I own a 54 Crestline Vic. I'm located up north, in QC "La Belle Province", Canada. I speak french so sorry for my not so good English! My Vic is Canadian too so equiped with the V8 flathead engine. I read somewhere that the 54 Canadian Customline and Victoria have been made with the Merc 255 flathead and the Mainline received the 239 Ford engine... Maybe someone can confirm that? This car is a kind of "never ending project". I bought it 4 years ago. The car was stored outside for 25 years so it need a lot of body work but it is "streetable" like that. Flathead runs good and automatic trans shift good too, even if I project to swap a t-5 before this summer. Last summer was my first road test season and I received a lot of thumb up! I will post some pictures this evening.
Post a picture showing the Carburetor and the codes on the heads and intake that may help to ID the engine.
Welcome from the eastern point of Canada, Terre Neuve, I am wondering if it is the Monarch you might be thinking about with the larger engine. In 54 the Monarch had the 256 cu. in. /161hp. overhead valves. Ford and Meteor in Canada still had the flathead.
Carb is a 94, with Ford crest on it, code on the head is 8BA but thats only head... When I will be ready, I will take off the oil pan and I will measure the stroke. 54 Canadian are weird, the whole car is on a 53 frame with all the 53 drive train, brakes, suspension and front end. They really took the 53 model and droped a 54 body on it. All parts I ordered are for a 53 except for the body parts... I have had to modify a 54 wiring harness I bought from Macs to fit the car. All interior wiring was like the 54 but under the hood was like a 53! Time for pix! Bought the car like that: And after some work... Last summer I drove the car without the hood... And this is a little video from 2012, the first summer I worked on the car I bought it in fall 2010... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFMUSHZnvKY
This may help:http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_home.htm I would bet from what I see it is a 239,Mercs had a 4 bolt Holley front draft Carb like this:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercury-fla...Parts_Accessories&hash=item338bda6984&vxp=mtr But it was not uncommon to put Ford heads and intakes on Mercs as it would bump up the compression a little bit.
Looks and sounds good.The 54 in Canada is basically the same as 53 in running gear, 239. Looks like a fairly solid 54, seems like it got tinted windows, is it a western Canada car?
Put #1 cyl. at TDC remove the spark plug. Put a small long thin stick in the plug hole & mark the stick. Turn the motor over 1/2 turn & put a mark on the stick. Now measure between the marks. 3 3/4" 239 Ford, 256 4" Merc.
Windows are factory green/blue tinted, I like that! I don't know from where this car come... I bought it locally and it was there since 1985. This car had a frame up restoration in the 80's but the guy never finished it. I'm in vacation for the next 2 weeks so I will take a few minutes to try to take the stroke measurement so we will see if all that is a true or false Rumor!
I keep hearing to use a stick etc to measure stroke through the plug hole.. If that works please let me know.. Problem I see is that on a flathead the plug is positioned over the valves not the piston about an inch or two of offset and two right bends. My guess is pulling a head is the only way you will really know
I know the plugs are over the valves, I have extra long tie wrap, I thought to use that for gauge... If its doesnt working, I will follow my first idea to remove the oil pan... Anyway, I must install a new gasket, this one leak on my garage floor!
To paraphrase Forrest Gump, a flathead is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you gonna get (until you open it up). We're talking about an engine that went out of production in Canada 60 years ago. Ford and Merc cranks are completely interchangeable and it was common practice for a Ford owner to install a Merc crank at rebuild time. That said, here's a link to a "how to" on identifying flathead cranks: http://www.flatheadv8.org/boomer/crank.htm .
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