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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / head 40-6050B

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Posted By Discussion Topic: head 40-6050B     supereal 03-01-2010 @ 12:05 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 Review Alan's info above. Most '36 and earlier vehicles received engine replacements due to the babbit bearings wearing out, and the insert bearing type "service" blocks were the preferred choice. Finding an original running engine in a '36 would be very unusual. Most vehicles that old now have a mixture of parts. Unless the seller has verifiable knowledge, I always assume it is speculation, at best, and doesn't contribute to the asking price. parrish 03-01-2010 @ 9:06 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 349 Joined: Oct 2009 I will be driving to inspect a 36 car in about a week. The owner states it has aluminum heads and has been told it must therefore be a 37 engine which I now suspect is bad information. My question: assuming the car is somewhat original looking (it is from photos) and I find heads 40-6049/50-A or 40-6049/50-A1, is it a reasonable conclusion that the engine is, in fact, a 36 engine? supereal 03-01-2010 @ 7:17 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 Aluminum heads, like most things, had their benefits and their problems. On the plus side, they are efficient at transferring heat to the coolant, and reduce vehicle weight a bit. On the minus side, they can be very difficult to remove from the iron block, mostly due to electrolysis that corrodes them fast to the studs, requiring skill to remove them intact. This is due, mostly, to the rather primitive alloys available at the time. Henry Ford was very interested in using aluminum. He would certainly feel vindicated if he could see the modern, some all aluminum, engines today. ford38v8 02-28-2010 @ 9:34 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 2758 Joined: Oct 2009 Parrish, Apparently what you have found is a Ford Service Replacement engine. This is a new '37 block, what is called a "Short Block", being absent of all the bolt-ons such as starter, intake manifold & carburetor, heads, distributor, and exhaust manifolds. All these parts were removed from the old engine, and installed on the new engine. In the case of the '37 block, an additional part was required to make adaptable to the '36: A steel block-off plate was bolted to the front of the block at each location of the '37 water pumps, as the '36 had pumps in the heads. These plates were never a Ford part on new cars, as the Service Replacement was the only need for it. The were also available in the Ford Parts Departments of Dealerships. Other adapters were available over the years, as the Flathead changed minor details, to allow new Shortblocks to use older bolt-on parts. There were two different distributor adapters, one to adapt an older distributor to a newer block, and the other for a new distributor to an older block. These were all Ford parts, made before the Hot Rodders made adapters. Alan tierod 02-28-2010 @ 9:25 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 73 Joined: Oct 2009 OVER THE YEARS HAVE HAD 3 37 ENGINES, ALL WITH CAST IRON HEADS AND ALUMINUM MANIFOLDS. DON'T KNOW IF ALUM HEADS HAD PROBLEMS. HOPE THIS HELPS. parrish 02-28-2010 @ 8:32 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 349 Joined: Oct 2009 ok, here is a wide open question: were the aluminum heads a good thing or trouble? I'm looking at a 36 with what is believed to be a 37 engine with aluminum heads. Were they still used in '37? supereal 02-24-2010 @ 8:15 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 The "green book" shows the 40-6050-B to be a left side iron head for the flat piston engines '33-'36, all vehicle applications. parrish 02-24-2010 @ 7:42 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 349 Joined: Oct 2009 I've done a little research and this appears to be a cast iron head starting in 1933 for trucks?

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