Hi, I traded a rusted out car body for this flathead for my U.S. Mark-II project. It was missing its heads. I thought it was a Mercury and decided to take a chance that it had the 4" stroke. I have been trying to ID the engine and have a few interesting things that have shown up. This was in the "middle of nowhere" Georgia. It appears to be a 1954 Canadian Mercury engine. It has a cast iron intake, teapot carb, aluminum front cover, pastel green paint and odd casting numbers. Does anyone have any more information on these late Canadian engines? See the pictures. Am I right in thinking this is a 1954 Flathead? The owner of the shed this came from bought the place with the engine inside. The heads were stolen before he closed on the property. He said that they were marked, Mercury. That is all he knew. Thanks.
There were some Mercury Flatheads made in 1954. They're really scarce though . They were intended for the remaining M- -100's ...........scrubba
Thanks. I looked at that site before and several others as well. I am not finding the stampings in the same place as they show. I know it may be a long shot to get more information. But it is worth a try. Any info helps.
Fords and Mercury both had flatheads in Canada in 54 other oddities are king pin front ends, I believe Mercurys started getting OHV 256 motors in 54 so there is some cross over. Mercury motors to the best of my knowledge never said Mercury on the heads but they were aqua green in color, if it turns over just measure the stroke.
Picture # 5 shows 1CM cast into the crankshaft, that tells you it's a '49 or '50 Mercury. That gets you a 4" stroke, Ford is 3-3/4" stroke. The other numbers pictured don't mean anything, just casting #'s.
The 1CM means intro in 1951...the change was an extra hole in the rear to pilot the fluid coupling. Also used on sticks after that until end of production. I have only random pieces of Canadian Merc, but the manifolds I have are aluminum ones for both generations of merc carb. Also, the Canadian front cover I have is aluminum, not die cast, and the protruding piece in the middle is flat with sharp edges rather than a dome. I have seen aluminum heads for late Canadian mercs, but can't remember which of the several generations they were. Canadians labeled their engines more than we did...I believe there will be build date codes stamped on block manifold surface at right rear if Canadian. Pretty sure M-100s and Meteors were all 239s, only cars equivalent to USA Mercs were 255.
Thanks for all of the input. One thing I noticed on the Holley 885 carb, it may not be the original. The automatic choke was on the intake manifold. The carb that came on the engine also has one. It is probably not original to the engine. The attached picture is what I think was used originally.
Merc trucks had 255's. I have half a dozen of 'em. Also Ford of Canada rebuilt only 255's for years to put in Ford trucks. Lots of old grain trucks around here with 8CM's.
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