Police Interceptor

[Ross in East Texas]

All my life I have heard talk of the "Police Interceptor". This was mostly in the "Y Block" years. Does anyone know what, if any, differences were in these engines?

[JeffB2]

In the 1952-54 Ford Shop Manual there is a special section for the Intercepters the 1954 Fords used a 1954 Mercury 256 with 4 barrell and dual exhaust rated at 161 HP as compared to the standard 239 Y-block 2 barrel single exhaust at 130 HP,the Ford-O-Matics were also beefed up as well.I have a 1954 Intercepter Intake& Carb listed for sale with pictures in the Swap Meet here.There is a ton of info on the net about the Intercepters in late 1957 they were also the first with the 332 FE block.Some of the 52-53 Police cars used the 255 Merc flathead rather than the 239.Another interesting story is the "Ghost cars" of the 1960' & 70's produced by the "Big 3".The first picture is the U.S. Army Highway Patrol used on the Autobahn in Germany in 1955.

[Ole Don]

The Interceptor was usually a Mercuruy powered upgrade. I worked at Ford in '73. We built 500 two doors for Nebraska. They had a special frame, different rear axle with 2.9 ratio, station wagon front end with big brakes, a roof reinforcement for a light bar, and the coolest engine ever to come down the line. It was a 429 with cast headers, finned aluminum rocker covers, some had Quadrajets and some had Holleys, a huge alternator, and a C 6 with a first gear lockout. I asked an engineer about the lock out, he said its to prevent uninteded wheel spin. These cars were built to fly.

[Ross in East Texas]

I have a friend that swears that his dad bought a '55 Ford with a 312 "Police Interceptor" engine. He even says that his father had to get permission from the local Sheriff before he could purchase it!
I just can not believe this. Every bit of information that I can dig up says the first 312's were not cast until late 1956?
What do all the experts here say?

[40cpe]

My family bought a new '58 Fairlane 500. '58 was the first year for the FE block. The 332 was the base FE and the 352 our car had in it was the Interceptor and rated at 300 hp.

[Kahuna]

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40 coupe is correct. In 1958 the 352 CI engine in the Fairlanes was called the Thunderbird Interceptor Special. It was the 300 Horse engine

[Lamar Wadsworth]

Originally Posted by Ross in East Texas

I have a friend that swears that his dad bought a '55 Ford with a 312 "Police Interceptor" engine. He even says that his father had to get permission from the local Sheriff before he could purchase it!
I just can not believe this. Every bit of information that I can dig up says the first 312's were not cast until late 1956?
What do all the experts here say?

No expert (an "ex" is a has been and a "spurt" is just a drip under pressure), but yo ur skepticism is well founded. The first 312 was introduced in late '56 calendar year, '57 model year. I don't doubt that somebody put one in a '55, as it's a bolt-in swap, and the '55 may well have been an old cop car, but it didn't start life with a 312. As far as having to get permission from the local sheriff to buy the car, I have my doubts about that. Any car that the owner wants to sell can be bought by any person who has the money to pay the seller's price.

[Ross in East Texas]

By the way, this was in the 50's and the car was nearly new I believe. But I agree with you, this is in all probability, pure BS.

[Daves55Sedan]

When I was a Junior in High school (1972) I bought my first car a 55 Ford I am still driving today (pictured at left). I had the only 55 Ford in the school parking lot. Another fellow had a 56 fordor sedan he thought was a police interceptor. It had a y-block engine with dual exhausts, 4bbl intake, dual point distributor with dual vacuum diaphragm and had steel valve covers like the ordinary Y-blocks but the had "Thunderbird Special V8" sticker on them. The car did have a spotlight and the running light wiring had been modified with a second flasher for flashing lights. The car had Master guide power steering and swift-sure power brakes. I dont doubt that the engine was a 312, but was it a police interceptor ???

[Ross in East Texas]

It definitely does sound like this was, at least, a retired police vehicle doesn't it?
Your 55 looks very much like one that I traded for in about 1965 except mine wasn't nearly as slick as yours. Mine did have a 292 in it but it came from a truck. I sold this car for $100, sure wish that I had it back now.

[Milt/Las Vegas]

The little town I grew up in police dept.had a 59 station wagon supposedly with a 361 police intercepter.They would never let us look at it.

[LOWRIDER]

"Had to get permission from the sheriff to buy it". I don't believe that one. I've worked for car dealers for 40 yrs and some of the deals that have been made would make you sick. Car salesmen aren't considered sleazy for no reason.

