All Model A/AA Ford engines were produced at the Rouge foundry in Dearborn, Michigan with the exception of those engines produced in Canada with prefixes of CA, CAQ, CAW, CAR, CAT, CAY, CAU, CAI, CAO, CAP, CAS, and CAD, and those which were produced in Ireland/England with a prefix of AF.

According to the 1929 Ford Industries booklet, which is also reproduced in The Matchless Model A, Post Motor Books, 1961, ore, which had been reduced to foundry iron, was carried in a molten state to the foundry.  It was then mixed with the proper proportion of scrap and poured into the engine moulds.

As the conveyor brought the moulds past the pouring station, the hot metal was then cast into the cylinder blocks.  From there, the moulds went to the shake station and were taken away to be cooled and cleaned.  The cooling and cleaning process required about five hours.

From there, the casting went to its first machining operation.  It took about two hours and forty minutes to machine the casting.  This machining was performed in the foundry building in line with the Ford practice of continuous operation.  From there it was sent to the assembly room where the block was assembled on the move until it reached the testing block where it was “run-in” to loosen it up.  After this procedure, the engine was then given it serial number and sent to the motor storage area where it was either sent on to the Rouge assembly line or put into a freight car, except those plants on the west coast which received their parts by ship, and sent to one of the assembly plants throughout the United States.  In the case of foreign shipments, it was loaded onto a ship and sent to those plants overseas.

The engine serial numbers used the same “style” of numbers up to the end of January, 1931 when Ford changed the style of three numbers only.  Those numbers were 1, 6, and 9.  According to the February, 1931 Ford Service Bulletin, Ford did this “to lessen any possibility of outside individuals attempting to change engine numbers”. This numbering change appeared between A4299173 (January 27, 1931) and A4319643 (February 3, 1931).

In determining if your engine is an original stamping, the engine number pad, which is located on the left side of the block just above the water inlet hole, must be that of the same “texture” as the rest of the block.   If the engine number pad is very smooth and machined down, more than likely the original number has been ground off and a new number stamped into its place.  Sometimes you can barley see part of the older, original number.

There were three items that were included in the data.  Omitted Engines, Industrial Engines, and A-6005’s Engine Assemblies.

The Omitted Engines, of which there were a total of 143992 engines through 1931, may have been those engines that were, according to John Charlton and who is from England and a fellow Model A’er, cast and forged at the Cork, Ireland plant and for which were machined and finished at the Trafford Park Plant in England and were given the AF prefix.  It appears that Ford designated a certain block of numbers, as seen in the data, which were also in the USA sequence of numbers, to appear on these engines.  Once cast and assembled, they then received the “omitted” numbers that were assigned to them such as, AF3019264, May 20, 1930 Tudor (see March 13, 1930 chart); AF3730313, July 22, 1930 Cabriolet (see July 8, 1930 chart); and AF3734739, October 31, 1930 Tudor (see July 8, 1930 chart).  Are there others?

Engines which were shipped to other foreign assembly plants that did not receive the England “AF” engine, more than likely came from the Rouge engines not to mention those that were shipped from the Canadian plant.

The Industrial Engines were engines which were apparently used for Industrial, Agricultural and/or Marine use and I am not quite sure at this time just how they differed.  Were these “industrial” engines also in the numbering system or were they separate from the numbering system?  If any of you have any information on this, please contact me.  One engine that is thought to be an Industrial Engine is stamped as such: *IAA998339*.

The A-6005’s Engine Assemblies, according to the Ford Parts Price Lists, were engines which were manufactured and built without the clutch and transmission assembled to it.  This signification in the Ford Parts Price Lists starts to show up in the October 1, 1928 Ford Parts Price List and continues throughout production.  Weather the signification is in earlier Ford Parts Price Lists is not known at this time.  The question is, were these A-6005 assemblies numbered or were they used as replacements and then numbered later when replaced by a faulty engine later down the road?

I would like to thank the Ford Motor Company for allowing me to copy this data and include it on my website.  I would also like to thank John Charlton, Mark Maron, Bradford Minners, Dave Sturges and Marco Tahtaras for their help and input.

If you can add to this, please email me at steve@plucks329s.org for updating this information.

Thanks.

Steve