Yes...I would be interested in more info about the engine swap. Ive always been a chevy guy, but I want to keep this one all Ford. How much trouble was it to bolt in the 302 and auto trans should I decide to to that route down the road?
A stock Monterey would have come with a 312. However, I believe the stock engine color for a 56 Merc was gold. The Y blocks are good, solid engines. They have solid lifters so you do need to occasionally adjust the valves. I was always happy with the 312 in my 57 T-Bird. Drove that old car for 27 years and the 312 ran faultlessly. The 56 Ford products actually drive pretty well. Radial tires and increasing the diameter of the front sway bar and adding a rear one made a big difference. The stock brakes with premium brake shoes fit to the drums gives the car pretty good brakes. Always liked the 56 Mercurys probably because my folk bought one new.
56 was the first year of 12 Volt. That's a big plus. The C-4 trans mount bolted right in the stock Merc location. I probably had to do a little length adjusting to the driveshaft, might have been as simple as just changing the slip joint. Speedo cable was a plug and play. I used the 302 rubber mounts and hand built the missing link. Trust me, it's kids play. No aftermarket kit will be any better. These photos are from 3 different builds but give all that's needed to do the same thing. The 302 front sump oil pan fits just fine. I simply used the stock 56 Oil and Temp senders in the 302 so my stock gauges were correct. Everything relate to Ign was plug and play. So you know I have been doing this stuff over 50 years so the onset to do it may not fit your abilitys but it's really as simple of a motor upgrade as you can get into. No carving up the chassis, no electrical mods needed, a little exhaust work and a few hosses. I bet over the years I've hand built those mounts 10 times. You want to be sure to bevel both ends of the tubing so you can access the bolts easier.
P.S. you can even reuse the stock Gen if you can find the early brackets. They used to be everywhere.
Very cool build! I sure miss my old red/black 56 Montclair. I bought it as a stocker that someone "restored" original...after it had been a custom in the 70's! It had frenched antennas in the 1/4 panel, and whoever wanted the stock 56 back filled the antenna tubes with bondo (!) and left it smooth! I turned it back into a custom slowly until I had to sell it in 96. Sure miss it. It had a chromed out 312 auto in it. I wished I could have put an H.O. 302 in it, or 351W, or even a 390. It was a lot of weight even for that old 312. Good luck on your build, love seeing these resurrected!!
Also what i see, is you have original loadomatic distributor.it will not work with that holley what is int it now. Check the distributor and if its loadomatic, you need 57 or newer distributor.
They do work,, Sorta. The 56 Merc frame bracket that the rubber mount sits on has 2 slotted holes to receive the motor mount. The 64-rubber mount only has 1 stud to mount to the frame pad with. To use that 64 mount, you have to remove a fair amount of the material on the frame pad between the 2 stock holes. Personally, I don't think that's a good plan. Add to that, the frame pad mount was changed 4 degrees in 1959 so now you have a preload twist in the Rubber itself. I have seen it done, the rubber doesn't last very long.
Cool car. FYI Silas Enterprises (Adventures Made From Scratch on YouTube) at Huchinson KS has about 5 of those in his yard, some fairly complete which would make useful spare cars (pic from his FB page). It's not exactly near you but those are not found in every street nowadays. From what I've seen so far his prices are fair and he seems like a decent fella. Bear in mind he has a business so things get crushed after a while if he can't find a buyer...
Im not sure what you mean. While I have not driven the Merc except for on/off the trailer and in/out my garage, the engine starts and seems to run fine with the current distributor.
If I’m seeing the picture correctly, the above comment is correct. The 56’ I’ve seen use a dual vacuum can, the 55’s a single. Both are matched to an individual carb (usually a Holley teapot). Unless that combinations is correct, you get no proper advance either as a “vacuum advance “ or “mechanical “ advance in a conventional distributor. Changing over to the 57 up distributor is simple. Car will start and idle fine, but lay down on power as it doesn’t advance with rpm. Or it’s set to run at speed, and cranking or pinging is a problem down low. Many yblocks have been pronounced “no damn good” because of that. Get that part figured out before you decide on and engine change.
A stock 56 Mercury engine used a Load-O-Matic distributor. This distributor had no centrifugal advance. Instead it used a venturi vacuum signal from the carburetor to move the points plate to advance the timing with rpm. If your vacuum canister on the distributor has two vacuum ports, you have a Load-O-Matic. If you only have one vacuum port, it is probably a 57 or newer distributor with centrifugal advance. An easy way to determine which one you have is to remove the cap and attempt to move the rotor. The Load-O-Matic rotor is fixed and will not move. The 57 and newer with centrifugal advance will rotate a few degrees counter-clockwise.