[rick55]

"Another fellow had a 56 fordor sedan he thought was a police interceptor. It had a y-block engine with dual exhausts, 4bbl intake, dual point distributor with dual vacuum diaphragm and had steel valve covers like the ordinary Y-blocks but the had "Thunderbird Special V8" sticker on them."
All 56 292's were called Thunderbird Specials with everything you mention. It was an advertising ploy of Ford as the 292 was the 1955 Thunderbird engine (though it was possible to get a 56 with a 312). They weren't really lying, just stretching the truth. The distributor you talk about is the standard dissy fitted to all 4 barrel cars but it didn't have dual points.
For their day the 56's were a pretty quick car with the 292 and all the accompanying fruit. The lack of the crossover pipe contributed significantly to power output.
Regards

[Paul's Garage]

My uncle ordered a '55 Ford new in 55 he said that for many years, you could always special order a Lincoln motor in the Fords if you could pay for it, so he put the biggest Lincoln motor in the '55. They had upgraded chassis and transmissions. Anyway long about 1960 he traded it in on a new Ford 4 door. At the time he was working for American Aircraft in Tulsa,OK. A guy called him and asked about buying the '55 and he told it was a good car but he had better be a good driver to keep it on the road. The guy told not to worry he handle any car made. At that time Oklahoma left the license plates on the cars, and my Uncle went to work one day and a co-worker was laughing about seeing a '55 Ford climb a light pole on the way to work. My uncle asked what color it was and it was the right color,then he asked if he saw the tag number and yes and he remembered it, needless to say it was my uncles old Ford with the big Lincoln engine. End of story.

[sanborn]

I don't know if my comments are really "germain" to the discussion. But, coming from a moonshine state(TN), I do know that the state had engines built for Ford trooper cars that were not stock. Example---55 and 56 Fords that had 3X2 intakes with aftermarket cams(Isky, I believe). A local shop did the engines. They also built some oval race engines---and probably for moonshiners too!

Later, in the 70s Georgia had Pontiac Trans Ams setup for moonshine chasing. They had 421HO engines, four speed, some with 2X4 intakes. I believe that Catousa County still had a couple about five years ago.

[40 Deluxe]

The '59 wagons with "361 police interceptor" engines were no doubt just ordinary Edsel engines with the Interceptor label. 9 more cubic inches couldn't be that big as deal anyway!

[dga1028]

Ford usually has a couple of 'packages' that can be installed which are for the most part heavy duty components such as stiffer suspensions and over sized radiators etc. These are usually made also as towing packages.

Also Ford will custom build an order such as three hundred unit for the XYZ State Police or Hertz. For many years back in the late fifties there was for example special engines for the NJ State Police which was a high performance engine except that it had lowered compression so that it could use the fuel that the state bought under a low bid system. Of course as mentioned above they were buying them by the hundred. I know that in that same era that there was a North Carolina design.

[Pat-New York]

I had a 1958 Ford Del Rio Wagon, which I believe had the 352 cu in it,I should have taken some pic's of it. It did say Interceptor on the air breather. That wagon would get up and scat ! I shure would like to find another one like it. It also had the cruisematic tranny. Are there any out there ???

[SSsssteamer]

In about 1975, I was restoring a 1957 Ford Convertible. I needed a 292 y block engine for it and a fellow said he had one that he thought that was a 292 that he had taken it out of a retired 1957 Ford police car that his brother had wrecked. After I got the engine home and I took it apart I found that it was a 312 engine with an over bore that took it out to about 330 cubic inches. It has an isky cam (stamped Isky), and Jahns high compression pistons. The heads didn't have the Thunderbird oversized valves. They had the smaller Ford valves with doubled up valve springs and solid push rods. Thinking that I would use this engine some day, I had the local rebuild shop rebuild it. The small valves still have me scratching my head, "why didn't they use the larger valves?" Because I have done it, I know that the larger valves can float easily and also bend their hollow light weight pushrods. Maybe they were building reliability into the engine? My 312 Interceptor is still in dry storage waiting its turn. This I am sure is one hot police interceptor 312 engine. I own a '57 Thunderbird and a '57 Ranchero and they both just keep on going. Hopefully some year one of them will need a fresh engine.

[paul2748]

No 312 in 1955, period.

Originally Posted by Ross in East Texas

I have a friend that swears that his dad bought a '55 Ford with a 312 "Police Interceptor" engine. He even says that his father had to get permission from the local Sheriff before he could purchase it!
I just can not believe this. Every bit of information that I can dig up says the first 312's were not cast until late 1956?
What do all the experts here say?