42 Mercury

O

outlaw

Senior Member
Guys, I was given a suposed 42 merc rolling chassis today. The frame is rusted out & not worth saving. The rear end is good, so is the front axel & associated stuff, & it sounds like Alaska Jim wants the side shift ****** so that will have a new home. It came with a top shift ****** also & the v8 flatty is apart. One piston is destroyed but the block looks good & I don't see any cracks so far visualy eyeballing it over. The block has 59 cast in the bellhousing, & 59ab on both heads. Mushroom valves with stock hollow lifters. Bore measures somewhere between 3.205 & 3.215 (bores are dirty & I'm having a hard time keeping my bore gage running straight) & has a 2 bolt dissy, and the rods are 29a floaters. The part that bothers me is the crank, it has the single oiler holes (for the full floater bearings), the rod journals measure stock at 2.1390 & the mains are 2.4990, but it has no clean outs at all. I have never seen a flathead crank without them. Does anybody know if this is an early motor? I thought that the 59 series motor came out in 1945 or 46. It would be hard to believe that this would be the original motor from 42. Bill
 
outlaw said:
Guys, I was given a suposed 42 merc rolling chassis today. The frame is rusted out & not worth saving. The rear end is good, so is the front axel & associated stuff, & it sounds like Alaska Jim wants the side shift ****** so that will have a new home. It came with a top shift ****** also & the v8 flatty is apart. One piston is destroyed but the block looks good & I don't see any cracks so far visualy eyeballing it over. The block has 59 cast in the bellhousing, & 59ab on both heads. Mushroom valves with stock hollow lifters. Bore measures somewhere between 3.205 & 3.215 (bores are dirty & I'm having a hard time keeping my bore gage running straight) & has a 2 bolt dissy, and the rods are 29a floaters. The part that bothers me is the crank, it has the single oiler holes (for the full floater bearings), the rod journals measure stock at 2.1390 & the mains are 2.4990, but it has no clean outs at all. I have never seen a flathead crank without them. Does anybody know if this is an early motor? I thought that the 59 series motor came out in 1945 or 46. It would be hard to believe that this would be the original motor from 42. Bill
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The 49 to 53 ford an merc, cranks had the clean out plugs, the early engines did not. The 42 mercury engine didn't have 59 on the bellhousing, if it is in fact a 42 chassis, the engine has been changed.
 
It sounds like regular 59 engine 46-48 Ford and Merc. Scrap off the top of a couple of pistons, it's probably has been bored .020 oversize. Walt
 
Thats what I thought. Also I forgot to mention that tie block is factory relieved. Thank you for the help. Bill
 
The Mercury cars often had 3:54 rear gears, first look for 18 on the speedometer cap. Next look for 11-39 on the bottom web of the banjo center section.
 
nospartsman said:
The Mercury cars often had 3:54 rear gears, first look for 18 on the speedometer cap. Next look for 11-39 on the bottom web of the banjo center section.
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Thank you, I will check that out. Also I never new about the crankshafts. All the flathead books that I have say nothing about cranks not having the clean outs. In every one whether they were building a 59 block or a 8ba style block they show & mention about the clean outs. I have never seen a flathead crank without them. But I'm still learnin. Thank you. Bill
 
A lot of the early Mercury rear axles have a pinion that was itegral to the drive shaft (one piece). I'm not sure if that continued to 1942 or not.
 
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