Can anyone give me more information on the inspection stamps on the front left head bolt? I read somewhere that they used to stamp this bolt with a number, but my '14, upon close examination, has what appears to be either a capital T or J.
According to Arnold and Faurote's "The Ford Methods and the Ford Shops", The Engineering Magazine Company, 1915, p. 132:
"The head block-tester has one assistant, one tester to every test-block, and enough helpers to handle the motors on and off the test-blocks. Each block-tester has an alphabetical steel stamp with his own individual letter, and marks a certain screw-head with hammer and letter stamp at the end of each test, and also paints one other screw-head red when a motor is passed from the test-block for the chassis-assembling line."
I have seen head bolts that have an alphabetical steel stamp on them, but not on an un-opened, un-molested motor, so I cannot say which screw-head had the stamp. I also have not seen any red painted original screw-heads, probably because the red paint, like the black slush paint that was used on Model T motors, burned off after a few weeks use. But Arnold and Faurote confirm that your lettered had bolt probably is real.
Respectfully submitted,
Trent Boggess