If you do swap it out.....I may be interested in the y block depending on when it pops up if you swap it out. Had the urge to do a y block a roadster the better part of a year now lol
It appears you have a ‘54/‘55 Ford/Merc Load-O-Matic distributor. The large diameter vacuum canister with the threaded fitting for the rigid tube is a good indication. The ‘57 & up distributor has a smaller diameter vacuum canister with raised hex portion and a slip on vacuum hose connector. The only way to difinitively tell the ‘54 and ‘55 apart, is to remove the distributor from the block. The ‘54 will have a 13 tooth drive gear (if I remember correctly) and have a “tang” that engages the oil pump drive. The ‘55 will have the same drive gear as the ‘57 & up distributors and the same hex drive that engages the oil pump. So, if you discover you have a ‘54 distributor, you most probably have a ‘54 Y-block. This will make the ‘57 up distributor swap a little more time consuming. The ‘54 drive gear needs to go onto the 57 up shaft and the ‘54 oil pump and drive needs to be replaced with a ‘55 up oil pump and drive. The ‘55 distributor is a simple swap with the ‘57 up distributor. Unfortunately, the ‘57 & up distributors are not as easily found these days. The swap is much more common knowledge, now!
Not here to argue with anyone. But that picture clearly shows the early vacuum can RSC id’d above. It’s definitely a loadomatic. That’s the first thing you want to straighten out before you decide to change the engine. The chance’s of a 54 239 or 256 being transplanted are fair slim. A 272 or 292 much higher. But, it could still be a 312 someone mismatched parts onto. All the loadomatic’s, flathead, V8’s and 6’s (they were around on 6’s a lot longer) were carburetor engine specific. Many didn’t understand that or how they worked. While oem 57 up distributors are getting tougher to find, Ted Eaton (https://www.eatonbalancing.com/ has found some decent aftermarket replacements. You’ll find that at http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/default.aspx. Try the search function. Enjoy the ride, it’s a nice one
This seems to be getting way over involved to me. First off, the car starts and runs but hasn't been driven around the block yet. If is starts well, RPM's well, doesn't kick back on the starter and doesn't diesel on shutdown, why assume there's a problem? If he's concerned with what's going on with timing and advance can't he just put a timing light on it and watch what's going on through the RPM range? Isn't good, good enough no matter what combination of parts are stacked together. On visual assessment of the overall car, I'd say someone actually cared for it a lot and probably took good enough care of it to keep it running Good Enough. Let's let him drive it some before we start telling him he has to start changing shit. If Factory Correct really mattered every one of us here would need to totally redo our vehicles.
Have you driven a lot with bone stock engine and fixed ignition timing? Was it good? I did a tuneup for a friends 63 cadillac and it has completely stuck advance mechanism in distributor.he has driven it like that for years, but after i repaired it to work s it should we take test drive and he was amazed and told this thing feels like rocket. But to each of its own..
I think that the distributor has been emphasized because they are not familiar to the average car guy. Unless you know about them, it is very easy to make a mistake and screw them up. Over the years, a lot of changes have been made to these old cars, and I would expect that the majority of them have problems. In addition, most guys ignore the advance when doing a tuneup; I know I used to.
I agree here. I dont really give two craps what dist. is in it. As long as it starts, drives an shuts off, Im a happy camper. I just purchased a new radiator and after I get it delivered and I install it, I will be taking the Merc for a nice test drive. I will keep you all posted. Mean while, Im just tinkering with it, taking off some old parts I wont ever use like the windshield washer and canister and some other none descript items I will not be using.
This right here is some Funny Shit! At 77 years young I was driving this stuff when it was considered NEW. Yes, there's always room for improvements according to the young. That's how Hot Rodding was born. This is very true. However, I have learned to stand back and give the past Mechanics credit that they also may have known what they were doing while making changes. Just because things are not O.E. Correct doesn't mean things can't work right. That said if there is a problem that's generally where I start looking, but not until.
I appreciate all the input folks. Just a heads up, I have been building cars, mostly hot rods since the 1970's. A lot of them frame up builds. I decided for this next project, I would just take a running, driving car and improve on its performance and looks. I had already planned on removing the stock drive train for a later model V8, but you all have convinced me to try and save the stock equipment once I determine it is salvable. When the new radiator arrives, and I install it, my first order of business is to take the Merc for a nice test drive. I will go from there. Meanwhile, Im pulling wheels and drums to inspect and rebuild the brakes if needed. I will keep yall posted.
Getting busy on the Merc! Ordered a new 4 core radiator, but in the mean time, pulling the wheels and drums to see what, if anything, the brakes need. After installing radiator and doing maintenance on the brakes, I will take it for a nice long drive to decide what next.
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