Flathead Motor VIN

We got a really cool project we're gonna be doing today. We're gonna take this 1942 UL flathead motor and put it in this chopper here. Now, when you look at this motor and you say in 1942 UL, what does that mean? How do you know what it is? Well, these motors are all have a VIN number.

VIN stands for vehicle identification number, all of them have it. It's a way for the, you know, the government to regulate what was made uh for you to get a title, have your license plate, get insurance on it and so forth. So when you buy an old bike, you want to understand what kind of motor you're getting. If it's a U or UL, it's a 74 inch flathead like we see here if it's a Ulh or a, uh it could be an 80 inch flathead if it's an Eel or an Flel and FL went from Panhead to knuckleheads, all those errors. So you have to understand what those codes are.

When you look at a VIN number, you'll see two digits to start and that's usually the, the year. So in this case, the two first two digits on this are 42, 2nd two letters or one letter or three letters depending on what it is. This one is a UL which again tells us it's a 74 inch big twin flatted next to it. You'll see this is another flathead but don't get uh get them mixed up. This is actually a WL so it's a war era W motor.

These are only a 45 cubic inch. So they're a lot smaller displacement. Uh They have different frames, different configurations, different clutch systems, different uh uh all kinds of things. So when you buy a motor, just make sure you do your research to understand what kind of frame do I have that this motor is gonna go into to make sure it's gonna work without, without too much crazy fabrication. Just looking at the difference between the 80 inch or 74 inch and eight inches from the 45 inches.

You can tell just the size difference. Looking at the head gaskets, you can see here this is the big twin 80 inch gasket. This is the 45 inch gasket. So you can tell the difference just in the combustion chamber, the heads, the valves, everything's bigger. OK?

And that's what gives you that more cubic inches there. So when you look at these things again, research, look at what you have, ask questions, get online, make sure you buy the right motor for what you're doing for that application. So you don't end up with something that you can't use.