I bought a 454 LTD engine for a project I am working on. The vin # is only 13 characters long instead of 17. Everything else is correct. I am wondering if anyone knows why or if I am looking at the wrong thing. I wanna find out the exact year. Also are



there any options besides OEM for the carbs?

 

That's the engine number, may partly match up with the VIN, but isn't required to be the full 17 characters a vehicle serial number must have. Here's a great explanation in Thumper Talk click here

 

Thank you for your help/ I am kind of confused. I have been told this is not a 454 ltd based on that vin #. I was told that this is the predecessor. From what I can find though the earlier engine was single overhead and air cooled. This one is definitely dual overhead and liquid cooled however. It looks the same as the pictures of 454s ive seen. Any opinion?

 

That is a 454, no question. The previous model was an air cooled 440, which was based on the 400. That's not an opinion, that is fact. I had a 400 triple, not the lower performing 400 four stroke twin. Plus I was selling Hondas and knew about the Kawasaki models during the 1980s full time and till 2006 part time.

Kawasaki rounded the engine size to 450 when they did the serial number. A common practice. The model was EN450, but displacement was 454cc. click here