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Maybe someone knows the answer.

The engine code as stamped on the side of the block by the dipstick in my car starts 23 6E, this follows the format that I'm familiar with in e30s.

I'm looking at another engine as a replacement and it starts 323EK/1 I'm not happy because this doesn't follow the convention I'm familiar with, but maybe it's from an earlier car?

Can anyone explain please? Jeroen, you normally know your stuff?

Haha well that is a code that is new to me as well. The regular coding on E21 engines has two lines:

line one says displacement, number of cylinders and a 2 digit code for example for a 323i that would be 2.3 litre 6 cylinder which would for example give 23 6 EA
line 2 is the engine number which should match the last 7 digits of the chassis number

do you have a photo?

I think grinding and hammering in a new code has been taken place in the past, maybe to make a new "matching numbers" car.

I always thought that EK meant an engine with CR suited to a Katalyst.
Maybe it is from an E30 323i but even then they were too early for a Kat

Ben

At first I thought it may have been a re-stamp by a reconditioning company, but then I found this website: http://www.ge39.com/files/zeigeinfo.pdf

So this is an M20B23 but built before BMW changed the engine numbering system.

The next question is when did the numbering system change? The car this is from is an '81 but I don't know if it was a replacement from an earlier car. Does anyone know when BMW changed their engine numbering system?

I've never seen the coding mentioned by you but I can imagine that was used somewhere before the facelift. Mine's a 81 and does have the coding as described:

323 EK/1 = 323i from 8/79 up
323 EK = 323i up to 8/79
EK = Einspritzer K-jetronik

Many thanks
Does anyone know when BMW switched to the newer engine code system?
The car this engine came from is '81 but I'm still wondering if it could be the original?

Never ever seen 323EK on any 323i engine so I can imagine this stopped around 1980 again, as I wrote, my 81 engine says 236EA and that (or likewise 206EA for 320/6) is the only code I remember seeing on E21 M20 engines over the past decades.