Hot Rods Newb here. I bought an old hot rod shop

8 months ago I bought a property with an old hot rod shop on it. There were a couple old Fords and Chevys and a bunch of engine parts and a few engines.

I need some help identifying some of what I have. I've got a 53 Country Squire with built Mercury flathead in it that is driveable and a 51? Crestline that's got the engine out and machined and ready to be reassembled. It's got a balanced 4.0" Mercury crank and EAB heads with some performance parts. I'm not a flathead guy, so I'm very much early on the learning curve (I am an engineer, but don't hold that against me LOL).

I'll include some pics and maybe some kind soul can help me decipher what I've got. The blue rockers got in the pics by mistake ; )

PS The guy that owned the shop used to race flatheads way back and went on to race stock cars up through the 90s. He built all of his own engines and cars. His name was Charles Clouse and his shop was Kars and Kolors in Asheville, NC.

Thanks!!!

Don

 

Yup, late flathead parts. The heads are not Merc, but the crank may be. Measure across the big counterweight. If it’s 6 inches it’s Merc. Smaller is Ford. The aluminum front cover is usually a Merc thing, iron is Ford. What’s the box of pistons say for stroke?

 

6" and 4" stroke on the crank so Mercury. I'll check the piston stroke...should be 4"? Heads are the 7.2:1 EABs right? '52-'53?

 

Welcome to the HAMB Don. Keep us posted, and we want more pictures too!

 

That flathead will make sombody a nice engine.
So D'ya know Choo-Choo Charley?
Welcome!!!!

 

Welcome to the HAMB from southern NC! Looks like a great score! By the way you won't need those roller rockers for your flatty so just go ahead and send them to me!

 

Nice batch of goodies. It was (and is) real common to replace 49/53 Merc EAC heads with EAB heads to raise the compression.

 

Welcome to the HAMB! Lots of knowledge here, don't be afraid to ask.

 

Holy cow! You guys are awesome!

I'll take some more pictures today and post them up here.

Is there anything obvious missing from that pile that I would need to build up that engine?

 

Here are some pictures of the country squire and the crestline

 

Money . Welcome from E. Tennessee.

 

Avoid thumbnails....hit the "full image" button.

 

Looks like you have just enough there to make you go crazzy, but in a good way. Did the seller just walk away from all the automotive stuff in a Package deal?

 

Whatcha got there sir is a freakin gold mine
and
Oh, by the way you are know a flat head guy!

 

Cool find. FYI: the numbers on the block you posted mean nothing as far as Id'ng a flathead.

 

Can't believe there's a Citroen 2CV among that lot

 

As well as a mid fifties GMC twin boom wrecker. The stories it could tell from back in the day.

 

They bring big money here now.

 

I hope none of those cars are customer`s waiting for their car to be restored.

 

The seller walked away straight through the pearly Gates via the left ventricle.

Some of those cars including the two CV I had already. I pulled out a few sets of EAB and 8BA heads this morning. I'm going to bead blast them unless that's a bad idea.

 

Quite a place. That temperate house is enormous!

 

That wrecker was amazing. 1955 GMC 450 with a 1972 Chevrolet 454 crate motor in it. It was a beast! Like a dumbass I sold it for $4,500 bucks. Everything worked except the wrecker stuff but it could have been fixed.

 

This was the largest poinsettia nursery on earth for many years. A quarter million square feet of glass greenhouse brought here from Holland. 300 employees for four or five months of the year. The whole place was 30 plus acres. I bought two and a half acres of it.

 

Nice score. If the intake manifold has 4 bolts to mount the carb, it's a Merc manifold. Looks like the block is drilled for the adjustable lifters, the lifters look like Johnson light weight adjustable lifters, which is nice. Do you have crank and rod bearings? Hard to tell, but it kind of looks like there are hardened valve seat inserts, which is nice. Overall, it looks like you have most of the parts to put it together. Buy the Flathead book from H&H flatheads and follow it to put that motor together.
Aaron

 

The Crestline was made from 52 to 54

 

Thank you! I may just do that. I have a bunch of Flathead engine performance books. I'll take some pictures of them and see if you guys are interested in any of the info. The guy I got the shop from was building performance engines

 

..Wasn't it also '50 and '51?

 

welcome from Aussies