MTFCA Forum

I know the early T engines were left bare cast iron, but were the oil pans and hogs heads also left bare steel or were they painted?

This was posted back in 2005

Photographic records c.1914 show the engine iron block being given a black 'wash', M-142, thin coating, (the cylinder head appears already painted at the time of the block painting in this photo), the steel crankcase appears grey without the black wash. The alum. hogshead is as cast.

Engines assembled on the high rail line, note one on right is about to be painted on its upper parts.


Early engine installed, note the alum. hogshead.


Later engines c.1923 were black thin wash all over. A similar look can be made by using modern satin black engine paint.

Of course the late Improved Car (got that engine painted) in Green, flashy new color to try to beat Chev. outselling the Ford!

So were the replacement blocks painted ? When a dealership needed to replace a block did they get an unnumbered block?
I have a 2 valve chambered block that appears to have a number that was put on with a center punch. It doesn’t look like the engine number area was ground off to begin with and it was blank and then centered punch. It is a used block I acquired years ago in a bunch of T parts and have wondered about that.

When a dealership needed to replace a block did they get an unnumbered block?

Yes. Assembled replacement engines had serial numbers, but bare replacement blocks did not. They were supposed to be stamped with the numbers of the presumably ruined blocks they replaced. That didn't always happen. Sometimes you see one marked with the user's own made-up ID.

Early crankcases were also unpainted. Some show finger marks from men handling the painted engine block.

It's interesting the exhaust manifold was painted with such, but the intake was not - maybe to keep slush from the carb, or in advance of the carb and intake manifold installation?

like the hog's head, the intake was aluminum