Odd '53 Merc crankshaft numbers

U

UpNorthGreg

Junior Member
I picked up a parts motor from a '53 Mercury. Pulled the crank and confirmed it as a 4" stroke. It has some numbers cast into it (M 511: ) that I can not find referenced anywhere. Anyone seen these before?
 

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They meant something to management at the foundry 75 years ago, but that knowledge is gone and wouldn't interest us anyway.

I blame the "Matching Numbers" Corvette guys for this because the GM system made sense and provided useful information. Ford, not so much.
 
The Mercury crankshafts changed in 1951 to allow fit up of the torque converter for the automatic transmission. It was a 1CM prefix part due to that, but that may have changed if outside contractors ever got involved. The flathead Mercury crankshafts were made in some numbers for spare parts after the change to overhead valve in 1954 but I don't know if that may have been an identifier or not. With Ford, anything is possible.
 
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