59 ab factory relived block any history on them

hellmet

hellmet

Member
Got me one today neat motor no cracks has factory hollow lifters. It was a truck motor it has double groove bottom pulley. Any history on these on the reilving process. Im puting it in my roaster till i get my other block done. I blew a head gasket on my old motor and the rings were bad. Billy
 
Hope you don't mind if I pile on your thread. I, too, just acquired a relieved 59A. Mine has a re-builder's tag showing .040 and .010/.010. I don't think a re-builder would take the time to relieve the block so I'm betting it came from Ford that way. Strange thing about mine is that one side is sleeved, the other is not. I've heard of blocks sleeved at the factory, but I thought all cylinders would be sleeved. I also had the 2 groove crank pulley that was a bear to get off.
 
The Ford factory relief looks like a straight shot from about the outside edge of cylinder wall straight up to to valve seats. It does not follow the "tradition" hot rodders or combustion chambered-shape of relief often seen on motors.

General rule of thumb is that is was the 59L blocks that received this treatement. However, like many things Ford, not all 59L motors indeed did.

I personally have a 59L engine with a non-relieved block that also has a 3 1/16th bore. From what I'm told is was a post-WWII replacement engine for the 24 stud 221 c.i. cars.

Getting back to your engine, I've read different theories on why Ford did this. Some say to help with a Jake Brake set-up some of the bigger trucks had. Some say to give these truck motors all the extra help in making power as they could.

Some also say this became a weak spot on this engines and the extra heat generated from these trucks lugging around a lot weight caused cracks in the block.

Either way, great score. Any non-cracked, rebuildable flathead is a good one.
 
I just picked one up too... 59 cast on the bell, with a raised intake surface!

lots of odd stuff during the war.....
 
this is the only picture I have of mine right now(in the middle)... you can see the dark outline of the intake shape... that area is raised about 1/8" or so...
raisedintake.jpg
 
most engine going into the bigger trucks got the relief job, and as was stated the were srtaight cut reliefs with out the hot rodder radius, the theroy is with the relief the fuel air charge could be introduced into the cylinder because it didnt have to go up over the valve pocket into the cylinder, had a straight shot, dont really think it helped much because the compression ratio was lowered because of the metal removed, it might help a race engine running at the max rpm, but not on a big truck
 
The intake surface isn't accually raised, the meat on each side of the gasket surface is lower than other blocks. I believe Ford did that to save cast iron durring the war. Walt
 
I've built two 59L motors with the factory relief, both ran great. I put a Road Runner blower setup on one with a 4 inch crank and 3 5/16 bore with Ross pistons and it was a rocket. The other was the same with two 94s and ran dam near as good. Both had my 409 waterpump kit and didn't heat and also my 5 speed OD trans kit.
 
Here in New Zealand, I have never seen a 59A bock that is factory relieved, or with the raised intake deck, but plenty of 19A and 99a relieved blocks, and only the 19A's with the raised deck. Those relieved engines always seemed to have more get up and go! I was told they were relieved to lower the compression due to the low grade gas that was being used in the war.
 
My understanding is the truck motor got the relieved job to keep the over heating down. Truck motors were generally under heavyer loads.
 
Well, I tell you what fellas.

All of these lumps of iron are junk so just send them my way and I'll properly recycle them free of charge.

Thanks.
 
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