59A block ID

cuzncletus

cuzncletus

Senior Member
The engine currently in my 39 is a 59A type. I know nothing about the engine except it appears to have been freshly rebuilt and then sat for 30+ years. Except for some carb problems, it fired and runs like a little Rolex. I looked on the back of the block where I thought the 59A would be cast into the block/bellhousing. I do not see a 59A, but there is a casting no: C26722. Can someone tell me the year of the block?
 
Several things to check: Will a pencil rest on the ledge above the timing cover? Are there 2 bulges along the pan rail on each side? These would indicate 39 to 41. if the intake manifold surface is no fully machined, it would be 1942. Since it doesn't have 59 cast in, we can eliminate 1946 to 1948.
I don't think anyone has ever deciphered the numbers that are on your block.
 
I've heard of some 59A castings that didn't have the 59 cast in but they usually had the little blank casting pad just above an inboard of the oil pressure ports where an oil cooler would have been plumbed in as a carry over from the war years. flatjack9 mentioned most of the other identifiers that are associated with time of manufacture. Many have a date code stamped into the intake manifold parting surface on the top passenger side of the block that will give month and year but not all of the blocks have this. The size, location, and different shapes of the upper cylinder deck water passages (where the heads part from the block) can give clues to whether it is a prewar 221 or a 239 CID engine. Casting numbers on the heads will only tell what model the heads were from and could have been changed in the past. Most original prewar 99A or 99T (Mercury & Big truck 239 CID) blocks will have a "99" stamped in the front passenger side of the intake deck. I'm not sure if the 41, 42, & war year military 239 CID blocks had this "99" stamped in or not.

As far as the year of manufactuer, the date codes would be the only way of knowing and that is only if it has one stamped there on the intake surface.

Kerby
 
There are no bulges on castings along the pan rails. I'm not quite sure what ledge above the timing cover you're talking about. I don't see milling marks on the block where the intake sits but it certainly isn't rough cast. The heads are 59A-B, but who knows where they came from? It appears to have had a different style water pump on it at one time. I don't want to down the motor right now by taking the intake off. There is a little casting pad above the oil sending unit but I can't read the reading in the car. However, it does not appear to say 59. Another Ford conundrum?
 
The little round pad for the full flow drilling went into production during WWII on the 21/29 type engines...there are good pics of this stuff in the Ford overhaul book.
Look where the manifold sits...if there is an area there that is a cast iron pad about 1/8" high shaped like the manifold gasket, your engine is the 1941-2 type that was produced right through the war. This surface is milled flat, and the lower area beside it on each side is rough cast.
 
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