Police Interceptor

The letter P in slot for engine in the VIN number for 54-56 designated the "Police" engine. For '54, it was the 256, '55 was the 292 and '56 it was the 312. Any schlub could order one (at least in '55 & '56) without permission from anyone except his wife.
 
Dose anybody know any thing about 1966 ford custom VA state police cars. These cars have a M engine code I was told they had 410 mercury. They where built at the norfork plant.
 
There's been a VA state police car on Ebay recently that has the M code and 410 according to the seller. He's got some history on the VA cars regarding the 410's in them.
 
Ole Don said:
The Interceptor was usually a Mercuruy powered upgrade. I worked at Ford in '73. We built 500 two doors for Nebraska. They had a special frame, different rear axle with 2.9 ratio, station wagon front end with big brakes, a roof reinforcement for a light bar, and the coolest engine ever to come down the line. It was a 429 with cast headers, finned aluminum rocker covers, some had Quadrajets and some had Holleys, a huge alternator, and a C 6 with a first gear lockout. I asked an engineer about the lock out, he said its to prevent uninteded wheel spin. These cars were built to fly.
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I recall hearing stories from people about the '71s built for the Nebraska State Patrol with 429s fitted with dual quads. When the State of Nebraska auctioned those cars in the mid-late '70s one of the first things they did for prep was remove the dual quads. My home town police department, a little 500-person village west of Omaha, got ahold of an ex-NSP '71 sedan. The town cop I was friends with, who also was a deputy sherriff and a big MoPar buff, couldn't wait until he got ahold of a NSP-surplus '75 Plymouth Fury with a 440 in the late '70s because of the high mileage and retro-fitted single 4v on the '71.

As for early-mid '60s Police Interceptors, from the Ford Car Facts binders that were published during the period there were quite a few differences between a PI version and the standard 300hp 390-4v, including: Holley 4v vs Autolite 4100, open-element air cleaner vs standard w/snorkle, hotter cam, stiffer valve springs, and I think dual point distributor and maybe mechanical lifters. They might have had cast iron headers as well, but I'd need to go through the binder for the full and accurate description. In short the PIs of the period were a step between the typical 390 found in a Galaxie/T-bird and the 406/427.
 
Friend has two y-blocks. Both has the "Interceptor" word casted in the block at the front top of the block. One block for sure was used in a marine application. Will post pictures soon!
 
Interceptor Marine engine, different animal. The "Interceptor" you see is probably cast into the aluminum front engine cover. Should be cast into the exhaust manifolds also.
 
OLDBULL8 said:
The Lima plant was built to make the Edsel 385 engine.
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You mean the MEL Series, the 410 being the first (was supposed to go to 57 MERC but was late in production and went to early production 58 EDSEL). The 57 MERC received the 368 LINC Y-BLOCK for performance.
 
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