I've owned this '59 Ford tudor since I was 16. I want to find out what kind of engine and transmission are in it? I recently pulled the gas tank and radiator to replace with new. I rebuilt the transmission and I bought a newly rebuilt 223 thinking thats what it was.... mechanic told me it's not a 223 and he wasn't really sure what it was. Car frame is solid, no rust, it was originally built in the FORD Georgia factory and spent it's whole life in Florida. I want to find FENTON header and intake manifold but I might end up going with Edelbrock or Offenhauser to save some money. I even have the original radio and dash controls with chrome in the original cardboard box from 1959 with a chrome trunk pop lever. I'm looking for suggestions & help on what I should do? I like the inline 6 because its fuel efficient getting about 20-24 mpg on 87 octane. I don't want to swap the engine I just want to clean it out and update the surface rusted manifolds. CHEERS... I've been contemplating selling her to buy a classic motorcycle...Harley or Triumph
Welcome from So Cal. The stock engine should be a 223. Ford used them through 64. If it's not, someone must have changed it and possibly the trans too. Since you have owned it since you were 16, I would keep it. Most guys wish they had their first car again. Good luck with it. Check out the 52-59 Ford group here. Those guy know anything you need to know about your car. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=332
that looks to be a 223 to me. easy way to find out is see if your local parts house has valve cover gasket and match it up.
Awesome car! I dig that the grill surround is painted and not chrome. What's with those little lights on the tops of the rear fenders? Does this car have a history? Personally I like the factory look.
Sure looks like a 223 to me. Your mechanic must be confused because there is no place to plug a computer into. I would keep the car (bitchin) and get rid of the mechanic.
Thanks for the very warm so-cal welcome @the-stig and I appreciate the advice on not selling it... that's something that's been weighing heavily on me. 55 dude... I agree, I'm pretty sure it's a 223, I think my shade-tree mechanic could have been mistaking but maybe the tranny is not original to the 223. 58custom... yeah to be honest I'm not a big fan of chrome and I painted it when I first purchased the car when I was 16 turning 17. When I was 9 years old I told my parents I wanted a pre 60's car...preferably a 1959 Cadillac and mom said, "over her dead body." That's when I started saving every cent to buy my own car and I always asked for CA$H on gift giving occasions'. By the time of my 16th birthday I had saved up $11k in 6 years of saving and working summer jobs. My parents offered to buy my first car as long as it was from the year 2000 and up and under $20k.... I said no thanks I already have my eye on a 1969 Cadillac Coupe DeVille convertible with 65k original miles (Wisteria color). I bought it on the week of my 16th birthday and the block cracked and blew a rod when driving it home... my mother made sure to rub my face in my mistake. I sold the car to a collector surprisingly for the same amount I paid for it. After signing over the title, the buyer explained my Cadillac was rare because its VIN# matched one bought by Elvis Presley and gifted to his accountant in Chicago. With that money I bought my 1959 Ford Custom 300 The story behind the 1959 FORD Custom 300.... I took time looking for a car and 3 months later I bought it from a man in his mid 40's... his father was the original owner of the car and he had recently passed on. The car came with a box of original parts and some still being in the original FoMoco boxes. His father stopped driving the car in the early 70's and he had it sitting in a warehouse until the day he passed away. It was suppose to be his sons first car but he didn't want to drive some outdated car in the mid-late 80's because it didn't have a tape player or working AC. His father removed and boxed up the original radio and installed a tape player but it still wasn't good enough for his son. When his father passed away he was behind on bills so his son had to settle the estate by selling all of his fathers possessions. I was the first person to contact him about the FORD and I bought the FORD for $6500 cash and slowly sunk $5000 into her. The extra lights were put on by the original owner in the late 60's as well as the extra set of mirrors on the fenders. He explained to met his father was a safety nut and thought it was good to have extra set of brake lights and turn signals for drivers behind him.... and the added mirrors I guess were good for blind spots? He told me how proud his father was to be on of few people to have seat belts installed in his '59 Ford. I found a 1972 Playboy December issue Christmas Edition sponsored by Coca Cola stuffed behind the spare tire in the trunk... so I assume the car was put in storage around 1973. I asked the previous owner and he says he never remembered his father swapping engines on the car but he was only a child. When I bought it I didn't know how to drive a manual car let alone "3 on the tree". I read online how to drive a manual 3 on the tree car and the next day I took a bus and walked 5 miles to the estate sale to buy the car and drove it home. When I pulled up into my driveway mom said, "that's impractical, ridiculous and not safe" and my dad said "I admire your willpower, I hope this one lasts longer than the pink Cadillac & you can't park that boat in my driveway"... it's lasted me 9 years & 9 months.
