Greetings . . .

Anybody out there know how to identify war time production heads for the 216?

Someone had painted it "head to toe" with gray primer; which I stripped off last weekend to
see what was underneath:


There aren't many distinguishing markings beyond a letter 'T' in the middle of the casting:

an indication of domestic production:

and an apparent date code:

The only other odd thing about the casting is the 'D' shaped hole into the front most water jacket
entry (where one usually finds a round one) and the fairly tight & offset intake valve openings:

Also, there are wires running along the perimeter of the water jacket. Some are loose and can be pulled out; others seem to be stuck in the casting.
Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

The head appears unused and aside from some rust and pitting here and there looks like it will clean up nicely . . .

regards,
Keith

Dear Keith;

It may be a head for military use (ambulance) as auto production stopped after the bombing in December of 41. It was cast in April of 42 and is much smoother than the usual 216 casting.

What kind of wire is it?? It may be some type of "anti-corosive" mechanism, as 'coolant' as we know it wasn't used then (only water soluable oil).

Good luck.

The wire is ferrous - a magnet will pick it up. So you think that the wire might be in there as a sacraficial lamb? The wire rusts first leaving the insides of the water jacket alone until later?

I pulled out the loose pieces - the others I'll leave alone. I was worried that they might move about and perhaps get into the pump impeller.

No; your right, get it out of there. I was thinking it might be something else.

You might call Beck's, they might know, or there's a guy in Kansas City the builds 216 engines for the 'restro crowd'.

I think you'll find that the wire is to hold the casting cores together or in place...

We found similar stuff in heads we've salvaged for our Dodge Poly 318 engine. I would say that it's left in there because it's not a problem in service and it's just another job they don't have to do in production.

i think it is just a war time replacement head for a car or truck. they quit making cars in 42. but they still had to make some parts to keep the old ones running,or things would have ground to a halt on the home front. i have a nos war time replacement grill for my 38 chevy pickup. it was never chrome plated just painted gray.

after the war when they started making cars and rucks again they just broke out the old tooling and made 42 models. in fact a lot of them came through with out bumpers just a 2x6 bolted on. later when the bumpers when made you went down to the dealer and they put them on