1952 Ford F8

[rotorwrench]

Originally Posted by tubman

"rotorwrench" - Are you sure? I am kinda into fire trucks and knew a guy who had a '53 with a 279. The whole thing was very confusing, because everything we could find said the 279 was built for the 1954 model year only, for trucks only. We finally came to the conclusion that with fire trucks, the year is not that important and can vary a year or two. (I once had one titled as a 1974 Seagrave that was actually a 1973 Ford F900.)

The internet has all sorts of information. Some is accurate and some is not so much. The two Big Block Y-blocks were developed at the same time. The 317 was predominantly for Lincoln cars and it had hydraulic lifters to make it a more quiet operating engine. The 279 was for trucks only and had solid tappet cam followers. The two engines are difficult to tell the difference on the outside. I can't confirm with my limited information on the 1952/53 F8 big jobs whether the 317 was the only engine used in the F8 but it likely would have been a solid tappet version. I do know that the F7 had the 279 since it was made for that purpose and was used thru 1954 despite what some sources mention. Ford seldom had one year only engines. Even the 239 Y-block lasted for 2-years.

ADDED: Ford called the engines the Cargo Master and had no reference to Lincoln in any of the brochures I could find. The 279 was the Cargo Master 145 HP and the 317 was the Cargo Master 155 HP. This was clearly marked on the valve covers. If it has Lincoln valve covers then someone changed them out or the engine was replaced with a Lincoln car engine.