Presidents Corner A warm V-8 greetings from California. The good weather is here and the meet and tour season is in full swing. The positive side is the good weather and the negative side is the price of gas! Wow, who would have ever thought that we would see $3.00 a gallon for gas? We have now developed a new National Chief Deputy Judge program. There will be a National Chief Deputy Judge for each section of the country (western, central and eastern). They will assist the National Chief Judge at each national meet in their area. We will also have one Reserve National Chief Deputy, who can fill in when one of the National Chief Deputy Judges is unable to attend a meet. This program will also give us a list of experienced candidates to choose from when appointing a new National Chief Judge. In this issue you will see an article by Judging Standards Committee Chairman John Griscom. It’s an article showing how the committee was formed, why it was formed and how it relates to our judging process. The committee members work very hard to make the judging process fair and accurate. One of the next items they will tackle is what do we do with cars that have reproduction bodies that replicate all the features of an original? A tough question with no easy answer. We are still seeking an advisor in the V-8 Times for the 1941-42 cars. If you have the expertise on these cars and desire to be a technical advisor, please contact National Chief Judge Jerry Vincintini, 9707 North 156th St., Bennington, Nebraska 68007, phone (402) 238-2842. We are also seeking director candidates for the California and Southwest region. If you live in California, Nevada, Arizona or New Mexico and desire to serve on the national board, please contact Director Jerry Reichel at 3650 Tuggle Rd., Buford, Georgia 30519-4051, or phone (770) 945-1146. Lastly, I would like to mention that there are two international meets in 2006. The first is Scandinavian Ford V-8 meet in Randers, Denmark held on June 30th-July 2nd and the second is the Early Ford V-8 Grand National Rally in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia which will be held October 27-29. Watch the V-8 Times for information on these meets. That’s it for now. Get that V-8 fixed to tour on ’06! Tom

What's New We have a lot of plans for the upcoming year on this website. In the near future, we will be adding an International Gallery site with Ford, Lincoln & Mercury photos from around the world. If you have a picture of your 1932-1953 Ford, Lincoln or Mercury that you would like to add to the International Gallery site, then please write up some information about your car and email it along with a photo (at least 600 x 400 dpi) to sivadt@pacbell.net. We will be making enhancements to the events area, which will also keep all users up to date with all the upcoming tours/events for the upcoming season, both here in the United States as well as internationally. With the help of our membership and others, we would welcome any articles, news, photos or information that you would like to pass on to our viewing hobbyists about our 1932 - 1953 Ford, Lincoln & Mercury Ford products. Due to space, we are limiting all articles, news or information to 150 words or less. If you send a photo via the internet (at least 600 x 400 dpi), make sure it is clear and has good contrast (B&W) or color and that you also include your name and a description of the photo. Please email all items to Early Ford V8 Club of America National Director - Terry Davis – sivadt@pacbell.net or you can mail the items to him. You'll find his name and address in the 2006 Roster, in the California section. Suggestions We are constantly trying to make this site better and easier to use for all our visitors. If you have any suggestions you would like to make please email us and we will try to respond as quickly as we can.

Mercury vs. Ford 1CM (not ICM as many call them) Heads would be correct for 1951 Mercury only. This is the Ford part number prefix for first year usage of such a part. These are 6.80:1 compression ratio. 1952/53 uses the "EAC" heads which are 7.20:1. Heads should carry Mercury script on center top surface. You may or may not have a Mercury engine. Many people would try to make fake Mercury engines by putting on Mercury heads. True Mercury engine will have 4.0" stroke crankshaft with matching pistons. This would make the engine 255 cubic inch displacement (CID) vs. Ford 239 CID (1946-1953) which have 3.75" stroke. Both are 3-3/16" bore. Intake manifold for Mercury ('49-'53) is four stud mount type for larger more sophisticated Holley 2 bbl carburetors Vs. Ford 3 stud mount "94" types. Mercury had automatic choke vs. Ford manual choke. Blocks are "8BA" type for both Ford and Mercury '49-'53. Camshafts for Mercury are different than Ford in '49-'53 years. Merc engines achieve higher horse power You can get all this from many good flathead engine rebuilding books like Tex Smith's, Frank Oddo's, etc. I'd rather have a V-8 The 'V' in V-8 really does not stand for anything, other than a description or shape of a gasoline/diesel engine.  When you look at the front of a V-8 engine, what you are really looking at is a 'V' configuration (The crankshaft at the bottom center with pistons in the upper right/left of center).  If you draw an imaginary line from the crankshaft to each piston you would have a 'V' shape. This could also be as a V-4 (Briggs & Stratton engine), V-10 (in the modern Ford engine), a V-12 - 1930's through 1948 Lincoln or even a V-16 as in World War II Rolls-Royce aircraft engine. They all are 'V' shaped engines, with a different amount of cylinders.