8BA engine number location

[Steve in Denver]

I search the forum and never found a definitive answer, can someone tell me, and show me with a picture is even better, where the engine number on an 8BA is? Chassis stamping location won't do it as this 8BA is in a '36.
Steve in Denver

 

[alanwoodieman]

there is no engine/serial number on an 8ba or any other flathead--the serial numbers are on the trans. engine id is accomplished by numbers on the heads, location of water outlets, location of the distributor, what kind of provision to mount the engine to the trans such as cast with the block bell housing vs bolt on---pictures would also help to ID the current engine

 

[Steve in Denver]

I hope to go by the engine builder some time this coming week and I will get pictures. It was orange and does have truck water pumps, so it is an 8BA truck engine. I was just hoping to find out which year it was. But if no numbers are to be found, oh well. The transmission is original to the car and does have numbers that match the chassis number of my '36.

 

[Steve in Denver]

chassis and transmission number

 

[petehoovie]

On late model flatheads without the bell housing cast into the block (1949-1954), the number is located on the right-rear corner of the intake manifold gasket surface. It is visible with the cylinder heads and manifold on the engine.
See > http://myflatheadford.com/5988-2/

Flathead Date CodeOn late model flatheads without the bell housing cast into the block, there is a code stamped on the right rear corner of the intake gasket face of the block which will give you the manufacturing date of your flathead Ford or Mercury. You can see it with the intake manifold and heads still on the engine.
It consists of a series of a letter, a one or two digit number, and a second letter. The first letter is the month. The number is the day, and the second letter is the last digit of the year.
The letter code is M=0, G=1, B=2, L=3, A=4, C=5, K=6, H=7, T=8, R=9, S=10, E=11, F=12.
G 20 B would be an engine manufactured on January 20, 1952.
As for the other styles of blocks, most folks can identify the engine series if not the exact date of assembly. If you can’t, refer to one of the flathead books available or one of the other flathead web sites.
I should credit Flathead Jack’s catalog as my first source for this information, although I have now seen it in several places.
Please remember that it is possible, even likely, that the year the engine was assembled will be the year before the car’s model year. Also, I have heard, but never verified, that if Ford rebuilt an engine, they changed the date code to reflect the rebuild. I have seen flatheads on which the date code appeared to be missing, although I suspect this is an artifact of time, rust,

 

[V8COOPMAN]

On late model flatheads without the bell housing cast into the block (1949-1954), the number is located on the right-rear corner of the intake manifold gasket surface. It is visible with the cylinder heads and manifold on the engine.

STEVE KENNEDY ......You asked a legitimate question, and up until this pathetic, amateurish answer above, the information given by "alanwoodieman" had some good, factual data for you. Understand AGAIN that NO automobile serial numbers were stamped on Ford flathead BLOCKS at a Ford assembly plant. DD

 

[rotorwrench]

Characteristics of assembly can give a date range for the 8BA series family of engines if no date code is found on the intake deck. This is also somewhat true of the prewar V8 engines and the post war 59 series family of engines.

Canadian engines had casting marks on the blocks that would ID the Family its from but they didn't put the serial number on them either. Canadian serial numbers were different than the US manufacture.

When a state did have a requirement for an engine number, the stamping was done by dealers but there is no hard rule on a procedure for that and few states ever required it. Those that did only required it for certain time frames in their history. I have no information about what states may have practiced this in the flathead V8 era.

 

[Steve in Denver]

Thanks, now I know where to look. I will report back later this week. Greatly appreciated.

 

[19Fordy]

V8 is correct. But. to add a little more mystery ,here are photos of the numbers stamped on a a Mercury block sitting in my garage that I bought 45 years ago from Doug Schull, 1949-53 Ford/Merc advisor of the V8 Times mag. I posted lots of photos as the lighting made taking photos of the stamping a bit difficult. Hope someone can decipher what they mean.

 

[petehoovie]

STEVE KENNEDY ......You asked a legitimate question, and up until this pathetic, amateurish answer above, the information given by "alanwoodieman" had some good, factual data for you. Understand AGAIN that NO automobile serial numbers were stamped on Ford flathead BLOCKS at a Ford assembly plant. DD

Steve Kennedy is in search of a 'date code' on his 8BA block - not a serial number. "I was just hoping to find out which year it was." > as said by Mr. Kennedy. Nowhere in his posts did he ask for a serial number...

