Hey Guys, I was ondering if any of you have any experience with the mercury 260. I have been infomed that they are a stout little small bock and would be a cool alternative to a SBC of a SBF for my wifes 51 Ford F1. I do plan on towing our 24' Airstream with it. Any info you have would be greatly appreciated. Larry
A 260 V8 was available in small Fords & Mercury's,,I had one in a 63 1/2 Falcon sprint and it was a pretty strong running engine,great choice. HRP
I towed my SCCA MG Midget on a light 2 wheel trailer with a 260 in a Sprint clone, it was fine. BUT, I doubt you would be happy with the rig you describe. A small block set up, 289/302 with RV cam set up might do the job. 30 or 40 more inches would be a big help. A 300 six would add a lot of grunt for what you want, IMO,,,,,,,,, You better do something about brakes, too.
Stop the presses! I missed the part about pulling a 24 foot air stream. With some head work (302) and a cam upgrade it would work. HRP
I don't think it's a good choice. They don't make Torque and that more than anything is what you need for towing. Any SBC would be my last choice just because it's going in a F-1 . Also the 260 only comes in a 5 bolt bell housing pattern so a good Auto is going to be a challange. They also are a low RPM motor along with small C.I. As far as efficiency you'd be just as well off to leave the Flathead in it. SBF is a grate choice and the 351w will fit in the same space as the 260. You can then use any auto including the aod or 4 speed or 5 speed stick. For what your wanting to do I'd look for something different. The Wizzard
The 260 IS a SBF! The C-4 bell can be switch from 6 bolt to a 5 bolt bell. But, yeah, for towing a 302 or 351w would be better, however..... My parents pulled a 22' travel trailer from Ca through Or, Wa, Mt, Wy, Yellow Stone, Denver with a 289/C4 w/o problems. At the top of a long grade we were fine & another Ford with a 390 in it was pulled over steaming so there's more to it than just CID.
Ford did make a 260 V8 for a short time, and they may have put some in Mercuries. They quickly enlarged it to a 289, then a 302. I can't imagine why you would want to hunt out a 50 year old engine when there are much better alternatives. For your use I would suggest a 4.6 and AOD trans out of a Crown Vic, Lincoln Town Car or Mercury Ball Buster. They are an excellent, long lived engine with plenty of power for towing. Another good choice would be a 351 and matching trans out of a Ford pickup. Strong, lots of torque, but a gas hog. 15MPG or less vs 20+ for the 4.6 or 302. The 302 is also a good engine. A little on the small side for towing but, your pickup is not heavy and Airstreams tow easy so it should work fine, if your rear axle gearing is not too tall.
For what it's worth; 2300 4 cyl. Turbo Coupe pistons are a bolt in for the 260, lighter and have a much better ring package. Only problem is converting metric bore (2300) to std.
If towing a 24 foot trailer is truly in the cards, go with a longer stroke SBF like the 302, or better yet the 351. The 260 did ok in the Falcon and Comet, and did great in the Sunbeam Alpine derived Tiger and the original Shelby Cobra, all light cars. It was a dog in the Galaxie in 1963, and was soon dropped from those full sized cars in favor of the 289, which was stroked to 302 a couple of years later. The 260 production run was only ~3 years (1962-1964). 0
Thanks for all of the input guys! I will think about all of your options, and put one of them to good use. I'm sure that whichever one I choose from will work just great for us. So it looksle the 260 is out of the question.
This part is a wise decision. I have a 351 W motor in my 57 Convertable. I believe it is a 1986 motor and came out of a Crown Vick. It came variable venturi (not F.I.) factory roller cam and an A.O.D. I bought the running car and drove it home for $1200.oo. I call that a heck of a deal. The Wizzard
Go with a larger motor,those 260s were fine in small cars and would want something a little larger to pull that trailer. I do not know if I would want to pull that large of a trailer with a shortbed,a 60s longbed would handle that trailer much better.
Agreed, a FE would be just the ticket if you can afford the fuel, and its more traditional then a 302 or 351. The larger question is how much the trailer weights, it might be a little much for the F-1 even with upgraded brakes.
You might want to check out this: http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_0702_ford_400m_engine_build/ That will pull your trailer.
I think with just a timing chain set from a 70 cleveland and a 4 bbl and a different cam will wake a 400 up enough,I had a 351-M that had a rv cam that would tow great and got decent gas mileage for what was supposed to be a pig.
If the tow vehicle is an F1 Ford pickup, I have to assume they are not planning to tow very far or very fast. If you do, major mods to brakes and suspension are called for. You should get familiar with this Vintage Airstream site if you are not a member already. Here is a long discussion on towing your vintage trailer with a vintage vehicle to get you started. http://www.airforums.com/forums/f463/vintage-tow-vehicle-47507.html
The 221 cid was used in the Alpine Tigers first of all,---They were such a huge sucess in the "Sporty" car racing that it got Shelby's immediate attention. Then Shelby put the 260's in his Cobra racing cars & smoked the competition bad. At that time most guys were putting SBC in all their rides, I wanted to be different, so I purchased a 260 from Shelby that came out of a Cobra in 1964, when the 289's came out, Shelby was quickly doing the fast exchange & back out to race at various points in the world. I'm very satisfied with my 260 & have 300,000 miles of line chasing to prove my point-----Don
Quote {I'm very satisfied with my 260 & have 300,000 miles of line chasing to prove my point-----Don} Now that right there is funny, funny that you can't see that if you had a 289 - 302 - or 351 you might have been leading leading instead of chasing. Carrol seen it and made the change. The Wizzard
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