General Motors engine block number help please

[John Timmins]

I just bought a 2003 Sea Ray boat, model 176 SRX with a 3.0L engine and Alpha One Gen II Mercruiser Stern Drive.

I tried to order a service manual for the 3.0L inline 4 cylinder engine from Mercury. but I could not find the engine serial number tag on the engine. There isn't one, at least from Mercury Marine. I was able to learn the original engine number from Sea Ray's build sheet, but I can't find that number anywhere on the engine.

There is a stamped number on my engine that is by the dip stick and above the fuel filter, I gave that number to Mercury, but they said it is not a Mercury number and it is probably a General Motors number.

Does anybody have any information they can learn from this number ?

1M0218BL8

Can it tell me the year this engine was made or anything else ? Neither Mercury or Sea Ray recognize that number.

I want to order some parts but need to know what engine I have. thanks in advance

 

[meboatermike]

Good luck figuring this out with Mercury. I have a old Mercury 115 hp "Tower of Power" outboard with a stamped number on it where it should be But it does not line up with Mercury's numbering system

Sometimes these things just don't make sense.

Is there any chance that you can pull a number off the parts that you want to replace?

 

[BillK]

John,

I am pretty sure the serial number on the 3.0 is on the valve cover. Maybe on the flame arrestor ? Have you tried using the number you got from Sea Ray ?? The number on the block is probably a GM number like you said and does not mean much.

Post the number from the build sheet and I will ask one of the marinas that I do a lot of work for.

A good Mercruiser dealer can usually figure it out from the drive serial number too.

What kind of parts are you looking for ? Those things were pretty much all the same over the years.

 

[BillK]

John,
The serial number plate should be on the side of the block near the starter. My guy at the marina said if you have the drive serial number and it has never been changed, he should be able to look it up by that number too. He also said the serial number plate on the block might be hard to see because some installers paint over them.

 

[John Timmins]

The inline 6 Mercury outboard casting numbers on the parts and the serial numbers aren't always related. Your outboard might have a serial number that falls in a series of numbers for outboards made in Europe or Australia. Mercury parts books list the serial numbers by county.

On my boat, Mercury put the serial numbers for the engine, outdrive and gearcase on peel and stick paper things on the spark arrester ( the air cleaner looking thing.) The ink has come off them so you can't read them. My email from Mercury told me to look on the engine near the starter for the Mercury tag with the number. There is NO tag.

This is not a Mercury engine; the is a replacement engine. I believe it is a NEW engine because I read on a web site the remanufactured engine program doesn't have enough engine cores to make them ???? So people buy NEW marine service engines not car engines.

Anyway I've seen reasons to buy a new engine for marine use. The stamped , not cast, part number is the only number I have to work with. I have the original engine number for the 2003 build sheet, but I might have an engine that is 15 years newer than the original. Why would I try to order parts for the wrong engine? I don't know what engine I have...…

I am sure somebody out there can tell me what the stamped number 1M02181Bl8 means on this board or Jalopy Journal or some other engine lovers web site.

thanks for the replies.

 

[BillK]

The inline 6 Mercury outboard casting numbers on the parts and the serial numbers aren't always related.

John,

This is not an outboard. It is a 4 cylinder GM engine very similar to the old Chevy II engines.

 

[Stuart in MN]

There's a big thread on the HAMB about Mercruiser engines but it's about the 3.7 and not the 3.0...I don't think there's any connection between the two, I think the 3.0 is based on the old Chevy II four cylinder engine while the 3.7 is basically 1/2 of a Ford 460. However, it's possible the 3.0 was discussed in there somewhere, it's a million pages long.

 

[John Timmins]

thanks Stuart ! I'll check out HAMB whatever that is ! Everything is a help !

 

[jenga70]

I also have an Sea Ray 176 Bow rider with the 3.0 around the same vintage. I recall from firing it up this spring that there was a lot information on top of the flame arrestor.

l'll try and remember to check mine when I go up north to see if the block numbers I find match the info on the spark arrestor.

 

[KenC]

I just bought a 2003 Sea Ray boat, model 176 SRX with a 3.0L engine and Alpha One Gen II Mercruiser Stern Drive.

