Dear Engine Board,
I am enclosing pictures of a plain vanilla two bolt main block that has two rear lifter valley drainback holes. I have not seen these before. They *seem* to be factory and not a machine shop modification. Has anybody seen this before? It seems like a good thing for oil circulation.
Chuck Engles
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Umm, more pictures. C. Engles
Hi Chuck,
I can't remember if the early blocks had holes back there or not. The D2AE-CA blocks don't. First thing I noticed was this block lacks the "X's" and "Y's" found in the lifter valley of most Clevos.
Dear George,
out of my collection of nine Cleveland blocks, probably only three or four have the sinister Xs &Ys in the lifter valley.
Cleveland amateur archeologist, Chuck Engles
It seems you have a block cast on October 27, 1969 ... destined for an H code (2 barrel) or M code (4 barrel) motor. Eventually to be installed in a 1970 model Ford or Mercury.
quote:Originally posted by C. Engles:
... out of my collection of nine Cleveland blocks, probably only three or four have the sinister Xs &Ys in the lifter valley ...
The X&Y markings show up in the D2AE-CA blocks (US mfg ~June '71 - June '74).
If the majority of your blocks do not have the X&Y markings, that would lead me to believe you have mostly D0AE & D1AE blocks in your collection. Do any more of them have the extra drain holes in the lifter valley?
3 O 25 H XXX 25, 1973 (the O is not an O, probably a C or a G)
3 C 30 H March 30, 1973
A.M.17 I don't speak Aussie Ford
0 J 9 G September 9, 1970
1 H 18 J August 18, 1971
1 B 1 G February 1, 1971
3 K 30 K October 30, 1973
9 K 27 DOAE-J October 27, 1969 This is your earliest block
I'm willing at this point to buy into the assumption that those extra holes are a feature that Ford dropped sometime between October 1969 & Septmeber 1970.
I know that Jim Kuntz blocks all the holes in the lifter valley, thus forcing all the oil collecting in the valley to drain forwards through the "rough" knocked-out hole in the front of the valley. Thus lubricating the camshaft thrust plate.
FYI, I know that Jon Kaase, prefers the early 1969 blocks, like your D0AE-J block, because they supposedly have a bit thicker cylinder walls.
