Back in 61 an old guy pulled into a filling station I hung around. He had a 49 Ford 4 door and it was running poorly. He was tired of messing with it as no one seemed to be able to get it to run right. He didn't want to spend any more money on it so he sold it to the mechanic for $15.00. Points, plugs and a set of plug wires and it ran fine. I helped modify it for circle track racing which amounted to breaking out all the glass, doing away with the rear seat, installing some old military seat belts and paying a guy to make a steel protection set of bars for the radiator. It lasted two nights before it bit the fence and was destroyed. The engine ended up in a 39 Ford coupe.
View attachment 5062421 It has Mercury heads but I don’t think it’s a Merc motor. Holly carb , electric fuel pump, MSD distributor. One day I will put some Stromberg carbs on it, for now I’m going to enjoy it.
According to Van Pelt Sales, “the only visual method of differentiating Mercury and Ford Flatheads is to look at the front counterweght of the crankshaft. Mercury crankshafts have a longer stroke and are identified by a dimple on the top of the crankshaft counterweight” That being said I may have a merc motor in there after all.
The only thing I would do is ditch the puke bucket for a puke can. It'll really clean up that engine bay, cheap. This ain't my car, but this is the same puke can I got.
That is a real nice old Ford.. Why do they have the whole radiator blocked off.. There loosing a lot of free cooling as the car goes through the air.. Another con when it comes to electric fans vs Clutch fans.
OK, Ok.... You must be talking about this one... I thought you were talking about the '49. With all the factory sheet metal in place air was forced through the radiator. Below you can see that the bottom air dam is missing. In the photo below it appears the air dam is in place. It's hard to tell. That could be the concrete floor. Anyway, there should be a sheet metal pan below the radiator between the frame rails. This directs air through the radiator and over the engine. It's very common for this piece to be missing.
Thanks, I was thinking of ditching it for a better one... You answered that question. Where can I find that "puke can"?
All over. There's one at Speedway for like $40, but I can't speak to the quality. Just Google it and you'll find plenty of options. I can photograph mine tonight after work if you want to see how it is under the hood....
In order to determine if its a mercury, you nee to remove the oil pan to inspect the counter weight or if a cyl head is off , measure the stroke . Nice no matter .
You said "Holley carb". Both Ford's and Merc's had Holley's. The important thing is whether it has a 3 bolt carb (Ford) or a 4 bolt carb (Merc). If it has both Mercury heads and a Mercury carb, there is a little better chance that the engine is a Mercury. Most people know that putting Mercury heads on a Ford is a bad idea, since you lose compression because of the larger combustion chamber volume.
I believe it's 15 inches, give or take, they make 15,16,17, and a bunch of smaller ones starting at 9 I think?
New over flow / puke tank is in. Got to run the line and I’m going to remove the brackets I made for it and paint them.
Anyone ever put seatbelts in the back seat of there shoebox? Looking to do that for the grand kids ice-cream run? Where did you purchase the belts?
Got caught in a rain storm a few weekends ago and just this past weekend got a chance to clean and wax the shoebox. One thing about that is you find every flaw there is in the car and there are definitely some flaws. But that's what makes it a driver. Here's a pic of my grand kid, one and a half years old, to young to start helping gramps with the classic?
Welp, I was going to use this thread as a history for my 49 , was going to post car shows, ice cream trips with the grand kids and such. Well, do to covid, or more precisely mandates, I may be out of a job soon. My wife also, we work at the same place. So she gone to a good home.