Listing of engine prefixes for Holden sixes
Have you ever wondered if the motor in your old Holden is the original or not? Well unfortunately I don’t have a list of all the numbers ever produced, but I have a listing of prefixes for different engine numbers in different models. I hope it can be of some use to you. There may be some reason as to why your prefix doesn’t match, maybe they ran out of a certain engine just at the model changeover, or it may be some other special model engine, spare parts sale etc. but this should cover most of them.
Note: (L) denotes Low compression (H) denotes high compression
132 Grey Motor: FX – no prefix, FJ – “U”, FE – “L” , FC – “L” .
138 Grey motor: FB – “B” , EK – “B” , EJ “J” .
149 Red motor: EH (L) – “Y” , EH (H) – “H” , HD (L) – “149E” , HD (H) – “149D” .
161 Red Motor: HR (L) – “161W” , HR (H) – “161R” , HK-HG (L) – “161L” , HK-HG (H) – “161H” , LC (L) – “2600L” , LC (H) – “2600H” , LC (GTR) – “2600S”
173 Red Motor: HQ (L) – “173L” , HQ (H) – “173H” , LJ (H) – “2850H” , LH-UC (H) – “2850D”
179 Red Motor: EH – “M” , HD – “179F” , HD (X2) – “179X” .
186 Red Motor: HR – “186A” , HR (186HP) – “186K” , HK-HG (186HP) – “186P” , HK-HG (186S) – “186S” , LC (XU-1) – “186S”
202 Red Motor: HQ (L) – “202L” , HQ (H) – “202P” , LJ (XU-1) – “202X” , LH-UC (H) – “3300L” ,
After HQ the second letter of the model code was used as the first letter of the engine prefix, ie: J for HJ; X for HX; Z for HZ