Hey there I just picked up this motor from the junkyard it looks great internally. It has this tag on the outside of the motor marked dec. 2020, is this like a rebuilder tag or just when it received some kind of service? Was pulled from a 2008 suburban.
photos show tag and location on engine.
Sorry if this post is in the wrong forum.

 

Well, it's got the usual "rebuilder" overheat tell-tale in the freeze plug in the head, so...

 

I genuinely don't know what that means. I honestly didn't notice the freeze plugs looked weird till you said something. The heads had been off before bc it had fellpro gaskets, but the surface was flat and the gaskets didn't appear to be leaking.

 

junkyards also use those overheat plugs, and finding one that has had the heads removed is not really uncommon.
That could be a rebuilders tag, or a junkyards tag..

 

That Tag on the block is a rebuilder tag. It contains a Date and a serial number for records. It's likely a GM reman engine.

 

The tag is on the block, and the tell-tale is on the head. (where rebuilders usually put them) Therefore seems unlikely that only the heads or only the block were involved in "rebuild".

Never seen GM use one of those tell-tales. Not that I've seen EVERYTHING; maybe they do, or have started to, or do it on some motors, or SOMETHING; butt FWIW... I've only ever seen em in the aftermarket.

That tell-tale contains a pellet of some material that melts at about 250 or 260°F. IOW hot enough that if the cooling system works right it will never even be approached, butt cool enough that the engine might still work and apparently be OK butt has suffered abuse from improper installation. Might have a number on it somewhere, such as 125 for example (125°C = 257°F). Warranty is void if the substance melts and drips out the hole in the center, which is REAL obvious when it happens. They always put those in a conspicuous and easily observed location on the engine so that it can be spotted at a glance when the customer comes in and reports "it just blew up all on its own" or "smoked like a freight train from day 1" or other similar oral diarrhea and demands a replacement at no cost with liquidated damages for installation and loss of use. Junkyards do indeed use em, as well as rebuilders; for the same reason. However, junkyards generally just use the yellow paint pen, not a tag like that, which would be FAR harder to install on random assembled used engines, than on torn-down and cleaned-up castings. Plus, it's a 2008 vehicle, with a motor purchased at a junkyard in 2025, and a date in 2020; highly unlikely the junkyard has had the motor sitting around just tagged and waiting for 4½ years. Hard to tell from that photo whether the tell-tale is new or dates back to 2020 like the rebuild, butt if I were the betting kind, I'd bet it's got the patina of age on it. The tag most certainly does: it's been there since LONG BEFORE that vehicle was wrecked. Many many miles.

Personally I don't think I'd want a rebuilt engine from a junkyard pull. If I saw that when they tried to hand it to me I'd walk.

 

The motor was in the car. It had been in the yard 2 days and I asked them to pull it for me, they don't do anything to the motors and they don't really even pull the motors to sell. Anything that was done to the motor was done by someone else. I'm impressed with the condition of the engine honestly it makes really good compression on all the cylinders and looks practically brand new on the inside. The only things concerning I found were the spark plugs were somewhat melted and some jackwad used way too much silicone when he did the oil pan gasket. The tell tale just says "warranty void if removed". Keep in mind I paid all of $490 for this engine I didn't pay top dollar or anything.

 

Cores are getting harder to find. I’d buy a truckload of those at $490 each. Good on you sir.

 

GM crate motor