MercuryMac
Builder Junky!
Hi, If you're into unique ratrods I have one that I made in the early '80's. It started out as a smashed up '78 Ford one ton. I hauled the owner a couple of loads of gravel and then took his one ton home. The guy wanted his motor and transmission back and I thought that any motor that's been in a head-on collision should find a new home. I stripped the truck down to the frame and found a poorish '73 cab and bolted it on there, found some more wheels, installed duals, and added a grain box and hoist. I also found a pretty good 78 honeycomb grill and made the truck look '78ish. The motor is the secret ingredient, though. It's an FE, Wow, you say, well, it has some goodies. The factory made stroker Ford motors and put them in Mercurys sometimes. This is one of them, a 410, it's a 390 with a 428 crank, 11 to 1 pistons and headers. The wooden box rotted off it and I changed it to a fifth wheel truck to pull my toy hauling trailer. Oh ya, I eventually took the really cool tappet covers off and got them chromed, but before I put them back on, the motor calved. I think a valve seat insert came out and mushroomed a piston top and maybe split a cylinder. I was burning water there for a minute and there is a lot of water in the oil.
