76 GP Mystery VIN: 2J57P6P111026
 

Can anyone help me with this VIN? (2J57P6P111026) It is a mystery to me. The car is 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix. It has engine code "P". Engine code "P" is not specified in the 1976 Service manual supplement, or in the 1975 Service manual. In the 1973 service manual, engine code "P" indicates: V8, 400, 2BBL., Dual Exhaust. However, this car is a 1976 California car with single exhaust and catalytic converter.

The 76 service manual specifies a "J57" body style as being an SJ hard top coupe, but the car has no SJ emblems, and no rear sway bar. (Could have been removed). It doesn't seem as if the car has been modified in any way. It's a bench seat car, which makes it even more mysterious. The car has rally gauges and a four barrel carburator.

My question basically: What engine is in this car?

What do you think?

Here is the GM issued VIN card for 1976 passenger cars and trucks. This is the actual card that we carried with us in the assembly plant when building these vehicles.

http://service.gm.com/dealerworld/vi.../vincard76.pdf

You are correct that the 5th position is the engine code and is a P. According to the card, P = 350 cu in V8, 165 HP, single 4bbl carb, for Pontiac division.

I believe your confusion comes from trying to use the '73 service manual to decipher a 1976 mode year VIN.

K

Thanks for the information. It's amazing you actually built these cars.

I used the 1975 service manual and the 1976 service manual supplement as indicated (there was no complete service manual for 76, as far as I know). Neither of them included the engine code "P". Then I checked the 73 service manual just to see if there was an option that may have been omitted in the 75 and the 76 manuals.

It is interesting that the 76 service manual has a typo as it specifies the J57 as an SJ Grand Prix hardtop coupe, and the K57 as a Grand prix hardtop coupe, while your VIN built sheet specifies the opposite: K57 = Grand Prix SJ, J57 = Grand prix.

Seeing the VIN Build sheet explains everything. Thanks again.

You are welcome; technically I didn't start until 1979 but in a lot of areas there hasn't been much change since then.

I'm not surprised to find errors and omissions in the service documents. All of this paperwork was done manually, by human beings, so there are lots of opportunities for errors. Additionally the service guys were kind of "second banana" while the focus was on making sure the production paperwork and processes were correct.

K