"where the engine number on an 8BA is? Chassis stamping location won't do it as this 8BA is in a '36."
Steve in Denver

 

[petehoovie]

Thanks, now I know where to look. I will report back later this week. Greatly appreciated.

You're welcome, Steve...

 

[V8COOPMAN]

I search the forum and never found a definitive answer, can someone tell me, and show me with a picture is even better, where the engine number on an 8BA is? Chassis stamping location won't do it as this 8BA is in a '36.
Steve in Denver

Steve Kennedy is in search of a 'date code' on his 8BA block - not a serial number. "I was just hoping to find out which year it was." > as said by Mr. Kennedy. Nowhere in his posts did he ask for a serial number...

"where the engine number on an 8BA is? Chassis stamping location won't do it as this 8BA is in a '36."
Steve in Denver

Steve clearly asked for an "engine number"....NOT a "date code". Date codes are not referred-to as an "engine number". Steve also clearly showed "serial numbers" in his pictures, indicating the type of numbers that he was looking for, which can then be easily cross-referenced to coincide with production years. FYI, Model "A" engines had engine numbers (serial numbers) stamped into a dedicated pad on the side of each block. DD

 

[petehoovie]

Steve also clearly showed "serial numbers" in his pictures, indicating the type of numbers that he was looking for, which can then be easily cross-referenced to coincide with production years. DD

"I was just hoping to find out which year it was." & "Chassis stamping location won't do" - Steve Kennedy

 

[Bored&Stroked]

Man . . . you guys need to drink some more spiked Egg Nog and relax a bit.

 

[deuce_roadster]

Ease up boys, we don't need either of you getting blocked. I was banned once for some period of time and never knew why. I don't think I am argumentative.

 

[Holeshot]

and up until this pathetic, amateurish answer above

“Lighten up, Francis.”

 

[51 MERC-CT]

V8 is correct. But. to add a little more mystery ,here are photos of the numbers stamped on a a Mercury block sitting in my garage that I bought 45 years ago from Doug Schull, 1949-53 Ford/Merc advisor of the V8 Times mag. I posted lots of photos as the lighting made taking photos of the stamping a bit difficult. Hope someone can decipher what they mean.

Those stampings don't conform to the way this guide explains the date code.
I have (3) Mercury blocks and they conform.
(letter/number/letter)
Also not all engines are date coded.

 

[Steve in Denver]

Finally got by the block shop. He has milled everything to make it flat and beautiful, unfortunately, not many numbers left and none of them are in a row.

 

[V8COOPMAN]

Finally got by the block shop. He has milled everything to make it flat and beautiful, unfortunately, not many numbers left and none of them are in a row.

Hey Steve ....Not sure whether that was a good move or not! Flathead decks are THIN to begin with. Decking makes the surface even more flexible, and maybe more-importantly, reduces the length of thread for head bolts. You should be overly cautious when checking valve lift and clearance with heads. Cutting the intake manifold surface like that MAY affect LIFT range on pushrod for fuel pump. Good luck! DD
.

 

[rotorwrench]

The first few years of the 8BA family beginning in 1948 for pickups & trucks, most engines were the same with no obvious markings on the block (in US production). They had straight stem valves with standard keepers. Camshafts had casting marks in a lot of cases. 8CM for Mercury and 8BA for Ford. All the connecting rods were the same from 1948 through 1953 in US production. All of the valve pockets had stellite hardened valve seats till the big change in 1951. Somewhere in 1951 they added a 1BA casting mark to the tappet gallery. The valves went to rotator types in early 1951 and the crankshafts were changed to add a bore on the drive flange that would support the new torque converter for automatic transmissions. Somewhere in late 1951 or early 1952 the intake valve pockets came without hardened inserts and eventually all hardened seats were eliminated except for truck engines which retained them in the exhaust valve pockets.

The difference between the 239 crankshafts and the 255 is evident in the width of the counterweight cheeks. The con rod journal oil passage sizes differ as well.

It really doesn't matter what year it was made since the blocks are basically all the same for the 8BA V8 era.