Fw 190 engine number

[Peter Kassak]

HI all,

I am wondering if it is posisble to identify W.Nr of a Fw 190 (late models A-8, F, G possibly) based on its engine number. Did not see any lists or similar identifications yet.
Anyone can help?

Thanks

Peter

[Milos Gazdic]

Hello Peter,
Unfortunately I don't think there is any connection of between these two given by any rule or order. Simply the available power egg would be attached to available fuselage & sometimes power egg would be changed during the life of the airframe which would bring even further confusion to the things.
I would love to be proven wrong since there were few times when the front of the aircraft it shown late in the war clearly showing it's power egg number but not showing the W.Nr. and such chart or database would for sure help in solving quite a few "mysteries".
Best,
Milos

[harrison987]

Sadly, no...

There is a falsely advertised Fw190 D9 that was restored to static, where the seller is claiming the engine is from a specific werk #, and it has history (says he was able to match the werk number of the engine to the werk number of a plane).

It is a complete lie, as the engine was a barn-find...and was never attached to an aircraft (I know the person who found it).

It is impossible of ID an engine to an aircraft...and this seller knows that. I think he is just looking for someone uneducated to come along and buy it.

In short...it is impossible to ID any engine to ANY aircraft.

[Milos Gazdic]

Airplane in question in Mike's comment is Dora - but same applies to all models of Fw 190 Peter. Sadly.

[Peter Kassak]

Anyone can tell me how the BMW engine numberlooked like? Can it be found on the valves, or where it is located on the engine itself please?

[S Sheflin]

Hello Peter,

Hopefully one of our resident Typenschild experts will answer-up. Meantime, I’ll take a stab at it.

Luftwaffe aircraft engines usually featured a Typenschild (ID tag). These tags were much like to ones found on Luftwaffe aircraft and listed: Gerät-Nr. (Model number); Werknummer (Serial number); and a Manufacturer or Hersteller code (three letter ID maker code). These were riveted or screwed to engines in various places.

In addition—especially later in the war—BMW 801 engines often displayed their six-digit Motornummern roughly hand-painted on one of their cooling fan blades, and/or in larger numerals on the lower oil cooler ring.

I hope this of some help.

Respectfully,

Steve Sheflin

[stephen f. polyak]

I am not positive, but I suspect this is a main (Werk-Nr.) identification plate from a BMW 801 engine…

http://fw190.hobbyvista.com/woods2.htm

My thoughts… I can imagine that when a new aircraft left a factory, particularly during the first-half of the war, reliable records existed that showed the engine and airframe pairing by Werk-Nr. Such links may have also followed an aircraft/engine in the form of service and maintenance records, while engine swaps over a plane's operational life added detours. Over time, production accounting practices likely deteriorated, field records were probably not always kept up with, and in the end, the various records were almost certainly destroyed, lost and scattered. (Perhaps something is buried in an archive?) So if you happen to know an engine serial number, that's about all you will know, versus it being a reliable pointer to the specific aircraft it powered.