Unmolested '50 Merc flathead! Amazing luck!

I just bought this '50 Merc motor the other day after lusting after it for the last four years. It supposedly ran when pulled and was supposed to have new water pumps. The owner is in the antique car business so the deal took awhile to finalize. $300.00 bucks, and it was in my pickup bed so fast my vision got blurred. It turns out that the bores are standard 3 3/16, the crank is all standard dimensions (with the coveted 4" stroke), and the water pumps are crusty but appear to have minimal wear. Here's the pics.







Oops, one stuck valve.



Looking good!





I will do another post on how to get one of these apart with minimal effort and frustration soon.

pigpen

 

Great for you Pigpen!

I'd say you'll have to replace those pumps anyway. Probably the old style with dried and cracked seals. Be sure you use Speedways when replacing, they have the ball bearings like the new styles.
Looking forward to your disassembly tech. PJ

 

It will be very, very helpful if you post on how you got it apart. The V8-60 I just picked up is seized and I could use a little help on how not to destroy this thing.

 

Score! Keep us updated.

 

nice score

i just picked up a 53 merc a couple weeks ago...sat for 30 years
BUT....
every 2 months all plugs were removed...sprayed with oil and turned over 2 times...EVERY 2 months....its oh so smooth turning i can wait to fire it up...$425 for mine so youve got me beat

zach

 

Nice scores both of you, its nice to see the stuff still turning up.

 

Great pickup man....did u try and fire it before tearing it down ? Looks good !!

Rat

 

I didn't have anything to put it in to try to fire it but I would have been tempted. There were mice living in it so a test fire was not a real option. You never know what kind of fancy crud a mouse will drag into its house purely for decoration. It was full of fairly clean oil and the filter looked new. I grabbed the front pulley and was able to turn it over by hand. Good signs. While taking it apart I found one stuck valve and two broken top compression rings. #4 cylinder has a sort of ripple in it going up and down due to the one broken ring which was broken in two places. I don't know yet if it will hone clean or not. I took the bare block, heads, and pan to the local machine shop that does all of my machine work and it will soak in the hot tank for three days or so and then get magnafluxed. All of this must be the luck of the Pennsylvania Dutch!

pigpen