Suspicious or common place? Filed engine identification tag

[RaymondR]

Possibly painted over at some time then someone has scraped the paint off to read the numbers and the unprotected parts have corroded.

[Teknishn]

I have dealt regularly with this on my current yacht restoration project. 27.5 meter yacht that was a wedding gift from Adolf Hitler to Hermann Goerring upon his second wedding in 1937. Trying to identify engines, injector fuel pumps, gearboxes, etc. after years of corrosion.

As has been previously stated, the numbers are stamped on the plate. Some of my best results have usually been accomplished by removing the label plate and looking at the reverse side and seeing the numbers stamped in reverse. Sometimes a scrubbing of the obverse side of the plate with a mixture of water and battery acid (90/10 mixture) yields decent results (but pretty much destroys the data plate in the process).

And I agree, check for previous surveys of the vessel. Might turn up some interesting information.

If you have a majority of the numbers/letters, contact the manufacturer and provide them the details of your motor and vessel. Have found that they sometimes actually have records pertaining to a specific motor, gearbox, or other equipment installed on a specific vessel as a result of past warranty work.

Following Valhalla360's line of thinking concerning criminal activity and others asking about the possibility of stealing a motor out of a sailboat... Think about it...stolen/salvaged from a hurricane damaged boat and then marginally rebuilt for a quick sale? Stolen from a derelict boat? Have seen stranger things...

[ur2slo]

Originally Posted by Teknishn

I have dealt regularly with this on my current yacht restoration project. 27.5 meter yacht that was a wedding gift from Adolf Hitler to Hermann Goerring upon his second wedding in 1937. Trying to identify engines, injector fuel pumps, gearboxes, etc. after years of corrosion.

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Wow that's a project with some provenance