Nelson Posted January 22, 2023 Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 (edited) I’ve always wondered the significance of the A and B designation for the R3 and R4 engines. I’ve been thinking about this for years . I’ve asked the Granatellis with no luck at all. It dawned on me that the A engines were probably built in 1962 and probably were basically 299 engines with reworked standard cylinder heads. The B engines I originally thought were 304 with R3/4 cylinder heads until i found some B engines with 299 ci with the late cylinder heads. Then I remember the six cylinder Bonneville engines were also given B numbers. So my deduction would be all engines built in 1962 were simply A engines and are very few in number. All 1963 engines were B engines and so happened to have the new cylinder heads on the V8 and the six was assigned a B number because of the year. Paxton’s paperwork for expenditures were A for 1962 and B for 1963. This sounds reasonable to me. What do you think? Edited January 22, 2023 by Nelson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad Posted January 22, 2023 Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 Some of the Pre-production PROTOTYPES had R3 engines. It's not a late thing. It was an engineering exercise all along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfg Posted January 22, 2023 Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 (edited) I'd say Nelsons hypothesis makes sense, and, to my knowledge, hasn't been brought forward before this.... Interesting.......! (The paper trail makes me wonder) Edited January 22, 2023 by mfg added text Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson Posted January 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 51 minutes ago, brad said: Some of the Pre-production PROTOTYPES had R3 engines. It's not a late thing. It was an engineering exercise all along. i know you have had some of the preproduction prototypes in your shop. Do they have B numbers or EX numbers on the block? The B would probably be a Paxton designation and the EX a South Bend engineering designation. Another piece to the puzzle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad Posted January 22, 2023 Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 They are EX numbered. I haven't opened it up yet. do know the next serial number higher EX car did have an R3 (also EX numbered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson Posted January 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 Brad. I will be interesting to see what if any differences exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R2Andrea Posted January 26, 2023 Report Share Posted January 26, 2023 The EX prefix applies to both engine numbers and vehicle serial numbers and were issued by the Engineering Dept. in South Bend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrelmtow Posted January 26, 2023 Report Share Posted January 26, 2023 Are any A engines stamped on the block like the B engines? According to paperwork I found in regards to my car 1025, mine was assigned an A number but there are no stampings on the block. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfg Posted January 26, 2023 Report Share Posted January 26, 2023 13 minutes ago, Mrelmtow said: Are any A engines stamped on the block like the B engines? According to paperwork I found in regards to my car 1025, mine was assigned an A number but there are no stampings on the block. Yes, I remember your block has a normal 'RS' number....maybe Brad or Nelson can answer your question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regnalbob Posted January 26, 2023 Report Share Posted January 26, 2023 There were two A Engines listed on the R-3 Registry in 2012.. A-5, which was installed in R-3923 used by a Paxton manager. Later it may have been installed in R-5013. A-10, owned by Jon Myer. RS-1021 used in R-1025 did not have a Paxton number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfg Posted January 26, 2023 Report Share Posted January 26, 2023 1 hour ago, regnalbob said: There were two A Engines listed on the R-3 Registry in 2012.. A-5, which was installed in R-3923 used by a Paxton manager. Later it may have been installed in R-5013. A-10, owned by Jon Myer. RS-1021 used in R-1025 did not have a Paxton number. Bob that's 63R1025 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regnalbob Posted January 26, 2023 Report Share Posted January 26, 2023 1 hour ago, mfg said: Bob that's 63R1025 🙂 I tried to provide some information that I thought would be of interest to forum members. For some reason you think it is necessary to take issue with the serial number. Before you criticise someone make sure you are correct. Actually you are wrong. The correct number is 63R-1025. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfg Posted January 26, 2023 Report Share Posted January 26, 2023 (edited) 4 hours ago, regnalbob said: I tried to provide some information that I thought would be of interest to forum members. For some reason you think it is necessary to take issue with the serial number. Before you criticise someone make sure you are correct. Actually you are wrong. The correct number is 63R-1025. Ahhh...the elusive hyphen!!! 🤔 Edited January 27, 2023 by mfg Changed text Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrelmtow Posted January 27, 2023 Report Share Posted January 27, 2023 20 hours ago, regnalbob said: There were two A Engines listed on the R-3 Registry in 2012.. A-5, which was installed in R-3923 used by a Paxton manager. Later it may have been installed in R-5013. A-10, owned by Jon Myer. RS-1021 used in R-1025 did not have a Paxton number. According to my research it was assigned an A number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson Posted January 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2023 6 minutes ago, Mrelmtow said: According to my research it was assigned an A number. Mike. Do you know what “A” number it might have been? If there was an A10 you would have to think there were at least nine others with the A prefix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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