[andyg]

Of coarse they did make some "raised intake deck" 59 engines as well. They also had the boss for the oil gallery in the back mentioned earlier. This is shown in Joe Abbin's new book "Ford & Mercury Flathead V8 - Identification & Rebuilders Guide". Probably a crossover of using old and new patterns at the foundry somewhere in the years 43-early 46. Those blocks could be Ford prototypes as well. But if they turned out good those few blocks in the transition could have been used in production vehicles. It's also possible that Ford was going to call this new 41 "raised intake deck" (From what others have said, actually deck heights are the same, the block is recessed) the 59 series and for whatever reason they decided to wait. So it's possible that these were foundered in late 40 or 41 and then the 59 on the bell housing was removed for foundry reasons or marketing wasn't ready to market this "FORD'S new improved 59 series engine". My personal feelings are that the founders were testing the new patterns to make sure they worked good with the old patterns that continued to be used and Ford was going to introduce the new "239" in 42 or 43 but didn't because of war efforts. The last part of this is speculation of coarse.