While the last post dealt with mocking up the engine and transmission in the car, this post will deal with the fabrication of the engine and transmission mounts along with crossmember modification. The car is moving one step closer to leaving Keith's shop in preparation of the move to the painters. As was discussed previously, the engine was on quite the incline after being mocked up. Normally in the 50s, engine swaps were conducted in a relatively quick manner as the vehicle was usually a daily driver. Little regard would be given to levelling the engine in the car. For as long as the engine worked and made more power that is all these people would have been concerned about. At this point I was facing a bit of a dilemma. My goal with the car was to build it as close to period correct as possible. However, there were certain liberties I was willing to take. While the car is about 95-98% period correct, I decided to take a little variation in regards to the motor placement. Truthfully, seeing an engine on an incline in a car bothers me. I know this would cause me to deviate from historically accurate, but i do have to be ultimately satisfied with the end product. I made the decision to level the motor in the engine bay. This is really about the only area in this build that I have strayed from period correct. The following photographs chronicle my desires. For those of you who may be joining us now, I'll post the links to the other threads recording the building of this car; http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345525 Part I http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=362784 Part II http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=367347 Part III http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=383188 Part IV Frontal view of the installed engine. Compare this photo to the other ones in the last post and you will see the extent of modification to the crossmember. Also visible in this shot is the fabricated driver side engine mount. Closeup showing the driver side engine mount. Closeup of the modifications made to the top of the front crossmember in order to be able to level the engine and provide clearance for the generator. Closeup of the rubber factory engine mount installed on the newly fabricated mount. Closeup of the generator showing modification to the crossmember for clearance. Some final massaging is still required. Driver side view showing clearance issue between the exhaust manifold and the steering shaft. There wasn't sufficient room to allow use of the Fentons. Other options are now being investigated. Note intake manifold has been installed to aid in leveling the carburetors. Passenger side view showing no clearance issues. Note how the motor appears to be more level. After the modifications then engine wasn't on near the incline as before. Closeup of the Edelbrock triple intake manifold that will be used on the rebuilt engine. Another closeup of the intake manifold taken from the driver side.
Are you going to lower the Mercury the same amount all around or will you stick to a more "taildraggin'" stance, like Sam Barris' -49 that was lowered 3" in front and 4" in the rear? And how low will it be? "Dropped to the ground" is not period but very common nowdays... In my point of view Sam's Merc sits perfect but then the levelled engine might not be 100% levelled? (but maybe that thought from me is a bit "overkill"...) Also, what method will you use for lowering it? For the front suspension there are at least three alternatives: 1. Modified lower A-arms to set the springs lower, 2. Cut or shorter and stiffer springs 3. Dropped spindles The first and second alternative might be most period perfect but vill probably not be best for steering geometry, while the third alternative would be better for steering but not period... And for the rear there are several alternatives too: 1. Lowering blocks 2. Dearched springs 3. New modern springs that sets the car lower. It would be interesting to read your thoughts about that and I look forward to see coming steps of progress.
I don't think the mods to level the engine at all detract or decrease the "period accuracy" of the car. Just because a lot of cars may have had hacked engine transplants doesn't mean they all did. Doing what's right to mount it right never goes out of style. I'll reference Jim McNeil's restoration of the Hirohata Merc. The guy went so far as to replace the folded up Barris business cards stuffed up the dash to quiet rattles (something no one will ever see), but put a slight dip in the inner fender to clear the generator on the Cad motor....something that hadn't been done before. Sure, that point can be used to show the "hurry up and get it in" idea you stated, but he made a slight modification to make it work better without hurting the "rightness" of the car. You modifications are subtle and with purpose. Hacking the engine in there for the sake of historical accuracy would just be silly.
The hood should never be open on a custom other than for servicing anyways so no one will see it. Beautiful work as always!
I really wish I had seen this post before you started on the 312 swap. My 50 Merc belonged to our HS bus driver/mech for the school. He bought it new with a 3 spd, no OD, hopped up the flathead, ran like Gang Busters, but when the overheads came out, he wasn't winning so much anymore, so out came the flat motor and in went a 225 horse 312 56 T Bird Special, right out of a wrecked 56 Bird. My Buddy and I were juniors then and Clyde asked if we could help him a little with the swap, Could we help??? we thought he would never ask us kids for help, so here is the rest of the story!! He bought an Offy adaptor to the 50 Merc 8 bolt trans, added a Schiefer alum flywheel and a 11 in truck clutch disc, bought the same Fenton cast iron headers you have. Then came the fun!! We took the front clip off and started measuring and fitting. Now the T Bird eng has some things that are T Bird only. The T Bird oil pan and pick up are simular to the pu trk and were needed for the rear sump. Now the plot thickens, Birds have special gen brackets and pulley (Moves gen forward), 1in spacer to move water pump forward and special pulley, and special harmonic balancer w/pulley. All this resolves the gen clearance problem and still adjusts fine. We even ran a stock dual diafram fuel pump with a few changes in inlet/outlet location. For engine mts, we went to same wrecking yard that the eng came from and took measurements from a stock 55 Ford pass and cut the eng mt crossmember out and measured the Merc frame and carefully cut holes in it and fit it for welding, welded it with a stick welder, remember this is 1955. Set the 312 back in place, using pass car mts and bolted everything up like a factory install. Drivers side Fenton didn't quite fit so we moved the Batt box out approx an inch and cut the exhaust flange off about 3/4 of an inch up and turned it 90 degrees and rewelded it, made gaskets out of solid copper sheet, made new exhaust pipes down to the Smittys, no leaks to this day, ( at least from the Fentons, exhaust sys went away years ago). While at the wrecking yard, we traded the 12 volt starter/gen,regulator for 55 6 volt stuff, retained the 6 volt system but used an 8 volt batt and adjusted the reg up to just a little over 9 volts. Still works today. With the rear sump pan, we did not have to modify the tie rods, they barely cleared everything. The only prob we didn't fix at that time was the rad set to close to the waterpump pulley and so close to the lower hose that a stock fan could not be used. All thru HS, me and several kids tried and tried to buy Clyde's Merc, but to no avail. I left the area in 58 to work at Boeing in Seattle but stayed in touch, got a draft notice and spent some time in tha Army. Moved to Alaska and one day I got a letter from Clyde, that he was retiring and if I still wanted the Merc, it was mine, that he would like to get what he had been offered several times, $300.00. Done Deal!!! When Clyde sold me the Merc in 75, I modified the rad core support and air difusser so I could move the rad forward to the front part of the core support and bought a small dia, stainless steel 6 blade aftermarket fan that is still there today, cooled pretty good, but would warm up a little on hot days, no boil though, I run a 160 thermostat. 312 has about 270 thousand on it, still runs but talks to you, y block charistic (rocker arm oiling) Another thing we had to make a special wrench to remove #5 plug ( I think) on drivers side due to stock steering col clearance. Still ran stock, under the exhaust, up the back of the block to dist, plug wires, all in stock brackets. Also had to reform the removable floor board over the trans to clear the adaptor. Minor massaging. Couldn't run the stock T Bird Finned VCs either due to stock shift linkage at the base of the col. This probably wont help much since its a little after the fact!!! Oh Well, Good Luck anyhow!! If you can think of anything I might be able to help with, give a hollar!! BTW, mine is a full custom now too, just a little more work and it will be back on the road again, I hope!!! Dave
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