Hey y'all! Been stuck reading this page for months and today I decided to finally just ask the question that is racking my brain. So for my birthday my wife got me a 53 Ford Customline with ithe 215 i6 with a spare Mercury 236 out of a 54 who knows what. The i6 is missing the carb and generator but spins and is original. The 236 is complete but locked up tighter than an 80 year old nuns neather regions. I just don't know which way to go. What do you think? Trying to do this on the cheap.
Hi. It will not cost anything for you to somewhat check out the I6 engine. Check to see what the oil looks like first. Is there any water in it & what does it look like? Does it feel gritty? Then pull plugs and check compression. If all that is ok with battery hooked up do you get fire to the plugs? Is there any trash in the inline gas filter. That could indicate a rusty tank. If all that is ok then find a carb. and see if it will start & run. At this point you should only have money in the carb and maybe a gas filter. If it starts & runs then go from there and find a generator and depending on how the engine sounds & runs you may need plugs, points, plug wires & maybe a distributor cap. Check the brakes before you drive it & you may need to drain the gas & put new gas in tank if it runs lousy. That is my on the cheap method. Good luck, Jimmie
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