looking to ID a V8 from a Ford F-15 belonging to my Dad. Its a project he bought back in 1988 and has been meaning to get round to it, this winter, he will be. He believes it to be a Mercury 24 stud built in 1943. It has a low 10k miles because it only drove up and down an airfield in the UK (Biggin Hill) before being stored after the war. Here's some pics, so if anyone can shed some light on it, that'd be great! Thanks! Duds
81T on the heads means it's an 85 HP big truck engine, 81 indicates it was first used in the '38 model year, but the same motors were built through '45. The Mercury engines would have 99T heads, the Mercury engine being the 95 HP option that was offered in big trucks starting in '39.
Here is a little info on the motor. Some ID on the heads anyway. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=494390 As you can read, the info is from Bruce Lancaster, flathead guru.
Much of the wartime production was 239CID. Auto production in the USA ceased early in 1942 and didn't start back up until mid 1945 for commercial production & trucks. Most of the Canadian ones had an oil cooler provision near the oil sending unit that may be plugged. If the pan rails have the bulges for the core sand clean out plugs then it would be more likely earlier than 1941. Canadian production may have carried this feature longer but that is still sort of a mystery. Mercury cars and large trucks were produced with 239 CID engines and Ford cars had the 221 CID up untill the war. After the war the only 221 engines produced were for pre-war car engine replacements with the 41A block. No production cars in the USA used a 221 after 1942. 239 CID engines started out early on with 81T heads then went to several different types depending on whether it was Mercury or truck. Many just have the large A on them. Some early Canadian 239 CID engines had a casting mark "99" on the front right area of the block and some USA early 239 production had the 99 stamped on the intake deck until FoMoCo started using different paint colors to ID the small bore from the large bore blocks.
Why does so much of the GOOD flathead stuff turn up in Europe? None of that stuff should have been left behind, we want it back!!! But seriously, keep the "truck" it's in, and join a military/WWII group; preserve the history you have. Butch/56sedandelivery.
If it is an original motor for an F-15 CMP Blitz truck, it should be a 239 CID 95 HP. Ford of Canada produced several hundred thousand different varieties of these neat trucks for the war effort. They saw service in every theater of combat that the Britich and Commonwealth Armys were involved in. Surviving examples are not abundant for these vehicles so it's well worth the effort to keep it in fit running order. To me they are a lot like jeeps. The troops that used them, loved them since the tough design kept them from trudging through the mud all over the worlds battlefields of WWII.
Thanks for all the info! I dug out an old maintenance manual my Pa had hidden away along with some old pictures. He knows I'd probably like to put the V8 in a project but I could never destroy what is essentially a near perfect original 1943 F-15. I found that "99" stamp... Then to follow that the manual chimes in with whats been said... With the manual were some pics. His F15 was produced to take a 20mm Polsten like this... And lastly heres a pic from the front of the work in progress... Fingers crossed he gets it finished over winter, nothing like that lobey V8 sound!
That picture showing the back of the block with the cyl head removed shows the characteristic relief between the valves and cylinder. As stated above, a great piece of history well worth the effort to preserve it.
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