It's probably one of the models with the most conflicting info out there as it was the only model with a Series III being built that ended up utilising equipment from another model (VT) being incorporated within.
As far as Series II is concerned there is quite a bit of equipment that drip fed into the vehicles as old stock was exhausted such as the change over of the Transmission cooler lines that went from rubber hose slip on to cooler and then changed over to the screw on fittings. Traditionally it's been thought that the change over was at Series II but it was changed over much later during Series II production (around November 1996) if I'm correct.
The Genuine Service Manuals aren't very precise either except that they use PSN figures (Production Serial Number) to pinpoint the exact change of various components, but no date of when that actually happened.
i agree with the conflicting data, it's probably the worst. and most people are wrong with the info. assuming it started at the beginning of series 3 production.
as with the trans cooler bit you mentioned, my VS is a September 1996 series 2,so its an early series 2 but the transcooler had push on barbs, but its a mix bag out there. could be in this case that a dealership would fit towbars inhouse and not from factory so they use what they have around, noticed vs/vt's have about 4/5 different types of transcoolers fitted
Yes - they had the boss and thread tapped in the deck to retain the spider plate, but no spider plate or roller lifter setup. Block itself was the only part that was from the roller cam setup. Can run standard ft lifters in the roller cam block. The 99 model statesmans definitely exist - kicking myself i sold mine now but sold it to a mate so i still get to see it lol. Plus mines got s3 running gear anyway lol.
I honestly don't think there's an accurate cut off date for the use of the older style engine - it's luck of the draw for 97-98 vu prefix blocks (and can be a cheap way to get your hands on a roller cam block because most sellers look for spider plate/vm or vn prefix)
dam...would of been handy to know, the VM prefixed block i used i stripped down, and done away with the spider cradle setup and fitted tie bar lifters instead.
