Decode my straight eight engine number

[ornberg]

Can someone help me with this?
I wonder what year my 248 are. The engine number is 5099825 and it sits in a 1948 Buick Special. What year did the straight eights got insert bearings?

[Bad Boattail]

Isn't there a suffix behind that engine number ?

Standard catalog of Buick says this for the model year 1948 Special (Series 40) engine:


"Series 40 engine numbers were 4999881-4 to 52220971-4, the suffix 4 denoting a Series 40 engine"

[Aaron65]

Specials are Series 40...Supers are Series 50, unless things were different in '48...BUT, the engine could easily be from a Super. If the 9th number in the code is a 4, it is a Special engine--if the 9th number is a 5 it is a Super engine...doesn't matter either way, they're both the same engine. Erik is right in that it's a '48 or MAYBE '49 engine and probably the original one since your car is a '48. As far as insert bearings...I don't THINK they came along until the 263, but you can have your car converted at rebuild time.

[Bad Boattail]

I edited my answer, of course the Special is Series 40 and the Super is Series 50.

For some reason I edited my answer before posting and changed all the 4's for 5's.
The engine numbers stay the same, apart from the 4 or 5 (or 7 for the Roadmaster) suffix :TU:

[Bad Boattail]

Erik is right in that it's a '48 or MAYBE '49 engine.

From the same book I read that model year 1949 engines had 5220972 to 5659598 engine numbers.
And again the -4 suffix for Special engines, the -5 suffix for Super engines and -7 suffix for Roadmaster engines.

[Aaron65]

I was just looking at the buicks.net website...your source is probably right because his car is a '48...

[ornberg]

Thanks guys. I didn’t find the suffix behind the numbers but It might be the og engine then.

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m233/Per_album/48-3.jpg

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m233/Per_album/1948-3.jpg