[ford38v8]

Walt, I believe that your heads will have to be flycut to mate with any 59 series engine, due to the wider spaced valves. With the pencil ledge though, it would be a strange one to also have the large 59 cast into the bell. We all assume that these changes took place simultaniously but I guess anything is possible!

The original 81A had that number on the face, off to the side. The 81A heads changed from the 1938 version, adding a cast "A" to the face, and moving the 81A to the top next to the manifold beginning in 1939. Other differences are that the 1938 version has only the driver side (6050) drilled & tapped for the temp sender. (No hot water heater in '38).

During the '39 production, the 6049 was discontinued for a while due to both heads being machined identically with the water heater hole. This hole had a plug installed if no heater was installed.

I'm not sure if you'll wind up with the same cc.

If any of my info is incorrect, (working from my senile memory here) I'm sure to hear about it!