My ford x flow engine number is unreadable and I no longer have any documentation from the donor vehicle.
Will this be a serious issue for iva? If so any suggestions?

If you are the registered keeper, or were the last registered keeper, DVLA should be able to provide you the details.
There is a small charge.

(I tried it, but unfortunately couldn't take advantage of this, as I was never the owner of the car in question)

That's worth a try, although I can't remember if it was ever registered to me, I started the project 13 years ago, the got married, 5 kids and 13 years later!
I'm sure it's a familiar scenario for many others!

Any thoughts if the dvla route is a no go?

IIRC it's stamped - have you tried brushing some (very) thin paint over it in the hope it will catch in the letters?

I'll give that a try, but I think the top of the block may have been skimmed at some time, there is some indent left from the stamp, hopefully it will show up.

Can dvla work around this or is an engine number a must?

No engine number, no registration.
Try the paint ploy, and use a magnifying glass, with a light shining at various angles, and fill in the blanks.
If you can find someone with a scrap block, that may be useful

Thanks all for the suggestions.
I've now found some pics of the old escort donor so I will try dvla first. Otherwise I think I'll be hoping somebody has a scrap block

Try taking a picture with a digital camera. It's surprising what you can see when it's on your computer.

Eddie

quote:

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Originally posted by Smoking Frog
Try taking a picture with a digital camera. It's surprising what you can see when it's on your computer.

Eddie

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If it's skimmed, it does get lost. By any chance do you have the Escort VIN plate as the last 7 characters are the engine number.

I'm pretty sure the block was skimmed, there really is nothing to be read.
DVLA advised to use form V888 along with a covering letter and any supporting documents, and they may be able to release the engine number they have on record.
all I have is a photo of the escort shell after stripping out the running gear, hopefully this will be enough proof the car was scrapped.

The previous keeper never sent the logbook off, the new keeper slip is long lost and the chassis was crushed years ago so no vin!

The chap at dvla says if form v888 doesn't work it may be possible to request a number from ford or have one created by an authorised establishment, apparently the latter is often done with bare motorbike chassis etc.

I will post when I get a response from DVLA. Fingers crossed

if i remember right, ford replacement engines/crate engines don't have engine numbers, so i'm sure its not the end of the world, but i'm still not sure how it works...
maybe worth an anonymous call to ask a general question to VOSA? enigne was skimmed years ago when you used drove the original car, the number was skimmed off, or you had the engine replaced and the new one didn't have a number stamped on it, and it seems the garage that did the work didn't stamp the new one blah blah blah, see what they say