221-239-255 Flathead Engine Block Identification Version 2

[38 coupe]

Over a decade ago we did a big thread on 221-239-255 flathead V8 engine identification, link here. Many people contributed knowledge and pictures to that thread, and it was referenced frequently. Since then Photobucket has changed how they do business resulting in the pictures being a mess. The old posts are no longer editable after such a long time, for understandable reasons. This thread is a re-start with new picture posting method relying only on the Ford Barn. The information here is consolidated from both that first thread and many other discussion here on the Ford Barn, with many thanks to everyone who participated in adding information both to that thread and in other threads since then.

This thread is intended to provide the information for identifying the core engine. It is not intended to provide every detail of each year engine. For that level of information please see the applicable Early Ford V8 Club book covering the specific year you are interested in. Rather, for this discussion the focus will be on the engine block as the identifying part of the engine. Anything bolted onto the engine block should not be used to identify the engine. All other parts of the engine can, and in many cases, have been be swapped between years & types. Ford Motor Company was one of the first to swap parts between years, with one example being fuel pumps being swapped onto one year old cars in 1933. Ford had a service program to keep customer vehicles running, and had no care in the world for detailed correctness on how the vehicle was originally built on the assembly line. As an example later in this thread will be a picture of Ford service literate that has obvious mix-up of engine blocks, but worked if all you cared about was keeping your vehicle running well.

There will be a lot of pictures. The 1932 V8 engines are the starting point and changes from there will be pointed out in chronological order for each successive USA type. Each engine type discussed afterwards will detail the changes from the previous type(s) of engine. When viewed in chronological order the details of the engines make more sense as the evolution of design. The following table includes enough detail to identify each engine type produced in the USA. Each engine type identified in the table below will have a post with the information and pictures clarifying the features. You may have to scroll through multiple sections to find a picture of a specific identification feature from the table, one example is the picture showing the “pencil test” is in the 1938 24 stud section.

One last thing about this table: a model year that spans two different features does not indicate that early vehicles in the year used one feature and late vehicles used a different feature. This does indicate Ford produced two design engines with either features side-by-side during the model year (this was a Ford practice apparently to ease into a new design).

For some reason this image insists on uploading in small low resolution format. I also uploaded a pdf, please open that for easier reading.


Most of the information I will post initially is on USA domestic production engines cast in the Rouge plant in Dearborn Michigan. After going through the USA production there will be a bit of information on engines produced outside the USA: at the Windsor plant in Canada, at the Dagenham plant in England, at the plant in Cologne plant in Germany, and at the Strasbourg, then Poissy plant in France. I still have a lot to learn about the production changes from these plants and hope more is shared by the knowledgeable folks here on the Ford Barn.