was wondering if anyone knows what color the pant would be on a stock 1951 flat head ??

 

You don't say which engine you have.

On my '51 with a 226, the color was red.

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It's a V8, which in 1951 is Ford red. Sometimes guys use bronze, but that was the car color. In 1952 the V8s and 215 sixes were Lincoln green. Sometimes you find Ford blue, but that was the color applied on later rebuilt engines. Stu

 

i painted my flathead v8 red because i wanted it red and i think i have read many if not all the truck v8 were red. i only have three colors on my truck, satin black, red and mat nickel. another question is what are the numbers on the heads. aren't there certain heads (8RT, etc.) for trucks? my flattie is an EAB out of a 53 car and still had a lot of the orig tangarine on it. so it is obviously not true stock, but that's the way we roll.

 

where is the number on the motor to tell what it is

 

On the 1949 to end engines, there were no identifying numbers. The heads however, did have numbers cast into them. The 46 to 48 heads were 59A, the car heads were 8BA, truck heads 8RT, and Mercury 8CM from 49 to 52. The late '52 through '53 engines were EAB or EAC, with the EAC for Merc.

Apparently, the 8BA and 8RT were not absolute, as there have been numerous reports of trucks with original engines that have the 8BA car heads. I know for a fact that my F-2 had it's original engine in it when Dad got the thing back in 1970. That engine had a crack, so Dad swapped it out with an engine from a '51, but kept the heads, carb, etc. All of the heads were marked 8BA. Later on, I found a spare engine out of a '51 F-2 that had 8RT heads, and now have the engine as a spare.

There are few differences in the bare blocks from one year to the next. The biggest being a separate bell housing on the '49 to end blocks. Some engines had valve seat inserts, others didn't. Mercury cranks were stroked, etc.

 

There isn't one on US models. Don't know if Canadian models are the same but I suspect so. I know the data plates have the space listing motor number, but that I'll guess is just a carry over from earlier years when the motor number was stamped into the bell housing. With you having a Marmon-Herrington this will be even more confusing because that plate lists the motor number too. But if yours is like mine and others, that plate shows the motor having the same number as the chassis number. Stu