I have wondered about these heads, out of curiosity, for a while.  Big valves low compression 82 cc chambers.  What was their purpose?  Were they a replacement for the EDB-D and E heads used with superchargers, and recycled into '59 vehicles to get used up?  How did the trucks and unfortunate Mercurys run with the 471's?  Finally, were the chambers open, or was there a quench area?

Mike

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Mike:

The 471 heads were truck heads from their inception.  Many folks say they are replacement blower heads, but Ford did not ever list them as such.  They are not open chamber heads.  They were low compression heads for 292 trucks, and probably came on the Merc 312s as a regular fuel engine with 8:1 compression.  They are sought after now as blower engine heads due to the impossibility of finding D and E heads nowadays.  There was also a B9TE truck head with the big chamber and valves, but the exhaust valves in those heads were sodium filled valves with 7/16 diameter stems.  They can be converted to 11/32 stem valves with replacement valve guides.

John

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

The quench area then must have been at least decreased I would think.  OK they were low compression heads for trucks, and passed off to Mercurys.  What was the performance characteristics that Ford was looking for to combine a quite low compression with big intake valve?  Were they engineering a motor to lope along at 1000 rpm without dying, but one that could gulp large quantities of A/F mixture for heavy loads?  If so then why would they have been in everything from light duty to heavy duty trucks? This isnt totally academic, because I now have a low compression big valve motor.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Quench area for the ‘471’ head is marginally smaller as the footprint of the ‘471’ combustion chamber is 9.3% larger than a ‘113’ head and 11.3% larger than a ‘G’ head.  Use of the ‘471’ heads was just one way to lower the compression ratio in the trucks as using the shorter 312 length connecting rod and dropping the piston in the 292 bore was another.  The ‘471’ head would have been the ideal method to lower compression ratio as quench would be maintained but there were a multitude of truck engines out there with pistons sitting 0.090” or more in the bore and using the smaller chambered heads.

To this point in time, I've only seen the 471 heads on truck engines and have yet to see a pair actually  factory installed on a Mercury engine. 

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Mike,

               I don't think that the subject of "Quench" was as widely understood in the 50's as it is now. I'm not sure that the lack of quench area would have been an issue to them. I have a set of 471's on my F code, and have run it without the blower on the street. The car runs very well even with no pressure. I think it's just slightly less than 8 1/2 to 1. You won't have to worry about octane ratings much.

      

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

John, Ted, & Frank thanks for the info.  It may be an easily understood issue, but not by me.  Why is a low compression motor an advantage to a working truck.

And, that low compression big valve motor of mine, the one with 312 rods and 292 crank, the one that has a replacement motor ready on the stand:  Yesterday totally unexpectedly I picked up what looks like a good 10/20 312 crank .

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

I'm not sure valve size mattered much to either the engineers or bean counters.  All '57 passenger cars had G heads, whether 272, 292, 312.  Now what would the old lady school teacher need with big valves in her go to church never over 1800 rpm 272 2 barrel?

Ted, I have bought two '59 Merc engines over the years, both pulled from the car at the wrecking yard, and both with 471 heads.  The first I bought maybe 30 years ago, wanted the 312.  The last I bought about 5 years ago specifically for the heads.  

John  

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Mike,

           In a truck one of the main objectives is long life. Lower compression allows them to run regular low octane gas, (cheap) without worrying about pre-ignition. So the motor stayed together forever. Small ports and valves together with a mild cam to make low end torque, to move a loaded truck. Didn't need a lot of horsepower in a truck. Also the 471's are posted, which makes them stronger.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Thanks John for clarifying that the 471 heads were also installed on car engines.  I’ll wager a guess that the engineers had to detune those 312’s quite a bit so as not to embarrass the occaisional 352 it might come up against.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thanks Frank for putting it together.  A workhorse package of longevity.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.