It's common practice to refer to popular models by their prefix, rather than the name of the model itself. These prefixes all correspond to a specific model, and, in most cases, to a subset of that model. You're looking for an ESN with a three number/letter prefix, followed by seven digits. That's why sometimes customers will give us part numbers, casting numbers, or VINs, because it's not clear what they should be looking for.įortunately, all Caterpillar ESNs are similarly formatted, making them easily identifiable. We know it can sometimes be tricky to locate an ESN, especially if you're not familiar with the format a manufacturer uses. What's the Format of Your Caterpillar ESN? The data plate can be found in different places depending on the model type.Ĭaterpillar, though, is usually pretty consistent, so the driver side valve cover is a good place to start. Often, this plate is on the driver side of the valve cover, but it's important to note that not all engines are consistent. When looking for your engine serial number, the data plate is a good place to start. Want all your CAT ESN info in one convenient place? Download our free quick guide ! In this post, we're going through common places to find this information!

So you might be wondering where the ESN is located on CAT engines. It helps us ensure you're getting exactly what you need the first time you order. That's why it's important to know your diesel engine's serial number. We know that when you're looking for parts for your Caterpillar engine, you don't want to waste time and money on the wrong parts. For those of us who know we can still pick our way through the crap and at least reduce that to an 8-digit Serial Number. Now we have things like B9H, RJG, 2BW, & SPD as prefixes and they haven't even got warmed up yet.Ībout the same time off-highway machinery was included into the International System of Vehicle Identification Numbers or VIN, so now we have a 17-digit plate just like you'd see on your car, although in Cat's case it's called a P(roduct)IN plate. The same thing applied to the prefix, but then after years of 2U, 4X, etc, all of a sardine they ran out of prefixes and had to add a 3rd digit to them. But at that time no-one had figured they were going to turn out on-highway truck engines by the tens of thousands. There weren't as many models for a start and it was usually unecessary to go to the extent of a 5-figure Serial Number, up to 9999 machines of a given model was fine. Back in the mists of time, about the time JC was a carpenter and the world was a sunnier, happier place - things were different.

Cat c13 engine serial number location