?
Next time I'll call the factory and tell them I'm calling from the guy from Boston !

 

Keep in mind the factory problems with the 2Vi engines.

Many were replaced under warranty when the cars were still "new". Did the factory build more to deal with the problem? More than they normally would have?

I don't know.

 

Tommy,
by "2Vi" do you mean two valve, injected?
Mike Flanagan

 

A very difficult one to answer. Perhaps someone who was working in the network at the time could share some memories about this? Perhaps the engines were sent back to Italy and rebuilt, then put back in another car? Also, the "Mondial" had entered the equation at the time (granted, wet sump carbed engines were shared between GT4s, US/Australian GTBs and all GTS).
An interesting snippet of info is that the factory did built some additionnal 3,2 engines as replacement motors, but very few were actually needed, so some might still be found, brand new, in their original crates; Eurospares had one recently.

Rgds