Re: 39merc block
USA flatheads before the 59 lack block ID casting. The stamped 99 at front was JUST the 99, not a serial...the number shown here looks like a Ford serial, but is way too high for '39-48 239 series...
A few early flatheads DO have apparently original serial stamped on block. Perhaps some were done to meet a state or local legal requirement...? Others may well have been industrial engines sold without transmission. Ford put serials only on completed and tested complete engines, normally putting the # on trans which went out to assembly plants as a ready to install engine trans unit...but industrial engines were available without trans as well as with car or truck trans, and I would think those would have gotten serial numbers.
|