Modifications I've made to it.... I've installed electronic pop locks to pop open the doors, fuzzy dice on the mirror, skulls on the interior lock pins, a train horn with a compressor and tank. Removed the train horns after receiving a nasty ticket from a jealous copper and sold the 5 tier horns to my friend who always begged me to honk my horn when driving him to school. Also, installed electronic wipers because the vacuum ones were unreliable and sometimes extremely slow.
Do you know what's it worth? BTW I like your signature! I dropped the mechanic because I found him to be smelly and incompetent. I've decoded my VIN that's how I found out it was a custom 300, 223, built in Georgia and not a Fairlane as it was badged.
Since you replaced the engine it is possible it's not a 223. It could be a 215. unlikely as it was only offered in 1952 maybe early 53. The other possibilty if it is not a 223, is the bigger 63-64 262.
Thanks for the idea on the possibilities of what it may be... I never replaced the engine... I just wasn't sure if it was replaced in the past by the original owner. Does the engine block have a corresponding vin# somewhere on it to check if it's original to the car?
It will have the casting code on the side of the block. I no longer have the info on hand as I sold the manual with my 63-F-250. It is still very possible that it could have the 262. That would allow more power in the same package. It may be worth researching and finding out. The 262 was only offered in F Series trucks for those 2 years. Research the 262 and those year trucks and you should be able to find those #s online. If I remember correctly, the 262 has a bigger bore and longer stroke.
The center airplane hood ornament I know isn't original. It was a gift from my grandfather before he passed away, it was from his 55 Oldsmobile... 88 I believe.
Sweet '59! The extra lights on the fenders and the accessory mirrors, oddly enough, are very common on old American cars in Cuba. Maybe you could get some extra bucks renting it for local "set-in-Cuba" photo or movie shoots?
WOW, that would explain a lot... the original buyer was a hotel owner in Havana, Cuba and moved to Miami, Florida sometime in the late 50's. His son told me about some of his fathers stories of living in Cuba and the hotel he owned where he had numerous unforgettable guests; Ava Gardner, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra, and the infamous Fidel Castro.
Sorry for any confusion you got from me being a rambling man... I'm trying to figure out if the original owner replaced the engine before 1973.... since there is no carfax for my car I don't know if it got in any accidents during its life; which caused the engine to be changed? .... i only ask because a mechanic that replaced my transmission 2 years ago said it wasn't a 223 and when I asked what it was he said, "I'm not sure I'll have to look at what I wrote down" and he never told me. I bought a 223 rebuilt transmission for the shade tree mechanic to replace my blown tranny. I only found one myself because he quoted me $2,000 on a new transmission and I found one rebuilt for $700.... Shade tree mechanic calls me up after it was delivered and says it doesn't fit and I ended up paying him $2000 + an extra $1200 in labor.
After looking at it closely and comparing to pictures of the models you mentioned... I've concluded it's possibly a 215 or 223.... to me those two engines look extremely similar.
It's a 223, the 215 has the distributor in the center, it looks to be the correct motor for a 59, as in 60 they went to a different valve cover
Nice looking 59 Ford - I admire your resolve to get a classic from early in life - especially given the lack of encouragement from your parents. Saving from 9 yo is a special gift - keep your car, no matter what - be it's second owner for the next 60 years. That'd be special. Good luck with it and keep enjoying it. Cheers.
That's good to hear I was going to crawl up in there tomorrow to check for an engine vin # or some type of marking. THANKS!!!! greasyknight for the $0.02
CHEERS! dad-bud... reading that made me choke up! it would be hard to get my first one back and i can always wait down the road to find the right cycle. That really set my head straight because I've been getting offers and usually said I'd think about it but now I know I'll say, "NO but thank you."
Welcome to the H.A.M.B dude, I miss my 59 Ford when I see yours. I love where it's headed. Rock on man. ~sololobo~
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