Good Saturday Morning All! I hope you are all well.
 I am in the middle of dealing with a weird issue I had with a recently replaced head gasket and freshly machined left head that leaked coolant out of the rear corner of the head right above the #8 spark plug. I am still not completely sure why my previous attempt produced that result...I found no head gasket issues or cracks in my new head etc...I did find I had installed the spark plug wire loom  at an angle so that one of its two tabs for the bracket  that act to keep the spark plug wire organizer block in position was cocked so that one tab was above the deck surface. I put that spark plug wire loom assembly on before I installed that head because I had a clear shot at it since the head was not in the way...Its my contention since the leak was RIGHT THERE that that is what was wrong... My vehicle is named Ethyl. She is a 1955 Ford C600 2 ton COE that I use when she is drivable as a Tool Truck I am a former Matco Dealer and for the Past 3 years have been running Ethyl as an independent.
 I had everything back together Thursday hoping to see I had fixed my original leak issue from my prior head gasket work. On initial start up...My 272 y block wanted to act like it was Full Throttle....Long and short of it was I had installed intake manifold gaskets that did NOT FIT...I have yet to find some that do....I have what came with the engine set from Best Gaskets that are their part number 14045. I have the felpro ones for a 272 and they fit the same as the Best product. I have a NOS Gasket set for the 272 and both of its intake gasket offerings fit like all the others already mentioned...
The intake is a cast iron OE type. Its a TWO Barrel that a Teapot sits on. Stamped on it is EBZ-9425-D the block is stamped so that one believes it is a 272. Is this intake from a  256 or a 239? Does anyone have a way to check what is stamped to see what is what? Meanwhile I called BEST GASKET COMPANY and they have Three part numbers for Y Block intakes...I ordered the other Two I havent tried yet...the one for the 239 and the one for the 256....I am not wanting to find out MONDAY if this is going to fix my issue I would rather get the jump start on it today....if anyone can assist here....
WHAT ENDED UP FIXING THIS ISSUE or Summary of solve... 1. iT TURNS OUT I have the 256cid Y Block  circa 1954  and then into LATE 1956 SMALL PORT  INTAKE MANIFOLD(stamp "EBZ"). There is ALSO a small port intake from prior to what I have for the 239 cid Y Block but that manifold would be stamped with EB"V" and the 239 is clearly different in configuration. The 256 and 272 are similar enough that in my opinion you could make an error and choose the wrong gasket if you dont know any better or dont check well enough. The  engine gasket set I used originally that allowed the massive intake leak FROM BEST Gasket Company  ONLY CONTAINED the LARGER PORT ones from after LATE 1956(I thought I had a 272 so they gave me the set for a 272. 2. I have learned that the heads I have are for a 256 cid Y Block and NOT the 272 NOTE I am not sure if the HEAD ports for the 256 and 272  are the same or NOT  once again my heads are 256. My Block DOES HAVE a CASTING NUMBER THAT shows it to be a 272 that is what threw me here and caused me to order the incorrect gaskets set. The jury is out as to why my block is a 272 with 256 heads and intake. My truck was manufactured in DECEMBER 1955 so because it was late in the year Ford may have used 272 blocks for some reason(maybe they ran out of 256 blocks). One day I might have access to the front of the engine where there are other numbers present.  I am told that those numbers likely will shed more information on what is what regarding this 272 block and it being in a truck where that 272 is NOT the absolute norm for the year make and model it is. I can not also know if someone else has changed out the engine here....lots of things can happen over 60 years.
The following posts in this thread contain a ton of information that is valuable...even though I have summarized the fix for this concern, I do still suggest you look at each post following.... there may be a nugget of info that will answer some nuance you may be experiencing...I know I have found one sentence in instructional posts that in the past have reached out and grabbed me luckily that absolutely were the difference between continuing to chase my tail and actually solving what I was trying to solve.







Gary Z. "ETTT=Ethyl*THE*Tool Truck" 1955 C600 272cid Y block T98 Eaton 1350 / "Brutus" 1972 F250 360cid FE C6 Camper Special Cust Sport/ "Edith" 1955 C600 restomod on a 2002 E550 Chassis 7.3 Powerstroke EOD/"Panzer" 1976 MBZ 450SL