Engine Qualifiers

Engine Qualifiers are substrings of the NAPA supplied Engine string and ProMapper allows you to map to these substrings using Conditions. The Engine Qualifiers are “Engine Desig”, “Engine Version”, “Cyl Head” and “Valves” and are defined on the NAPA Engine Qualifier Maintenance screen (Maintain > NAPA engine qualifiers).

To complicate matters, some engine qualifiers also appear as coded Comments. Some Engine Designations, for example, appear in the qualifier and others in the Comments. It’s clear in that case which to use. If the Engine Designation isn’t listed in the qualifiers, use a Comment. Valves appear in both. Engine Versions also appear in both. Cylinder Head Type, however, are never Comments.

To get a clean mapping, it is very important to start with source data without redundant engine qualifiers. That’s the only way to handle SOHC/DOHC/OHV, for example. You shouldn’t use these on your source data unless they are in the engine qualifier and they are only in the engine qualifier if they matter for that engine (according to NAPA).

If you have applications that don’t map because of Cylinder Head Type, you have only three options, (1) manually map and don’t map the cylinder head type, (2) remove the cylinder head type from the source (after checking to make sure it is not really necessary) or (3) leave the application unmapped.

There is actually a third option which you can sometimes use. If, for example, an engine has a designation, and that engine always came with a certain camshaft or valves, you could include it in Engine Qualifier maintenance, and it will effectively be ignored. For example, the GM 7.0L LS7 was always 16 Valve, so by putting 16 Valve in the Valve column, it will match when coded on an application.

Some qualifiers will also match a Condition. For example, DOHC is both a (Qualifier) and a Condition (“Engine Qualifier”). As a rule, always select the one with (Qualifier). It will match any engine qualifier string that has DOHC. The other one will only match DOHC by itself.

The NAPA vehicle database includes a separate table for Fuel types, but “Diesel” requires special handling. If your application calls out Diesel, map it to the “Fuel” condition (as you would expect). ProMapper includes special logic to then select the correct engine (with Diesel included in the Engine Qualifier) and remove Diesel from the Fuel column on output.

See Also: Mapping A Condition With Except