I don't have the original service/warranty records, but I do know people who have access. I do have access to copies of them for LC and LJ Torana, and most of these were in the same engine number sequence as HQ-HZ Holden 6cyl and V8 engines. When you sit down and look at them you get a better picture of how the numbers work. These engines were built at Fishermans Bend and all stamped there. They were sent out in batches to the assembly plants, and then stored for varying periods until they were used. Common engines like QL, QR etc got used up pretty quickly. But rarer engines like QT and especially CK or JP didn't, and you find rarer engine prefixes appearing next to a PSN (last bit of the VIN which is how the records are recorded) where the next PSN has a more common engine, and the numbers vary by 10,000 in some cases. What is happening here is the last of say a batch of 308's was used in a car, and the next car in sequence got the first of a newer batch of say 202's. Plus, depending on how they were packed into storage, an engine might have sat around for a long time. Also, some plants didn't use a lot of a certain engine, or heaps of another one so they held heaps in stock. So when you look at engine numbers between plants you can also see a large difference sometimes. Just looking at LC and LJ records where most were Adelaide or Brisbane build, cars a month or more apart from different plants can have consecutive numbers. HQ-HZ are worse as there were 5 x assembly plants in Australia plus exported stuff.
In addition to the above, the time difference between an engine being cast, and it getting built and then stamped with an engine number varied greatly in some cases. One case as explained to me was if a tap broke off in a block, it would get put aside until a later date eg engine plant down day, or the apprentices were back from school or whatever. Then that block would get fixed and put back into the production sequence. This explains the sometimes large gaps in timeframe, however it is not obvious on Holden numbers unless you have access to a large amount of data. Chev engines however have the assembly data stamped onto the engine number pad, and it is readily apparant on all of these with timeframes varying from a few days to 3 months difference.
The way to get the best hope of finding the right number is to email me the car's ID and i'll see what I can dig up. The only problem children are Adelaide HQ Elizabeth post mid June 1974 and all HZ after mid 1978.
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