8rt engine id

what year did Ford go to thin fan belts, high oil filter and dual fuel/vac pump


The first thin 3/8" belts were 1950 for Ford and Mercury cars. Trucks kept the 5/8" wide belts.

High mounted partial flow oil filters were pretty standard post war to end of production.


Not sure about the first use of dual fuel/vac pumps.
 
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Stand to be corrected, but I believe the 53 8RTs had the narrow belts. Do the waterpumps look like the car-style, or do they have a foot? Car-style suggests 1953.
 
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In my experience, double-action fuel pumps are rarely seen in Fords (and are probably replacements). They are much more common in Mercury's.

I have an original 1951 Ford "Options" brochure that I found under the back seat of my car when I cleaned it out when I got it. It had a LOT of things listed in it (including "Engine Governors"), but not a double action fuel pump. I've also seen a copy of a similar document for 1950, and it didn't list one either. If an "Engine Governor" was listed, surely a double-action fuel pump would have been also.
 
The 8RT was 1948 for trucks but the truck motors only went through a few changes during the 1948 through 53 production. A person has to go by accessory and block change characteristics to narrow down to a year of manufacture. The trucks kept the large sheave water pumps but big trucks had the tall oil filler pipe and the shrouded Holley 885 carburetor. The oil pans and breather vent pipes were all about the same for trucks. The blocks changed valves in mid 1951 when they started deleting the hardened intake valve seats. Trucks kept the hardened exhaust valve seats. The rotator valves came in to compensate for that change. The later valve blocks had a 1BA casting mark in the valve chamber on most of those later blocks.

Narrowing it down to a specific month and year is only possible if it has the manufacturing codes stamped on the intake deck surface on the right rear area of that deck.

There were two different fuel pumps that had dual vacuum option. One is earlier than the other. Trucks needed them due to the low manifold pressures when hauling heavy loads otherwise the wipers would just barely work.
 
Sure there not narrow belt Merc pumps like these?


0002073_1950-1951-mercury-water-pumps_100.jpg
 
The 49 Mercury had different front motor mounts and water pumps than the 50 though 53 types had so it was the only Mercury in that range to have the wider belts. The 49 pumps were bushing type so they are unique. The 52 & 53 Mercury was very much like the Ford in the engine compartment. They used the same cast iron bell housing as well.
 
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