Poser/Steve is doing it in the '40 and 55 series tech forum' as a 'sticky' for cruisers with F and 2F petrol engines. So I'm thinking ..why haven't we done the same for our cruisers fitted with B, 2B, 3B, H, 2H, 13BT etc diesels.
Once sufficient people contribute in each vehicle/engine category (which I admit may take significantly longer than for Steve's thread - due to the lower numbers worldwide) ..graphs like this one (put together by Martian) can eventually be made:
This graph enables someone who buys a second-hand 2F engine to work out its production date easily and with reasonable accuracy - from just the serial number.
And it's not easy for the owner of a diesel cruiser to even pinpoint the production date/month of the vehicle itself! So hopefully this thread can eventually help there too (from the input of owners who already know all this data about their vehicles).
And we can also include details in this thread of where to locate identification details. For instance on the B- diesel (1B) fitted to a BJ40, the engine serial number is found here:
Edit Feb2013 - Swapped this pic because the one I had there before was of the number on my spare engine which was inconsistant with my details shown below.
It took me a long while to discover this hidden location and it was very hard to photograph. You actually need to look down between the 2 rearmost ports of the inlet manifold (by the dipstick).
Anyway I'll kick this thread off with details of my vehicle:
Landcruiser model : BJ40RV-KCQ
Build date (as accurate as I'm able to determine): July 1979
Engine Serial No: 0294407
Block Casting : 11411-56020
Frame No. (also called 'VIN No.') : BJ40 - 0038478
PS. I have a personal motive for doing this in that I want to determine the build date for that spare engine I bought ..ie. The one whose serial number I photographed above.
PPS. Is anyone able to show me how to determine the build date directly from any casting data on a 1B block?