MTFCA Forum

I have what I believe to be an early 1913 head. A photo would do no good. It has the normal very fine Ford script, and made in USA in the usual place too, but under the Ford script is a very faint Made in USA. It is visible, but barely. Could they have been changing the mold?

I have seen Canadian engines where the Made in USA was ground off leaving only a very faint outline of Made in USA remaining.

Look for square mold castings on top of the head. 1914-19 does not have them. Some 13 heads had a full date cast in them at the rear in line rear to front. Bob McDaniel’s head has that type of casting.

I also have one of the January 1913 heads with the full date. Ray Green posted a photo of a head with the date of 1-11-13 in Sept. 2011. The one that I've pictured is very close to Bob McDaniel's date of 1-20-13. Regarding Larry's comments on the faint "MADE IN USA" text under the Ford - my head doesn't have it. Is it probable that Larry's head predates these?

I don’t own an older Brass T but I do have 3 later all black era T’s. Over time Ived picked up several high heads and a couple of them I didn’t use because either the script wasn’t really well defined and some of the head numbers weren’t either. I used the heads that had clearly defined number and script and that wasn’t blurred. Over time as many heads Ford was making some came out of the mold to quick or didn’t release well. But Im guessing.

As a patternmaker, I can tell you that molding in sand DOES wear the patterns. You will note the date tags, which obviously attached with screws, and must have been changed daily. I wish I knew what the lifetime was on a sand casting pattern at Ford. From what I have seen in the foundry videos, it appears that a lot of the patterns at Ford were either cast in aluminum, and then sanded or finished smooth so they would mold nicely, or machined in aluminum. I doubt they used very many wood patterns, as they just would not have held up at the production rates that Ford achieved, especially after 1912-13 or so. In the Ford foundry videos, it appears it only took about 1 minute to do all the molding for a Ford cylinder block casting. In some of the videos, you can see them inserting cores in the finished molds, to fill detail areas. I have a 1917 REO, and the running-board brackets are cast iron, and in a couple of them, I can see the woodgrain pattern in the mold they used, because the finish was wearing off the pattern surface, and revealing the woodgrain underneath. REO's production was only in the hundreds of cars a day, and never approached Ford's levels, so they could stick with wooden patterns for molding, whereas Ford was probably pushed into metal patterns very early in Model T production. (But I notice that even in N/R/S castings, the molding is very nicely done, and I suspect they used a lot of metal patterns even then, whereas most other automobile producers were just using wood patterns for their more limited production rates. Ford was progressive, even with patterns for casting. Also, Ford castings ALWAYS look very nice. This may have been influenced by "Cast Iron Charlie" Sorenson, who was a master foundryman at Ford. I assume that when Sorenson spoke, Henry listened. When you look at a Ford casting, all the wall thicknesses are consistent, (and THIN as well, never heavy or blocky), all the surfaces blend smoothly, and the parts JUST LOOK GOOD.