Pre-rescue. 20 years of Alberta dust on top of 39 years of Saskatchewan dirt.

I've started work on a '62 Mercury M100 pickup that lived most of it's life out on the family farm, and it taught me & my siblings how to drive standard (3-in-tree, at that!). After 20 years parked, I've started work on waking her up again. I managed to get her running for a few minutes before I started work, and she sounds good! Presently I'm working on the engine, but my question is - how far do I take the engine rebuild? End goal: Something solid, reliable, and a bit more power. I've got some skill working on imports, but this is my first classic build. Using the DIYFord book as a guide, bought the old Ford PDF service manuals, but looking for additional practical insights on how far I should take this. In short, what should/can be reasonably done to a Y-block while it's out of the vehicle?

Engine background:

• 148,000 miles on odometer. COAE 9425-F / 02AE 6015 C Block stamp
• Used a Frantz filter for most of it's life. According to my Uncle, he never changed oil. Just once a year, he changed the TP filter and re-filled up the oil, and then added a few ounces of kerosene in the winter to thin the oil (farmers! Must of worked because...)
• ...Valve cover & valley cover removal showed minor sludge build-up. Same with oil pan. No crunchy bits! Impressively clean!
• Being from an M100, it has wrap-around exhaust. Collector from driver-side wraps around front of engine, then connects to passenger side, then out. WEIRD. Planning on either rams-horn, or removing/capping the cross-over and getting exhaust shop to bend me an additional header down & under on the driver side.

It was caked in Prairie muck (up to 3/4" in places), so after an initial hose-down at a car-wash, I've:

• Rebuilt the Holley 9510 4B (bit of a sloppy butterfly shaft, but... eh.)
• Removed front clip, pulled engine & trans
• Split bell apart, had flywheel resurfaced and balanced with a new upgraded 11" clutch package (came stock with almost-impossible-to-find-parts-for 10.5" diameter)
• Removed valve-covers & heads
• Oven-cleaner & parts-washer soaked heads & lifter assemblies (not separated...yet?)
• Popped frost plugs & pan, and oven-cleaner & pressure-washed block (then compressed air and WD'd)

I'm planning on doing the following still:

• Replacing the sloppy timing chain
• Replacing water pump
• Basic repainting of block, head and covers
• Convert from draft-tube to PCV
• Replace the rear crankshaft seal (seems to be a no-brainer decision)
• Rebuild/replace starter
• Rebuild/replace generator/alternator
• Rebuilding oil pump (can't find a reasonably priced replacement, but rebuild kits are cheap)
• Clean/inspect/repaint C1T-3A/K23N
• transmission (hopefully no rebuilding)

BUT I'm waffling on the following decisions.

• Pistons. Engine sounds good and didn't blue-smoke. Dummy, should have compression tested it before taking it apart. I really don't want to spend the time/money on reboring the block and getting a new set of pistons. So I'm 90% sure I'm not going to swap these out
• Cam. Do I pop the cam plug, invert the engine and pull it out to see what shape it's in?
• Valve lifter rods. Seem good and straight. These are a bit pricey - worth 16*$16/ea to replace?
• Cam Lifters. Do these wear out? Candidate for replacement?
• Valve Lifters. Do these wear out? Candidate for replacement?
• Main journal bearing replacement. Is this necessary? Is it as straightforward as taking the conrod caps off and lifting out the crank and swapping them out?
  • And if I'm this far, do I pull the pistons out and do the piston pins & rings?

So in short - now that's it's mostly apart, what are my "must-do" vs "should-do" vs "don't bothers"? Any general tips on rebuilding this Y-block will be appreciated!

Pre-rescue. 20 years of Alberta dust on top of 39 years of Saskatchewan dirt.

• 
  Post $20 of car-washing, carb-rebuilding, running and run-testing. Frantz toilet-paper filter on the side!
  
  Valve train, 140 thousand miles on
  
  Valley Schmoo. Dropped some crumbs in there during the cover removal.
  
  Ridiculous wrap-around-front exhaust header. Gonna delete the cross-over, cap passenger side, and loop driver-side down underneath.
  
  Piston / Cylinder wall condition. Small lip at top, but I understand that isn't a big deal.
  
  Cylinder head. Some coolant passage blockage, but seems reasonably good.
  
  Lifter rod cup. Of concern? Haven't ultrasonic'd them yet.

 

To answer most of your questions toward the end, take it to a machine shop for proper assessment and take their advice. Don't take shortcuts. Those items are potentially reusable as long as they are still in spec. With 148000 miles, it probably needs oversized pistons and other stuff.

What is reasonable is subjective. For most, about 210ish hp is probably reasonable and enough and pretty much a standard rebuild. Simply build it to the 1957 specs or as close as you can and it will be a great engine. Oregon Cams can provide the 1957 cam. That said, Ys have been built with up to 603hp naturally aspirated, with the standard port layout. For street use, 500hp is probably the maximum for pump gas and will be on the ragged edge of what most would consider streetable when built well. About 300hp is a good "budget" target since it does not require particularly specialized parts, basically a good cam, 4v intake, dual exhaust, big port, big valve heads, domed pistons and a carburetor in the neighborhood of 600 to 700cfm..

Re the oil pump, Spur gear pumps are available new, but not rebuild kits, to the best of my knowledge. Gerotor pumps are not available new but rebuild kits are available. Specs for these pumps are in the shop manual. If what you have ends up out of spec, then you will need a new pump.

To remove the cam, the engine will need to be upside down. If you want to take a look, simply pull it out while you replace the timing chain

 

Hey there!
I'm in the process of doing a rebuild on a 292 as well. It sounds like we're in a similar boat when it comes to "how much do I want to spend and how much do I want to take this thing apart?". What did you end up doing to your motor? Is it still apart or is she up and running again?

Just curious!

 

I opted to tear it COMPLETELY DOWN. Got it hot-tanked, ridge-reamed (that was fun!), and I've measured the walls and got oversized rings to grind down to do the reinstall with. Almost all external parts are painted white or black (except the valve covers which are still in metal primer). It'll be my winter project to start getting it re-assembled.