Identifying Part Numbers

In most cases, Ford part numbers on your engine are 'cast' into the component. Typically these numbers will not match the part number in a Ford catalogue as revisions are continually revised to meet the needs of the automotive industry. Any part listed in a Ford catalogue as ‘N/R’ refers to ‘not replaced’ and is therefore, obsolete.

Here is a typical FE block casting number: C6AE-6010-A (see below for a breakdown)

Prefix – C6AE

   ‘C’ = 1960 (identifies decade)
   ‘6’ = 1966 (identifies year within decade)
   ‘A’ = Ford (identifies car line)
   ‘E’ = engine department

Part No. – 6010 (identifies part number). There are many part numbers including 9510 for carburetors, or 6090 for cylinder heads, etc.) We’ve only outlined engine blocks on this page.

Suffix – A (defines engineering level). As engineering changes incurred, the suffix changed to the next letter, (e.g.: a, b, c, etc.) Ford did not use the letters ‘I’ or ‘L’ but did double up the letters when they exhausted the alphabet through numerous engineering changes, (i.e.: aa, bb, cc, etc.)

To understand all the definitions of a part number, please see the information below.

FIRST CHARACTER: (identifies decade)

B = 1950-1959
C = 1960 - 1969
D = 1970 - 1979
E = 1980 - 1989
F = 1990 – 1999

SECOND CHARACTER: (identifies year within decade)

This character refers to the year with the decade that the part was released from engineering to production.

THIRD CHARACTER: (car line or specific model or models).

A = Ford
D = Falcon
G = Comet, Montego, Cyclone
J = Marine and Industrial
K = Edsel
M = Mercury
O = Fairlane, Torino
S = Thunderbird
T = Truck
V = Lincoln
W = Cougar
Z = Mustang

FOURTH CHARACTER: (engineering department)

A = Chassis
B = Body
E = Engine
Note service parts gave a different fourth character as follows:

Z = Ford Division
Y = Lincoln-Mercury
X = Muscle Parts Program
M = Ford Motorsport SVO

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