I’ve come across these tags on the engines in the past and they appeared more predominantly on low mileage engines.  Age and/or wear and tear appears to have done away with many of the tags if they were present at all.  My ’55 wagon had one of these tags and it simply broke off while working on the front of the engine.  No clue as to what the numbers mean but very likely were put there to either help identify the engine prior to installation into the chassis or it was possibly a form of QC tag.  It will be interesting to see what the TSB's say regarding these tags once that information is found.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Apparently these tags are only on the Cleveland built engines. If you see a number 2 it was from Cleveland #2 plant. I have some info in my TSB's and other stuff I will try to find for you,

marv

I remember them being on all the original engines in 56 ford and mercurys that I saw growing up. They could have been on other years as well, my rememberer gets contankerous sometimes when I try to think back that far.

-Gary Burnette-

You guys ever see some sort of round paper tag attached to the front of the  timing case cover on an original engine?There are numbers and letters punched thru them.

I believe it to be some sort of identification code.

Anybody else know anything about these items or what the numbers/letters mean?

Oldmics