October 24, 1984

THE $1 million worth of outbound automobile engines seized by Federal marshals at the port of Houston a few months ago looked like new products off the General Motors production line. They were even packaged in what appeared to be G.M. boxes. In reality, they were counterfeit engines taken from cars in junkyards and painted to look new. ''There is counterfeiting that leads to theft and there's counterfeiting that leads to murder,'' said Joseph Dawson, spokesman for the Federal Office of Consumer Affairs. ''I hate to think of what could have happened if those shipments had not been seized. I hate to think of all the shipments out there that have not been seized.'' ''It's one thing to talk about counterfeit Izod shirts, they don't result in harm to your body,'' said James Bikoff, president of the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition, a San Francisco-based association of 300 companies. ''The same doesn't go for counterfeit brake linings, hospital heart pumps and drugs,'' all of which, he said, have been sold in the United States, all of which ''can kill you.''

The leading combat commander of the Salvadoran Army and three other senior officers died today when their helicopter crashed in a rebel-held area. Their deaths appear to be the most significant setback the Army has suffered in five years of war here. An army spokesman, Lieut. Col. Ricardo Cienfuegos, said at a news conference tonight that the commander, Lieut. Col. Domingo Monterrosa, died at about four o'clock this afternoon near the town of Joateca in Morazan Province, 120 miles northeast of the capital.

Excerpts from one report, page A6. MANILA, Wednesday, Oct. 24 - The five-member panel investigating the killing of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. said Tuesday that it had unanimously rejected the contention of the military that Mr. Aquino had been shot by a lone gunman hired by Communists. Rather, the commission said, Mr. Aquino's death resulted from a military plot. But, after an inquiry lasting almost a year, the panel split over how high in the chain of command responsibility should be placed. As a result, the panel said, it was issuing two reports on the investigation.

Buried in the trade bill that President Reagan is expected to sign in the next few days are several provisions that experts say mark a coming of age for service exports. The bill gives services, long the poor cousins of goods in international commerce, equal status in several critical areas. The provisions in the bill, and path- breaking discussions that the United States is holding with Israel and Canada to liberalize trade in services bilaterally, are viewed as a breakthrough for service exporters. They have been lobbying hard for the changes. ''Over the next three years we'll see more bilateral agreements on services, as with Israel. In the longer term, three to five years, there'll either be new codes or changes in the codes or new agreements on the multilateral front,'' said Harry Freeman, a senior vice president of American Express, a major trader in services.

An article Oct. 17 about grants by the J. Paul Getty Trust to four Los Angeles cultural institutions misidentified Earl A. Powell 3d. He is director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.