Engine Tag "554 J" ??

    I recently got Bob Mannel's Ford small block V8 book and its great!!

    However read as I have I cannot figure out what the "J" is for on the bottom right of my engine tag.....everything else is very clear.

    I recently bought a HIPO clone 4100 Autolite carburetor from Jon @ Pony and with the info I gave him as to my car being built in July of 1965 he stamped the carbs base plate with a "J" at the end of the numbers as well as the tag he provided, does this "J" mean JULY???

    if it does I feel kind of stupid now!

    The engine identification number for the 65 hipo 289 with manual transmission is 554J. The "J" is just an integral part of the code number. The same number should be on the decal on the coil bracket or water pump (if it's an early car). The decal would read "C1 554J"

    You are talking about two different subjects. The engine tag has nothing to do with the carburetor stamping. The 65 Mustang HiPo engine tag number was 554. There was a suffix, but Ford never listed it unless it was necessary to distingish between two different engines. Best to use the data from someone else's engine tag for the suffix. J was a common letter, but I don't know if there were others. Good place for other owners to chime in with their engine tag data. On the bottom left of the tag is the date code. Should be something like 5-G if your Mustang was built in July 1965


    The Carburetor stamping Jon used was probably C5OF-J which was a 65 Mustang with PCV valve. The J in this case has nothing to do with a date. It is just a sequence letter for identification purposes. Only the carburetor tag carried a date code. Yours would be something like 5GB, if the second week in July 1965. The last letter could be A, B, C, D, or E for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th week of the month, respectively.

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