Recently Acquired 50 Ford With A Merc Engine

Test Osterone

Test Osterone

Junior Member
First question: What oil filter to use in the canister?

Second: What is the oil replacement quantity in this engine?

Thanks in advance!

Test.
 
Have spent some quality time on the site reading about these flat head engines. Tried to search for the differences between the 8ba (or is it b8a?) and the 59ab. As described earlier, this car has a Merc engine (where it is to have the 4" stroke) also has the thin water pump pulley configuration.

Just really enjoy getting to know more about the engine and all the mods that can be done to these tried and true machines.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Test.

PS: A picture or it's not real:

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The Merc and Ford engines are exactly the same, except for the bolt on stuff, Intake, oil pan and a few other things including color. Unfortunately some people put Merc intakes and heads on their 239 engines expecting a performance improvement. The only real difference is the 4" cramk.
 
mike42 said:
Had one just like that in 1960, but was white ! Nice car you have !
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Thank you, Sir! Car is on extended loan and treating it like it was owned.

Ol' Ron said:
The Merc and Ford engines are exactly the same, except for the bolt on stuff, Intake, oil pan and a few other things including color. Unfortunately some people put Merc intakes and heads on their 239 engines expecting a performance improvement. The only real difference is the 4" cramk.
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Thanks for your note. Have greatly enjoyed reading your many posts on this board. Appreciate your response to my questions.

Test.

2emlggm.jpg
 
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Howdy Test Osterone, and Everyone else! I'm certainly no engine expert but if you are curious about the crank... Same trick to find TDC on any given cylinder.

Couldn't an easy stroke test be to take a chopstick or ke-bob stick and put it down a handy empty spark plug hole, mark lowest and highest points when spinning engine BY HAND and bingo, a rough stroke measurement? Be sure to video it for us, don't shoot the stick across the garage or dent the underside of the hood. :) I always wear safety glasses. You might have to jiggle the stick a little as it moves up and down so it doesn't get crushed, but that's why you use something soft (no screwdrivers) and don't use power to turn the engine.

Just a thought, and congrats on the new car, I think that year is very sharp.

edit: Waitaminute! What is that silver thing parked next to your new baby? Looks like an 'I' car, ends with the letter I? Duh, on third look I noticed the banner. Color me green with envy.
 
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VeryTangled said:
Couldn't an easy stroke test be to take a chopstick or ke-bob stick and put it down a handy empty spark plug hole, mark lowest and highest points when spinning engine BY HAND and bingo, a rough stroke measurement?
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The only thing you can measure through the spark plug hole on a Ford flathead is the exhaust valve lift. You have to either remove a head or the oil pan to measure stroke.
 
Ol' Ron said:
The Merc and Ford engines are exactly the same, except for the bolt on stuff, Intake, oil pan and a few other things including color. Unfortunately some people put Merc intakes and heads on their 239 engines expecting a performance improvement. The only real difference is the 4" cramk.
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And that big ol carbytutor with its big inlet manifold risers, good for a few more horses.
Martin.
 
The biggest problem here is the distributor, regardless of the stroke. Swaping intake and carbs has ab affect on timing and these distributore don't work very well when everything is right.
 
VeryTangled said:
Howdy Test Osterone, and Everyone else! I'm certainly no engine expert but if you are curious about the crank... Same trick to find TDC on any given cylinder.

Couldn't an easy stroke test be to take a chopstick or ke-bob stick and put it down a handy empty spark plug hole, mark lowest and highest points when spinning engine BY HAND and bingo, a rough stroke measurement? Be sure to video it for us, don't shoot the stick across the garage or dent the underside of the hood. :) I always wear safety glasses. You might have to jiggle the stick a little as it moves up and down so it doesn't get crushed, but that's why you use something soft (no screwdrivers) and don't use power to turn the engine.

Just a thought, and congrats on the new car, I think that year is very sharp.

edit: Waitaminute! What is that silver thing parked next to your new baby? Looks like an 'I' car, ends with the letter I? Duh, on third look I noticed the banner. Color me green with envy.
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Yes, you are right. It is one of those with an "I" ending Marque. This one is a 456 GT. 12 cylinder front engine 2+2 car. Not an in your face Ferrari, but one with some elegance and lots of go... In it's day, was the fastest production car in the world save for the F-40. Please excuse the Ford above the 456 GT....

smtwm1.jpg


V8 Bob said:
The only thing you can measure through the spark plug hole on a Ford flathead is the exhaust valve lift. You have to either remove a head or the oil pan to measure stroke.
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Seems logical, but not practical in real life. Will simply believe it is the Merc variant of the Ford Flathead.....

scooder said:
And that big ol carbytutor with its big inlet manifold risers, good for a few more horses.
Martin.
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Is this considered a "high rise" intake manifold? Or, is this the OE Merc intake manifold?

scooder said:
I agree Ron, it's a stupid distributor.
Martin.
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Really? Seeems to work well. Should it be a different configuration for even better performance?

Walt Dupont--Me. said:
It looks like it has a Malory dist. Walt
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How to tell if it is a Malory dist? From the discussions above, is this configuration not desirable?

51 MERC-CT said:
Yep! and one with centrifugal advance as well. Maybe not as good as a good vac. advance but better than original.
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What is the best distributor configuration for this application?

Guys,

Really appreciate your contribution to this thread and certainly for my education on all things "flathead!"

Again, many thanks for all of your comments as well as contributions and help on all the various applications for this most interesting platform.

Test.
 
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The Merc intake I was relating to is the stock OEM one, it has a four bolt carb flange and bigger bore riser part (the bit twix the carb and the front and rear facing inlet tracts) not a "high rise"
The distributor, I was relating to the stock Loadamatic one, this is the stupid one.
I hadn't actually looked at your pic, just agreeing with Ron.
Should read all posts, my mistake.
yours appears to be a Mallory with centrifugal advance. These more often than not have the wrong advance curve from the factory, it uses a sbc Chevy curve. It'll run and to someone that hasnt driven a Flathead with the right ignition curve, will appear to work "ok". I can tell you for certain, if it has the wrong advance curve now, recalibrating the distributor with the right curve will make you smile, a lot. The difference can be huge. With higher compression like yours, a sbc curve can give getting on for twice the advance you need or want, hurts power a lot.
Centrifugal advance + vacuum advance will give you all you need. The vacuum advance will increase your mpg. Still gota be curved right though.
Nice car, yours appears to have an 8BA-8RT intake, not the Merc one.
Martin.
 
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