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Wed Jul 19, 2006 11:22 am

Bill,
It's nice to see the young bucks have put you on the spot so to speak :D Actually these and other numbers like the 3 digit numbers near top of bell housing (yes we know they identify married pairs of cases) on engine case have meaning but are obscure to anyone outside the factory floor and most certainly the dealership mechanics....People on this thread have seemed to focus only on a couple of years during the 60s but these type of markings are also found on 36hp engines and later 15, 1600cc engines........ I would guess also that these are inspection markings as in this part is approved for service per VW specs.. Should we tell them about the paint marks and other mysteries the factory used??
You remember the factory green paint blob they used as a witness/tamper seal on the gland nut???

Jim-

Wed Jul 19, 2006 11:39 am

While we're on the topic of obscure markings, I noticed blue & red crayon grease pencil markings inside the trunk, etc. Another oddball I found on the og 64 fanshroud was a blob of yellow paint on the front.
I'd be interested in hearing about what all the markings mean, as I'm sure they weren't just put there because the assembly workers were bored!
My best guess is they were just inspection markings, used at a glance to verify they were checked prior to the next assembly step..?!?

Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:13 pm

Mark wrote: I recall my OG 64 case had this W5 stamped on it as well, so this DOES seem to be a year-specific issue. Weird.
I have been working on a 1966 1300 "F" case and it is stamped "WE"
:? ! ?

Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:33 am

Well, the VW Museum was not able to explain the meaning of the "W" codes. They did tell me that my engine was actually older than my car (it was a replacement engine) so they do have some information on specific engine numbers, but no luck on the "W".

Thu Aug 10, 2006 3:24 am

It's my understanding that those are the code for the assembly that built the engine. If several with the same code came back with internal engine problems they could address the problem and or do a recall.

Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:03 pm

Anybody have any new info on this :?:

Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:17 pm

bill may wrote: wait till you find yellow crayon type writing inside doors,on metal under front hood and other places factory inspectors wrote that they had inspected the car while traveling down the assemby line.
I believe this is correct based on some of what I've seen of Frenchy Deheaux's (sp?) ultra-meticulous restorations. There are good reasons he is known as Doctor Detail.

Max

Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:49 pm

Hi,

Just thinking out loud here,
In VW world, the letter "W" has historically stood for made in Western Germany.

Weren't engines made at different factories scattered about ?? Is it possible that this was a way of indicating that this motor was made in West Germany? the 2nd letter or number meaning eludes me. Maybe the shift or team that assembled it ???

Somewhere someone knows the answer to this question though with the rapid passing of time the answer may have literally died years ago.

While I understand that Bill was told it was "meaningless" I think that the concept of meaningless referred to not being of any merit when identifying the engine series or for getting the proper repair parts. The term "Meaningless" applied at the dealer level.
I believe that it is not, or was not, meaningless to everyone everywhere.
I worked for Mercedes for many years and there were many mysterious markings that appeared on various components, the markings meant nothing to us at the dealer and were not consistent from year to year or on corresponding parts of the same model. At times the factory Rep knew about certain markings and they did have a meaning to them.

Maybe it was just the Germans having fun messing with the "stupid" Americans!? At our Mercedes dealership we found beer cans in doors, various writings, "items" of interest, etc. Almost all of it was behind panels and in places that the average owner would never see. I guess working day after day after day on a production line forces one to vent a splash of creativity in some fashion that won't get you fired.

The most famous version of this in America was our old friend "Kilroy" back during the war. It appeared almost everywhere.

Oh well, my 2 cents

Dave

Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:52 am

I had also wondered what the stamp was for as i have
a 64 sunroof with the OG engine, with a W3 stamp.
Going by the numbers it appears that it's a late February
engine.

Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:04 pm

djkeev wrote: Hi,

Just thinking out loud here,
In VW world, the letter "W" has historically stood for made in Western Germany.

Maybe the "W" indicates the engine is from the Wolfsburg factory.
These could be engines randomly selected from production batches for quality control checks.

I'm not too familiar with this phenomenon...
Maybe there are others in the bus forum wondering why the hell they have "H" stamped on their block. :)

Thu Jan 10, 2008 5:08 pm

Just read on one of the home page facts that as of '65 Hanover built all engines.

That pretty much shoots down my theory.

My work is done here... :oops:

Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:13 pm

my 64's 1200 (which is actually a 1963 motor) has a "WE" as well. Look in my gallery.

Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:34 am

My 65 1200 has The VW logo and a "D" under the case # and just under the fuel pump is "WC" :?

Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:41 am

could be a date code, or and assemblers initials, or the engine assembly line it went down.

Sun Jan 24, 2010 1:07 pm

I have a W6 stamped on my block...

Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:02 pm

Bill May says it is worthless, meaningless info but he can't back up that statement :wink:

Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:58 pm

I have a 63 Ragtop i got last month the engine number is 8551278 it has a W3 code as well. How can i find out if this is the OG engine?

Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:34 pm

ud40 wrote: I have a 63 Ragtop i got last month the engine number is 8551278 it has a W3 code as well. How can i find out if this is the OG engine?

It's not original. 855 series would have been from April 1964. If it was within your month range on the VIN/engine number charts, then I'd say send your engine number and the fee off of the the VW Museum for a birth certificate and if the engine number matches their records (if they have it in their records) they'll put it on the birth certificate.

The monthly chassis, engine, etc numbers charts can be found here, by the way:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/bugchassisdating.php

-Andy