A 256 cid Mercury Y-block. My 1951 Mercury with an "upgrade" of the 1954 engine. Let them cast the first stone!
The only worry about that is that the 256 is a one year only engine and a few internal parts might be hard to find. That may come down to only pistons though. If you have the late 51 with the 4 bolt Ford Trans rather than the Early 51 with the big bell Merc trans it will bolt up to the trans. Back in about 1958 my then step father had a 52 Ford Vicky with a 56 T bird 312 in it that looked like it belonged in it so the swap shouldn't be too hard.
If ya got the early style trans, a y block adapter will save you fabricating a clutch fork mechanism with the later style, you’ll save buying an adapter but will have to build the clutch fork stuff
Another problem with the early Y’s is the different size cam bearings. They also used a different distributor gear I think, but those can be swapped. In even the short run it’ll be cheaper to find a 272-292 you can get parts for. Some say the last late 239’s had the later cam bearings, but I’ve never seen one and don’t know about the 256. If it’s a running engine, drop it in and start collecting parts for later. Edit. Brazil! They built them a lot longer down there, so it might be all right. I don’t know.
Bellhousing from a heavy duty y-block, with a 5 Speed transmission from a brazilian 1995 F-series (Clark 2215) perfectly fit.
The Jalopy Journal
