All 56s did not have C heads. My national show winner 1956 sunliner with Low milage has the original B heads which are the same as the B heads that came on my stick shift 312 1956 tbird. My 1956 crown victoria 312 automatic came with C heads. My 56 sunliner was parked in 1959 with 14,000 actual miles. I bought it in 1974 and the 59 tag was still on it. My 56 tbird was parked in 1966 with 60,000+ actual miles in the owners basement with a white sheet covering it and the original inspection sticker for 1966 and I bought it in 1982. My 56 crown my first car I bought in mid 1965. In the past I've owned at least 20 56 fords and about 5 57s. I'm not saying some 292s didn't come with C heads but I,ve never seen any that were original. When it comes to 1956 mercs they all came with 312s and I've had abunch of them as well and the 312 out of it has C heads ( automatic ) my 56 custom 56 merc stick shift I used to own had B heads which has a slightly lower compression ratio thus the different heads and compression ratios are listed in some owners manuals.  

-Gary Burnette-

Related question, how come in '56 the TBird 312s that came with automatics had higher compression ratio (9.0) than the TBird 312s that came with standard shift (8.4)?

They wanted a little extra torque so that the automatic cars would be more equal with the standard shift cars.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

I've heard it said that most 1956 cars & T.Birds had ECZ-C heads. But Gary B. says not so.. & he may be correct, as Eickman's Y-Blk book lists 6 different casting #s for 1956, (not including trucks) including two numbers that end in "B". They are ECZ-B & EDB-B. However, oddly only 3 part numbers are listed.

Paul

How did they achieve that slight increase? Was there a mechanical change somewhere in the heads, or was it just a 'numbers' thing Ford did?

Paul I believe it's the chamber size in the different heads thus the stick cars having a different head than the automatic, but that does not mean some stick 312s didn't come with C heads especially for those set up for high performance etc.

-Gary Burnette-

I had heard that there were different head gasket thickness used.That would create different compression ratios.

Oldmics

Another question regarding 292/312 cylinder heads. Which motors received the ECZ A and ECZ D heads. And would that imply that the ECZ A heads were made before the ECZ C/D heads and before the 1957 ECZ G Thanks for the information. Pete

boy looks like I open a can of worms /The only thing Im sure about is it a 55 vic and the vin# says it was born with a 272/what ever I got was rebuild in 1988 and lest then 12k put on /it runs good but I would like to know what it would take to get 300hp out of it /I think I will call ted one of these days 

i checked a couple 56 292 engines i have and found the following.the 56 292 that came out of a 56 Ford station wagon with standard transmission is a EDB block with ECZ-B heads.The car was stored since 1966 so more than likely it is the original engine.The other 292 is a ECZ-A block with ECZ-c heads and it came out of a 56 Ford station wagon with fordomatic trans.This engine was pulled out a couple years ago so dont know for sure it is original one or not

Carl