I am interested in knowing the year of a JDM engine swap.
Does anyone know how to interpret a Japanese VIN?

Example JDM VIN:
EK9-1004192

There are also a number of Japanese characters, I could post pictures but I'm sure you all know what the JDM Blue VIN Plate looks like.

 

look at the stamping on the head right above the exhaust manifold to get the year. the JDM VIN plate does not tell the year as far as i know (can't be sure since i can't read Japanese) when i am really bored one day maybe i will try to look up what the symbols translate to

 

the characters on the blue plates probably translate to : "dumbass americans pay up the *** for this shiney blue plate"

 

EK9-1004192

EE Kay Nine - 10/04/2001

you add the 19 and 2 and you get 21 and you place two zero's in between the 2 and the 1...you get 2001

 

Hmm, an EK manufactured in 2001, I should buy this as it must be quite the rare find. Am I not wrong in believing the EK line was 96-00, with the EK4 being 96-98 and EK9 being 99-00?

 

well this method does not work for EG6...because i just tried it and apparently my car was manufactured 11/11/2006....???

 

2006, car of the future here today. Does it fly?

Seriously, is it that noone knows the meaning of these 7 numbers, or did D6 hit it on the head with "the characters on the blue plates probably translate to : "dumbass americans pay up the *** for this shiney blue plate""?

P.S. I'm australian.. so do I still have to pay up the ***?

 

best thing to find the year of a motor is still to look at the head stamp....i just proved this add this to that and add two zero's in between doesn't work always.

 

you need a decoder ring from a JDM 80's cereal.

 

You read the VIN tag the same way you read an engine block number. And I've already posted many of times how to distinguish what year the motor/car is by reading those numbers.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b cruz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you need a decoder ring from a JDM 80's cereal.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Werd... that's the easier way

 

Yeah I noticed that the block serial is also 7 digits. I tried searching for info on how to read the block serial number but I found nothing of any great help. Many threads suggested that if the first number is a 1 then the car was built in '94. But since this is an EK9 motor that cannot be possible.

Do you have any further info on this block serial number decoding?

Vin is listed as:
EK9-1004192

Block is listed as:
B16B
1004327

So do I have the magic 1994 EK9?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b cruz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you need a decoder ring from a JDM 80's cereal.</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol

 

see my avitar...
took me a while to decode the coke CAN LOL
(BTW...not me in the PIC)