I found a guy that had been holding all of these flatheads from the 1950's. I wanted one motor, and ended up having to buy them all. 6 flatheads in all, tons of parts, transmissions to. One motor is a Merc flathead, I haven't ran any of the numbers on any of the motors. Any ideas on what i should keep, and what i should sell. I am not to familar with the flathead stuff that much. Didn't think i should pass up the deal for all the stuff. No speed parts, except for a few odds and ends. One motor is built with a 3/4 cam and some dome pistons and a funky oil pan. The rest is all stock original motors. I can't keep it all so I am curious what you guys think i should keep and whats a going fair price for some of this stuff. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Those look like stock domed pistons in that red 59A engine. How can you tell a 3/4 cam is in anything without verifying a manufacturer number or specing it in your hand? You might do better grabbing that line of bicycles.
The domed piston one, he got from his brother, and was told it had a 3/4 cam in it. Nothing is for sure, i am predicting there all just stock motors. Are there any piece or block motor desirable than others, a certain trans more looked for than others? Thats what i am wanting to know. Thanks
the merc motor probably has a good 4" crank which is worth $300-400 bucks if in good shape. It is hard to tell about the motors, they aren't worth much as salvage. Some of the other parts that I can see are good to keep or sell like the starter/bellhousing parts, etc..
Take a day, strip them all down, inspect and shelve all the usable parts. If you are running a flathead, you will need something out of that stash one day.. probably not worth flipping any of it. but it is all handy if you run flatheads..
Each engine should be examined one at a time.... most desireable are the 59-AB [46-48 ford] with a "59" or "59 A" or "AB" or "A" cast into the top of the bellhousing area of the block...also desireable are the 49-53 ford/merc engines... You REALLY need to brush up on flatheads with several flathead books available to you...can be bought on ebay or on the HAMB classified's using the search feature to find 'em....very helpful. They'll school you with a lot more info than you'll get here.
Lot of work, but any flatheads without cracks is of value. For many, the Mercury is the cream of the crop for flatheads, late block and 4 inch stroke. All depends on the price, and whether they have cracks is a gamble until you tear them down.
definatly keep the mercury, it has a 4" crank. after that its a matter of finding 1 good block and all the rest of the parts you need to build 1 good engine. maybe you could trade for some performance parts like multi carb intake, fenton headers etc.
If ya bought right and some of them are not cracked to bad then you can sell all of it here on the HAMB. You can sell those 94s, cranks, rods, etc. even if they are junk blocks. Just be sure to inspect the dog out of a flatty before you decide to use it! PM if ya want!
Appreciate the info guys, I am just not real up on the flathead stuff, and i knew alot you guys on here are. I have a 3X2 offy intake and a set of Eldebrock finned aluminium heads i want to put on one. Then thought i would keep 1 or 2 and then sell off the rest. What about the transmissions, certain ones better than others?
Rocky and special markings on the Merc motors? I know there is one merc motor in the group and there is like 2 sets of merc heads i believe. Thanks Jason
All I can say is that if you have room to keep them for a while you don't have to feed them or carry water to them so they aren't a lot of trouble. I wouldn't get rid of any of the engine pieces until I had all good parts set aside to build the motor I wanted and I knew that those parts are good. That means, block, crank, rods and what not. Since you are about 50 miles out past the end of the world sign guys probably won't be beating a path to your door unless they like the Panhandle in winter. You can probably cull out what you don't want, like stock intakes and maybe stock exhaust manifolds and post them in the classifieds here or on Ebay and sell off some of that right off. Same with the transmission pieces that you know you won't use yourself. Someone somewhere probably is looking for every good piece you don't intend to use so it's worth sorting out even if the return on some of it might not be too big. I've got a stack of flathead books but I'd suggest getting a copy of the Tex Smith book as it has a lot of the info that the others have and covers a pretty much the whole spectrum of Ford Flatheads. I think I got mine from this same guy. http://cgi.ebay.com/TEX-SMITHS-THE-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5883a8ee8d 24.95 including shipping isn't bad for that book.
Out of that whole pile if you got enough quality stuff to build one good engine it was worth it. If you really want a flathead, that is the way to do it. Start reading there's alot of good stuff out there. You can also interchange some of the 8ba stuff with the 59ab stuff to make a really great F head. I wouldn't sell anything until you are sure you have enough parts to make one good one with a few spares left over. Same goes for the top loader gearboxes, only throw out what's already broken and keep the gears as sets. That stuff is almost as hard to come by as good F head stuff. Buy a solvent tank and some gloves and start cleaning. Godd score, Tim
Welcome to the world of Ford flatheads. In addition to Tex Smith's book, get Ron Bishop's Rebuilding the Famous Ford Flathead. I got a new copy on Amazon.com overnight for 14.35, including shipping. Go to vanpeltsales.com (He's a HAMBer) and click on the flathead engine at the bottom of the page. Wealth of good information there. Take your time, have fun. You'll be frustrated like crazy at times, but there's nothing in the world like a sweet-running flathead. If you can find a regional chapter of the Early Ford V-8 club, join it. I'm a member, and there's a lot of knowledge and a lot of parts sources amongst the members.
mercury motors have any special markings on block? I know the heads are marked on one motor. Didn't know if there were specail casting marks on blocks. Thanks
Hopefully I got one. I know the guy i got them from had a little junkyard kinda, and he said and i have been told by a bunch of old timers that knew him, that he would not keep it if it was junk. So I'll just have to wait and see what i get. Hopefully i have one good one.
The only way to tell if ya got a merc, is to mesure the crank! The heads interchange so thats not a dead give away, pull the pan, 4" stroke, Merc, 3/4" stroke, Ford......Roach.
You got one hell of a good find there. I wouldn't get rid of anything until you are totally done building a good running engine. As mentioned earlier, you will probably be using a few parts from the other engines. If I would have kept all the flatheads I have had in the past, I'd have one heck of a collection going. Be a hoarder and keep them all. lol Keep us up to date with pics and what you plan on doing.
Thanks for the info guys, Unloaded extra merc heads and transmission out of my truck today, sprayed oil in cylinders and started turning them over today with wrench. Hopefully some good ones to sell and one for me to keep.
Just a update, I have got all the motors but 2, to turn over. Just need to decide which ones to sell and which ones to keep. Are any of the flatheads better to keep than others, which ones are more desireable? Thanks
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