[How do I] Find My Engine Family Number? (In 2022)

Ever had to replace a catalytic converter and the manufacturer asked for the engine family? Engine family? Are you talking about the parents of the engine? Nah, engine family refers to the number issued by the EPA to identify a certain group of vehicles or engines for certification and compliance purposes. What's up guys, Oscar Gomez here from Master Automotive Training, smartautotraining.com. If you haven't done so already, go ahead and hit that like and subscribe button right now. This way you'll make sure that you're always alerted every time I drop a new video. Today's topic, engine families. Engine families are issued by the EPA and are not commonly used by automotive technicians. But when you do need to provide it to the parts house or a manufacturer, you'll be ready. In this video I'll be showing you guys what an engine family number means, where to find it, where to look it up. Go ahead and grab your tools guys, let's get ready, let's hit it. All vehicles sold in the United States have a unique drive terrain identifier called the test group or engine family number. This number allows owners, parts suppliers, service providers to determine the specifications and installed emission control equipment on the motor vehicle. Because many vehicles have several different configurations, this number will provide specific information about the emission control system and the exact standards that the vehicle was designed to meet. A manufacturer should apply for a new certificate and pay the appropriate certification fees for each family name that it intends to produce or sell in the United States. One of the common areas where you'll be able to find your engine family is using the VECI or ECS label, the vehicle information control system label, or the emission control system's ECS label is located in the engine compartment. VECI is vehicle emission control information and ECS is emission control system label which is used commonly by smog technicians and repair technicians on the field. This label is usually attached to the end of the hood, on the radiator support, or somewhere in the engine compartment giving you if the vehicle is California emission certified, the year, engine size, and of course the engine family. When looking at an emissions label, always take a look at the label itself and don't be surprised if you see a number of common terms. The US EPA uses many terms for family including engine family, test group, vehicle family, durability group, and the evaporative or refueling family. Each manufacturer is responsible for obtaining the proper certification and pay the appropriate fees for each family they intend to produce or sell here in the United States. The engine family number is usually made up of a 12 character code that's used to help identify all parts of a particular engine. This is a 12 digit code, so a quick breakdown of it would be the first digit would be the model year, digits 2, 3, and 4 are the manufacturer code, digit number 5 would be the industry sector code, 6, 7, and 8, 9 are the engine displacement, and 10, 11, and 12 are designated by the specific manufacturer and those three digits are actually correlated specifically to that vehicle. So let's break it down. Position number 1 indicates the model year of the vehicle. So perfect example, a code in 1 would be 2001, code 2 2002, code 3 2003, etc. Being we are in 2020, an L would indicate 2020 production. Positions number 2 through 4 usually indicate or determine the manufacturer code. A couple of examples here would be BMW is abbreviated BMX, Ferrari would be LFE, Ford is FMX, Chevrolet is GMX or LGM, Honda is HNX, Hyundai is HYX, Toyota is TYX, and so on and so forth. I'll post as many as I can on the link below, go ahead and click on that so you can get more information on the specific manufacturer code. Position number 5 determines the industry sector. For example, an A would be California only medium duty vehicles, a V in the 5th position would be a light duty vehicle, a T in the 5th position would be a light duty truck or medium duty passenger vehicle. Those are just to name a few. Go ahead and click on the link down below and I'll give you a full list created by the EPA so this way you can verify which industry sector this vehicle that you're looking at comes specifically made for. Position 6 through 9. These are going to be the engine displacements listed in liters. So no conversions will be necessary, they will be written out the way it is to be expected for that specific engine. So let's take a look see. We have two digits, a decimal point, and a third digit. According to the EPA the decimal point counts as a digit as well so that fills up those four digits. So if it's a 5.4 you might see 0.5, 0.4 meaning it's a 5.4 liter, or in some cases you'll see 5.4. Just to name a few. Always make sure that you guys look them up just to be on the safe side, however it always varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and the specific engine in which you are paying attention to or looking at. Positions 10 through 12. These are a combination of characters that are made in order to provide a unique ID for the engine family name. So this is created by the EPA or the manufacturer and this is to give it a unique ID number that's attached to the end of the 12 digit number. This is ending or closing the engine family number. For us it's always breaking it down so this way we can verify what year, the sector, the vehicle type, engine size, and then the last part unfortunately we don't have any information for us to cross reference unless you can get that from the manufacturer. And that's it guys! I hope you guys were able to learn something new today. This is some good information. I know we don't use this quite often. I know especially for us as smog technicians or the repair guys we really don't look at it besides to make sure that's the actual engine size that we're looking at. However if you are installing catalytic converters or emission component parts and you do need to know the engine family at least now you're going to be able to know where to find it. If you need more information on it click on the links down below where you'll be able to actually decipher it a little bit better and know more information about which specific vehicle you are actually looking at. 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The only way we can do that is by getting the word out there so make sure you guys are helping us do that. As always guys a good technician is always learning. Signing off here Oscar Gomez SmartAutoTraining.com