My motor in my 1941 is acting up ( to say the least ). It ended up pissing coolant out of the tail pipe. It started to get hot, I stopped the truck and parked it. I called a tow truck to get it home the next day. It started fine and When I turned it on to put on the flat bed and I noticed within minutes it poured out over a gallon of coolant from the passenger side tail pipe.. Weird thing it was the driver side that was running hot....
anyways... thats the story

So my friend has a 1950 mercury motor that he pulled out of a running car. He's a good friend and totally trustworthy. He wants to sell me the complete motor, with everything with it for $1500 . Included are extra offenhauser heads, two offenhauser intakes, and a box full of other parts..

My question is what will it take to put this motor in my truck. I am imagining the motor mounts are different..

Im going to take the heads off my other motor and see whats going on but I am thinking it might just be best to put the merc motor in and get a few extra hp..

Let me know what you guys think

 

Hopefully the Merc will have the stamped steel 1/2 bell housing which will allow you to bolt up the trans you have to the new engine. As far as mounts go you can run 8rt truck pumps and the engine will bolt in BUT your Merc may have narrow belts and truck pumps are wide belts. If the Merc is truly a '50 vintage it may have wide belts. If so change to truck pumps and you're good. If the Merc has narrow belts you can either change the crank and generator pulleys to wide belts or find a set of narrow belt Merc pumps that look like 8rt truck pumps BUT the mounting heights were the engine sits on the rubber biscuit mount is different. These pumps are hard to find and no one repops them. I'm running an 8ba with narrow belt Merc pumps in my '39 p/u. You use the U shaped spacer from a Merc to compensate for the differences in mounting heights between truck pumps and Merc Pumps. I have 2 Mercs in the shop. One has wide belts and the other narrow belts. I'll try to post some photos to help show the differences.

 

I was wondering the same thing, about possibly putting an 8BA into a 40 or 41 truck. and possibly a 34 truck, not sure about that one yet though.
here is a link to alot of reading

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...coupe.1060915/

 

 

hello
thanks for the info... I was told there was a bell housing adapter in the box of parts.. I wasn't smart enough to get better pics or a serial number when i looked at the motor. Here is a pic.

Ill measure the pulleys and let you know what they are//
thanks
for the help

 

You've got narrow belts with the hard to find Merc Pumps. If the pumps need rebuilding I recommend Skip Haney in Florida for the rebuild. He did the ones in my '39 and another set for a spare. You just need the U shaped adapters to go between the water pump and the rubber front biscuit mount. I can post a photo of the ones that are on the Merc in my shop. You still need the 1/2 bell and an 8ba/Merc flywheel. The flywheel on earlier 24 stud engines like you have won't work. Hopefully the guy that has the Merc has the bell housing, flywhee, and clutch assembly.

 

Numbers on the block mean nothing. There may be a number IIRC on the passenger side on top of the block under the rear of the intake manifold which could tell you a date but nothing more.

 

Some photos of Merc pumps both wide and narrow belt and a couple of the 8ba in my '39 with narrow belt Merc pumps. The engine with the green coil bracket has wide belts and the engine with the orange cherry picker leg is a Merc with narrow belts and the U shaped spacer which you can also see in the photo of the 8ba in my truck.

 

The crank alone is worth having in your ride. That motor will have some more giddy-up and go. Good Merc blocks are hard to find plus you have more options with transmissions if needed. Good job!!

 

Thanks for the response and the pics. I think I get it now.
I pulled the head off of the motor is in my 41 . I thought it was going to be easy but it wasn’t. Lots and lots of soaking and gentle prying. Sad thing was when I pulled the head I didn’t see too much evidence of a blown head gasket. I’m starting to fear a cracked block. When I pulled the head I looked into and felt the ports and it appears the coolant went bad and turned to mud. It’s gross inside there. I’m going to take the other head off , clean out the motor , change the radiator and pray it works.
If it doesn’t the merc motor will go in. I had Intially got that motor for my 36 coupe, but the coupe might have to wait considering it has a decent motor in it.
Thanks for all the help