I tried to order a service manual for the 3.0L inline 4 cylinder engine from Mercury. but I could not find the engine serial number tag on the engine. There isn't one, at least from Mercury Marine. I was able to learn the original engine number from Sea Ray's build sheet, but I can't find that number anywhere on the engine.

There is a stamped number on my engine that is by the dip stick and above the fuel filter, I gave that number to Mercury, but they said it is not a Mercury number and it is probably a General Motors number.

Does anybody have any information they can learn from this number ?

1M0218BL8

Can it tell me the year this engine was made or anything else ? Neither Mercury or Sea Ray recognize that number.

I want to order some parts but need to know what engine I have. thanks in advance

The M is Mexico plant. Feb 18th, no year in this code. The BL8 is the actual engine info. But, I can't find that online.

 

[BillK]

John, I just sent you an e-mail with all the info you should need

 

[John Timmins]

thank you very much Bill!

JENGA70, There is also a bracket with some California pollution stuff on it that has your engine number.

Mine has the original engine number OM385898 with all that other stuff.

A web site with a lot of technical stuff like parts diagrams said this

"Since 3.0L marine engines are not used in automotive applications there aren’t enough engine cores to support a good remanufacturing option. We only supply new 3.0L longblocks which do not require a core deposit."

 

[SGKent]

marine engines are a funny breed. If you bought the boat used and live in an area that freezes it is possible the original owner forgot to drain it and a freeze destroyed the block. We had a weird freeze in SoCal one year many years ago. I can remember all the 455 (Olds set up for marine) blocks we replaced and rebuilt for folks due to broken blocks. Many boats for sale cheap the next year because the owners could not run them or afford to fix them. I only mention the 455 because it was not a common block like say a 350. Common to find marine engines that have been replaced even when they are low hour for that reason.

 

[Wrench97]

That 3.0l was a common Industrial engine found in everything from forklifts, generators, pumps and run on gasoline, LPG, propane. It's entirely possible you have a rebuild from one of the other uses.

 

[Stuart in MN]

thanks Stuart ! I'll check out HAMB whatever that is ! Everything is a help !

HAMB is the nickname for the Jalopy Journal forum. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/forums/the-hokey-***-message-board.5/

 

[John Timmins]

I bought this boat in Georgia with 92 hours on the hour meter. It had a PA registration number. The original owner was in NY near Ithica - Watkins Glen area . Who knows ? the original engine in my boat could have frozen ?
The trailer and interior are in very good condition, and I'm sure it was garage kept engine.....but it could have frozen too !

 

[SGKent]

I bought this boat in Georgia with 92 hours on the hour meter. It had a PA registration number. The original owner was in NY near Ithica - Watkins Glen area . Who knows ? the original engine in my boat could have frozen ?
The trailer and interior are in very good condition, and I'm sure it was garage kept engine.....but it could have frozen too !

it would not be uncommon especially if the prior owner was fairly new to boating. Good luck getting it all sorted out. Lots of folks here helping.

 

[jenga70]

Mine serial number was 0M273XXX (X being numbers).

I did not see any pollution control equipment other than a PCV setup.

 

[dusterdude]

If its cam in block,its probably the old chevy 2 2.5 liter or the s10 style iron duke 2.5

Sent from my LG-US601 using Tapatalk

 

[SGKent]

I did research online. "1A020544 & up" is one of the last 3.0 serial numbers but to have it run all the way up to 1M seems a stretch. 1G motors are re-manufactured and crate motors. You may have to call Sea Ray customer service or Mercury Marine customer service. FWIW I had an engine years ago that was a larger Mercury outboard. It was never touched other than general tuneups. I could never get the advance curve to work right,a nd it would stumble when hitting the throttle firmly from an idle. One day I came across a parts listing for the engine. The distributor advance cam was a different number than what Mercury had put in it when they built it. Found the part in an old boat shop in Norcal, and once I installed it all the gremlins and stumbling solved itself. My lesson from that is that Mercury is not infallible, and they don't always follow their own production codes and lines.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

IDK if it's any help, but I found this:

https://www.perfprotech.com/blog/bo...ines-block-id-codes-4-cylinder-marine-engines

Tommy

 

[John Timmins]

thanks ! that's a great web site but the code listings do not show my code, the last 3 thins in my code are BL8 or possibly RL8