Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

I have read that all Mercury pickups (flathead powered) had the Mercury engine. Yet also read that Mercury pickups came off the same assembly line as Ford pickups in Canada. So did the Mercury trucks get the Mercury engine? The 49 M68 I hauled home a couple of weeks ago says 8BA on the heads. Any other obvious clues to be seen on the outside of the engine that might help identify it?

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

4 inch crank.

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

Pretty damn sure none of them had the 4" crank. All had 3 3/4" crank for 239 cubes. Same as the Ford engine. It'll be an 8BA/8RT but with a c #
Martin.

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

None of the merc truck came with the 255 CI motor. I have the Ford of Canada parts book and they only show one style of crank and one style of pistons.

But, as I understand it, the dealers were willing to swap motors if the customer really wanted one. Just like I did with mine.;)

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

I never even thought of checking my Ford Fast Moving Parts catalogue to see if they mention engine sizes for the Mercury trucks. It goes up to 1949.
And of course there is no telling if this engine is original to the truck unless I can find a number on it.

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

There actually were certain models of Canadian Merc truck that came with a 255. See below. M-5 and M-6 in '52 only, I believe.

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

There is a 47 Merc truck here, I looked at it close and it appears to have a Ford engine. Of course it could have been changed. On another note, I've sen a lot of Merc engines in heavy duty trucks and cab overs

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

Ford and Mercury engines in '47 would have been identical.
Mark

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

Thanks for that Ross, learnt something today, I'd guess production numbers for the 255 ones is fairly small?
Martin.

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

I'd say so, Martin. Some M-5's and M-6's had the Big 6 (254ci), so I'd guess probably only 40k trucks at most with the 255. It's surprising how persistent the belief is that all Merc trucks had 255's, tho.

Re: Ford or Mercury Engine?
 

Mercury (sport sedan/6 pax coupe) and Monarch cars had the 255 as stock. Police cars and other applications such as trucks could get them under special order but Ford didn't have a central office of production for special orders like GM did. I'm not sure how the Canadian products got special orders. I imagine someone could get a 255 installed and any of the cars if they knew that they could special order one but they might have to know the right people. Many Lincoln and Mercury cars were assembled in different plants than the Ford cars here in the US. Dearborn would have been the likely plant for special orders in that time frame for US production. It may have been easier in Canada since there were less assembly plants.