Flathead engine ID

[WQ59B]

I have a '40 COE, but the engine's bell housing date code is 11/1943 ('K 15 3'), the heads are 59AB, and the distributor is the diver's helmet style (correct for '41 & earlier). Sounds like a 'back-inna-day' rebuild using a number of parts, IMO.

I read that FoMoCo started production of engines for civilian replacement in late '44, Is the theory behind a late '43 block that it would have been military intended? Anything else noteworthy on these?

[Bruce Lancaster]

If engine is pre-1946 (59 on bell, heads don't matter!) you need detail to date it...
Manifold surface of block: Is there a 1/4" 99 STAMPED at right front? Is there a raised area of block iron nearly matching intake gasket, or is top of block flat all the way across?
Under heads...bore? In center vertical row of water holes, do you have one or two that are trapezoidal?
Are there 2 vertical ribs on each side of block, leading down to wide places with core plugs on pan rails?
Wartime...post-about 1943 engines and all postwar will have a raised circular boss toward right of the two oil holes at back. A few engines were drilled here...full flow bypass provision.

[WQ59B]

'59' on bell : yes
'99' stamp : no
top of block @ intake flat : no- slight rise under intake, like this :


vertical ribs on side of block : no
straight pan rails : yes

Haven't opened the engine, hoping not to.

[Bruce Lancaster]

If it has 59 on bell, it is from late '45-48 period or same thing made slightly later for replacement parts. The riser under manifold is a 1941-WWII characteristic and if there is a 59 on bell that presumably marks it as an early production one made with some earlier molding cores. True 59's are 3 3/16, a few were made as 3 1/16 as replacements for prewar blocks and sold with 59 marking but a part number in the book with 41A prefix.

[WQ59B]

Bruce- what do you make of the late 1943 date code on the bell?

[Bruce Lancaster]

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I think that may be something else if the block has a "59", unless it is actually a date from the forms used. Dunno. Anyhow, the "5" in 59 should be the date of intended first use, which ran a bit late and became a 1946 model.
There have been a couple of reports on here of apparently early 59's with front block and manifold characteristics from prewar/wartime blocks. The big change for the 59 was the altered angle between valves, but there seem to be indications that some late wartime engines had this done...?

[rotorwrench]

I have a 1945 Operator's Manual for the 1945 Ford Commercial Car as they called it (pickup to most folks) and it is dated May 25, 1945. They were in production for agricultural purposes but the cars didn't start to come along until after the war was over in August of 45. The 41A block (1944 design designator) was a replacement 221 block for the prewar cars & trucks. I've only seen a few of them and they all had the 59 on the back but were 3 1/16" bore like the early models. A lot of internal characteristics are same as the early prewar stuff but the outside shell is 59. They must have used core parts from early engines and set them up in the later core boxes for the 59 types just to get them out the door.

A lot of the other numbers on the back bell area have proved to be jiberish to anyone except maybe the guys who set up the core boxes. It may just be coincidence that it looks like a date. Most of them are just random numbers.

[Ed Pitts]

Here is a post war replacement block that came out of a 1939 farm truck. Note the round holes in the center of the block which normally indicates a 100 hp engine but it is a 221 block with a 3 1/16 inch bore. This particular one is a 59 Z block.
Ed

[WQ59B]

10-4 on that 'date code' not being one.
Sticking with it being a '46-48 motor.
Thanks.