At first glance I thought there was a discrepancy of more than a year between the casting date and the serial number on this block (Tu 6-27-16).



Then I took a closer look at the last digit of the casting date.


I wonder how much somebody pocketed by turning a 6 into a 5.

Steve, do you have any pictures of that bridge in NYC and the price.

I'm willing to let it go for only $500.

Hey!

I already own that bridge and it certainly is not for sale. I am waiting for the title to get here since the seller promised it would be here shortly after the end of the year.

WOW Steve, that is some bridge. I will have to check my loan status at my local bank. Since I am looking at two fresh barn finds, I may be past the max they will loan me. Do not sell it until you hear back from me.

John, I understand the title is being sent from Nigeria. Could take a few days.

I would love to buy that bridge, but I just bought the Eiffel Tower for scrap value.

I wouldn't doubt if the numbers came that way from the factory. You ought to see the messy numbers on the real early blocks.

Derek,you paid way more than that thing is worth!

It could be that someone loaded the wrong number on the core. There may be ways to verify the casting date. Such as the 5/8" hole between #2 and #3 cylinder. Didn't that appear in 1916/17? I think there's other minor changes to the blocks but I don't recall them all at the moment. Some are just changes to "jig holes" and others are boss and/or flange changes.

Don't bother looking in the encyclopedia, they aren't listed there. I saw them somewhere else.

I would worry more about the weld just above the date. Around here a 16 block is worth just about the same as a 15 block. They do not grow on trees. Dan

The "8"s in the serial number are stamped upside down. Is that typical?

My 1916 block cast on June 17th, 1916 is stamped 1309xxx

Several seats available on the bridge but I see she is picking her own.

Taking a look at the pictures of the casting date on my block, I noticed the "6" for June is different from the one in "16". The month number looks like a "5" that has been changed by filling in the bottom loop.

Month date




Day and Year



You will notice also that the date is behind the water inlet, not in front of it.

Gary,

I thought I was the only one twisted enough to notice. I think we can be friends!

Did notice that the casting date is in front of the water inlet. Most I have seen are on the backside...Interesting?

And...that casting date of the 'modified' 5, seems to me to be just an 'error cast', like some grains of sand got removed and made that 6 look like a 5.

Check of that serial # 1,321,883 in the book says July (7) 5, 1916. On that day only 1/2 the qty of engines were completed as normal, since the factory was closed on the 4th of July!

So, maybe that block WAS cast on May 16, 1916, and the motor completed on July 5, 1916, seems about right.

And...maybe? That block was set back for that 'weld' repair noted, and didn't get back in line for production til after the July 4th break?


The 1917 block has the '7' gone due to sand casting crud over the number plate used for casting dates.

And note this 1916 block, has that casting date on the backside of the water inlet.


Courtsey Phil Milo

As far as the '8' being upside down, the type of 8 stamp would be a factor, some are symmetrical, other aren't. And it was a hand stamp thing any way....that stamper guy, had a brace of stamps mounted in a rack on his belt, if he withdrew the 8 the wrong way, that is what got stamped!



Close of the the line worker, with his belt of number stamps, doing #15 mil, he took his time as sure made that number line straight as an arrow! Use of the guide plate sure helped, most engines never got that kind of care in hand stamping the serial #

Another observation: All the 1914-16 engine numbers I have seen lean to the left, as in Dan's pic. I don't think Steve's engine number is original to that block.

To me, all the T blocks have stamps running any which way, it was a hand stamp on serial numbers so the worker controlled the look....just any which way was ok.

Those stamps are factory to me...and I still think the block is a 1916 cast, that '6' just got messed up.









This '17 has the 7 missing from the casting, such is the case, the sand grains got in the way and masked the number plate.

This '13 slants to the right



June '23


1919

Steve J,
A little J B Weld can fill that in and make that six look just fine.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2

Recently bought the engine block on ebay recently.
1917 7 6 17
Why have punched 51 separately?
Ake

Ake

Just the fast speed of the hand stamper

If you note the serial, your engine assembled on July 7, day after the block was cast, which was the highest production day for that month, 3,044 engines that day.....rather fast...

so looks like some guy punched in the first digits nicely, maybe in advance, then the final #'s whupped in quick!

Thanks Dan, it explain it.
Ake

I will go way out on a limb here and say that the probable reason that the 6 was changed to a 5 on the casting date has to do more with the cutoff date for many brass car tours being calendar year 1915. Many 1916 cars built in 1915 can go on the tour so long as the car was built in 1915 and an engine number casting date will get you in the door of most brass car tours where there are lots of different car makes on the tour and not that many people are interested in keeping you OFF the tour to the extent that they want to try and look up your motor number or argue about it.

I saw a 1915 block at a swap meet once and was puzzled because it had a s/n that was 1,000,000+ but the date indicated it was a February block.

Upon closer inspection I determined that a "1" had been removed. The car was a December car, not February. It dawned on me what someone had done when I realized the date was 2-30-15.

!

Did Ford ever designate a specific font for the numbers used on Model T serial numbers? By the time the Model A came out the numbers were standardized, but it seems the early T's had some variation. The Service Manual says when putting numbers on a new block to just go down to the local hardware store and buy a set. There are a lot of different fonts and mixtures of fonts within a set. Every set of numbers I look at is different.

At the speed they went there must have been some kind of gizmo that held at least some of the number punches together. Then you see a photo like Ake's and you wonder all over again.

Just Different strokes for different folks.

This Canadian block has the last digit almost off the pad. There is no way they could have gotten them all in a row with the size of those stamps.