I've got some "new production" Estes E12 engines, and wanted to confirm I'm reading the date codes correctly. Its "J201020". I think this means "October 20, 2020. Most of the sources of info about Estes date codes seem to be rather dated, so I wasn't sure if was interpreting it right.
Wanted to confirm I'm reading Estes engine date codes correctly
- Thread starter Bill S
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All the recent E12 threads have me nervous. I have a new pack of 3 with the same code. How did these fly for you?
HI, I recently had a D12-3 "Non-Ejection Failure", it's logged on www.motorcato.org (oddly, it showed up twice). Anyhow, I've contacted Estes and asked them the question 3 times about deciphering the "Manufacturing Date Code" and no one in Penrose seems to know how to decipher the current "Manufacturing Date Code" which really seems odd to me. I've come to the similar guess as to the the Date Code reading the numbers as: Month in the first 2 digits, Day-of-the-Month the middle 2 digits and, Year as the last 2 digits.
Rmowens54
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They could be using a verion of the international format defined by ISO 8601, YYYYMMDD and are dropping the first two YY places. Of course it is hard to decifer from many of the codes. However, another possibility based on the codes from my inventory (following), is that there is no date. Too many repetitions of the 20 and 21 in the same sequence. Also the C6-0 and C6-3 being the same date is unlikely.
C6-0 J200121
C6-3 J200121
C6-7 J201120
D12-0 J201120
E12-4 C 21 03 21
E12-8 G 20 08 20
E12-0 A 21 03 21
C6-0 J200121
C6-3 J200121
C6-7 J201120
D12-0 J201120
E12-4 C 21 03 21
E12-8 G 20 08 20
E12-0 A 21 03 21
OK, I do believe this is the correct format. Here goes:
Letter= Month the Casing is made, ,,,,,,,,so......A= Jan, B=Feb, C=Mar, and so on.
_ _ = first two digits= Year the Casing was made.
_ _ = next "middle two" digits = Month motor was Loaded with fuel, time delay & top ceramic cap.
_ _ = last two digits = Year the motor was Loaded.
So, your C6-0 J200121 should go like this:
Casing was made "J"=Oct, "20"= 2020,
the motor was Loaded "01"=Jan, "21"= 2021
Also, after MUCH reading from many sources on the "Age of Black Powder" or "How Old can a Black Powder Motor be safe to use?" topics/questions - Several DECADES as long as they were stored well without wide temperature or humidity swings, kept nice and dry at room temp indoors -keep well below swings of temparature of 70 deg F from lows and highs -they don't deal well with wide temp exposures (Not in the garage or carport or attic). Also, keeping them bagged is a good idea, not-dropping is a really good idea(but they have to banged pretty hard).
-If you don't know about record keeping, a really Great Idea is to log any/all motor failures on the "MESS REPORT" at www.motorcato.org and logging the date code on "that" site is probably best for manufacturers and anyone else to see if there may have been a "bad batch".
Hope that is useful info.
Letter= Month the Casing is made, ,,,,,,,,so......A= Jan, B=Feb, C=Mar, and so on.
_ _ = first two digits= Year the Casing was made.
_ _ = next "middle two" digits = Month motor was Loaded with fuel, time delay & top ceramic cap.
_ _ = last two digits = Year the motor was Loaded.
So, your C6-0 J200121 should go like this:
Casing was made "J"=Oct, "20"= 2020,
the motor was Loaded "01"=Jan, "21"= 2021
Also, after MUCH reading from many sources on the "Age of Black Powder" or "How Old can a Black Powder Motor be safe to use?" topics/questions - Several DECADES as long as they were stored well without wide temperature or humidity swings, kept nice and dry at room temp indoors -keep well below swings of temparature of 70 deg F from lows and highs -they don't deal well with wide temp exposures (Not in the garage or carport or attic). Also, keeping them bagged is a good idea, not-dropping is a really good idea(but they have to banged pretty hard).
-If you don't know about record keeping, a really Great Idea is to log any/all motor failures on the "MESS REPORT" at www.motorcato.org and logging the date code on "that" site is probably best for manufacturers and anyone else to see if there may have been a "bad batch".
Hope that is useful info.
