30 coupe engine number

oldforder

oldforder

Senior Member
To start from the beginning, which will probably make this story to long, my neighbor lady told me her son in law had acquired a model A and was wondering if since I had one, if I would like to get it running for him. I told her I was no expert on them, but had learned a lot reading Ford Barn, so I would try. Well when he pulled it over to my place, I learned that it had been sitting for several years. 5 0r 6 he thought, but who knows. No battery in it, and no gas in it. He got a new 6 volt battery, and I installed it with the ground to positive. I was hoping it Haden't been converted to 12 volt. Put a few gallons of gas in it, and went to turn the gas on. NO Go. had to take out the shut off and free it up. Took off the carb, and cleaned it all up, and made sure all the jets and passages were open. Had no spark when cranking, so filed the points. Got good spark now, so tried to start it, and it started as if it had been running just a couple hours ago. A little adjusting on the carb, and it runs and sounds like a new one. It is a 30, but the dash, if that is the proper name for the chrome part with the speedometer etc. is in, is the same as my 29. I was pretty sure the dash in a 30 is the same as a 31. Or am I wrong?? Anyway, I thought I would check the engine number to see if maybe it was an early 30. The engine number is Star A 8*******. In my book I don't find any numbers like that. it is a reman block or what?
 
Somewhere around June of 30 the oval speedo and dash changed over to the round style.The star A beginning the number sounds right.
 
There is no A engine with a serial number that starts with 8 million (8,xxx,xxx). They made a shade less than 5,000,000 of these cars.

Are you sure the 8 isn't actually a 3? That could put it in the early 1930 range.
 
Some of the numbers are really hard to read, but the first 3 are very plain, and it is most certainly an 8. Followed by 2 other plain numbers, which I don't now recall. Also, they are on a smooth part of the block in the proper location, but not on the normal pad type area. The whole area is smooth.
 
So on the calculator it shows that there were numbers that start with an 8. I no longer have the car available to me to check if I can get the rest of the numbers, and it is not important, I was just curious. Now the guy wants me to try o get his 26 T started. I told him that I know even less about a T than the A. But that maybe when the weather gets cooler, I might be talked into taking a look. Any hints??
 
Originally, the number pad had a CAST IRON texture. If it's SMOOTH, it's been RE-STAMPED! Even Chief, had a stamp set, with a "STAR"
In its' LIFETIME, thet car might have worn out 6 or 8 ENGINES!
Bill W.
 
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