8ba into 36 5 Window

mfagan

mfagan

Well-known member
Are there any issues to consider when installing
an 8ba into a 1936 5 window coupe.

Car is currently all stock except for hydraulic brakes.

The 8ba is a 50 Mercury with the stamped bell housing
to mate to the early transmission.

Your thoughts are appreciated.
 
I think that you may have fan clearance issues if you use the later set up. I've got an 8BA in my '36 pickup with the later pumps and fan set up with no problems but the fan extension off the generator was longer for a pickup than passenger cars.
 
The front spacing between the fan and radiator is the biggest obstacle. You will need F1 truck water pumps to get it the right height. The pulleys mount ahead of your distributer housing in front of the engine. You will need a different cam pulley that mounts more forward, so your fan belt clears. A double cam pulley does the trick. Next you have two choices... Either mount pusher fans inside your grille or fabricate a mount which locates your stock fan in that very small area.
I believe your oil pan will interfere with your steering tie rod. 2 choices here. Either install a later model F1 truck pan or slightly bend the original pan with a BFH. Doesn't take much of a bend to clear it.
 
It's pretty straight forward, use the '42-'48 truck water pumps and replace the double groove pulley on the 8BA crank with with a 5/8" wide single groove pulley as found on the '39 standard. If you need one PM me. You might find going to an electric fan simplifies things. If your tie rod doesn't clear a '48-'52 truck pan should solve the problem.
 
You'll have to use a SBC distributor and extend the Gen out a 1/4 inch if you use the early pumps. Plus these pumps will have to have the sealed bearings. All this is kinda trivial, but can be a Bit*h if you're not aware of it.
 
The 8BA blower motor I'm building is going in my 35 Coupe. Am I going to run into a problem with the blower crank pulley??
Should I also be using a truck pan & truck water pumps??
Thank you,
Joe
 
Did not note this thread earlier, must have been asleep...
This topic is bantered around on a regular basis, usually with the came content, just with slightly different opinions.
I have installed several 8BA/8CM. 49-53 engines into '36 and later Ford vehicles. Generally speaking it's a pretty straight forward deal if you use the '49-53 truck water-pumps with the '49-50 Merc U shaped spacers to correct for the mounting bolt offset. The truck and/or Merc bellhousing has to be used.
As a general rule truck water-pumps will have pulleys for the wide fan belt, where-as the car engines will have narrow pulleys for the narrow belts.
In a '36 it is especially advisable to use the '36 "log" style of exhaust manifolds.
I have attached a couple of pix showing an 8BA in my friends '37 pickup. Note, in the pix you can see later model exhaust manifolds, which were changed to '37's before the exhaust was hooked up..
 

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blucar said:
Did not note this thread earlier, must have been asleep...
This topic is bantered around on a regular basis, usually with the came content, just with slightly different opinions.
I have installed several 8BA/8CM. 49-53 engines into '36 and later Ford vehicles. Generally speaking it's a pretty straight forward deal if you use the '49-53 truck water-pumps with the '49-50 Merc U shaped spacers to correct for the mounting bolt offset. The truck and/or Merc bellhousing has to be used.
As a general rule truck water-pumps will have pulleys for the wide fan belt, where-as the car engines will have narrow pulleys for the narrow belts.
In a '36 it is especially advisable to use the '36 "log" style of exhaust manifolds.
I have attached a couple of pix showing an 8BA in my friends '37 pickup. Note, in the pix you can see later model exhaust manifolds, which were changed to '37's before the exhaust was hooked up..
Click to expand...
Those water pumps on the blue engine in that 35-36 are not trucks pumps, there, 49-50 Merc pumps that is why the spacers on the mounts, if you use 49-50 any be later Ford truck pumps, wide belt, they will set right on the mounts with out spacers. Walt
 
If I were putting an 8ba in a '35-'36 Ford, my preference would be to use an early cam ('35-'48), the appropriate camshaft and crankshaft timing gears, two bolt timing gear cover, crab distributor, early fan mount generator, '49 Merc water pumps w/spacers or pu truck water pumps w/o spacers, and the crankshaft pulley that provides correct fanbelt alignment with the generator fan mount pulley and the water pump pulleys.This will all work within the stock radiator to engine spacing on a '35-'36 Ford. I did this on my '35 3w coupe in high school in 1959 when I was 16 years old. Never needed any type of electric pusher/puller fans for cooling.

I also used an oil pan that cleared the tie rods, '35-'36 exhaust manifolds, and probably a '35-'36 intake manifold. It has been awhile, so it's difficult to remember all the details :).
 
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Here's some comparison water pumps and motor mount pictorials from the Merc manuals. The 51 Merc used a 2 belt system of narrow (3/8") belts as shown in blucar's photos.. The 49 and 50 Merc used wide belts.
 

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JM 35 Sedan said:
If I were putting an 8ba in a '35-'36 Ford, my preference would be to use an early cam ('35-'48), the appropriate cam and crankshaft timing gears, two bolt timing gear cover, crab distributor, early fan mount generator, water pumps (w/spacers if necessary) and a crankshaft pulley that all provide correct alignment with the generator fan mount pulley. This will all work within the stock radiator to engine spacing on a '35-'36 Ford. I did this on my '35 3w coupe high school car in 1959 when I was 16 years old. Never needed any type of electric pusher/puller fans for cooling.

I also used an oil pan that cleared the tie rods, '35-'36 exhaust manifolds, and probably a '35-'36 intake manifold. It has been awhile, so it's difficult to remember all the details :).
Click to expand...

John, I did the same thing to a 36 roadster a few yr's ago, 50 Merc engine, all 59 guts, I used 8BA heads because water outlets lined right up with the 36 radiator, used a 59 std dual carb intake so the gen and fan would set up front. Walt
 
If a person had a complete original 51 Merc they wanted to install, they could use the spacers instead of having to convert to the 8RT wide belt pulley set up and belt configuration.
 
I asked this question in the other 1936 / 8BA thread:

Who has successfully come-up with a mechanical fan on an 8BA in a '36 that actually WORKS, and how did ya do it? We're not talking electric fans, nor converting front of engine to 59-style set-up. DD
 
V8COOPMAN said:
I asked this question in the other 1936 / 8BA thread:

Who has successfully come-up with a mechanical fan on an 8BA in a '36 that actually WORKS, and how did ya do it? We're not talking electric fans, nor converting front of engine to 59-style set-up. DD
Click to expand...

I know I'm pulling up an old thread but was this ever covered?
 
36coupe said:
I know I'm pulling up an old thread but was this ever covered?
Click to expand...


36coupe......Funny you should ask but yes, Heard and I covered this subject by designing and building this specialty fan for his '36 3-window with 8BA. Click on the link below, and read post #12 for pretty much the whole story (with many pictures) on the mechanical fan we designed and built. It cools his car in the summer heat in Florida. DD


https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=237098&highlight=mechanical+fan


290072
 
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