1971 Mercury Comet

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1971 Mercury Comet

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Stardust71 updated 1971 Mercury Comet

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Which crate engine and how do you like it? Nice Comet from fellow Comet owner!

 

I purchased the HP99F. The motor itself is nice enough. Plenty of room for future upgrades like aluminum heads, but I wanted a daily driver anyway, so I wasn’t looking for major performance.

My only complaint, and this is mostly due to my own lack of knowledge, is that it is set up with a late 60s style water pump. In hindsight, I should have replaced it because by using it I ended up having to source different accessory brackets and finding the correct parts while trying to figure out what should be 71 year and what should be 66-69 year was frustrating.

As an amateur I was also caught off guard by how much more work I needed to do. I have pulled and replaced engines that had blown before with my dad as a teen but only with an identical replacement. Easy enough to pull only out and plop the new one in and reattach everything. Sometimes a one-day job. Reading beforehand that the 302 was a bolt in replacement for a 250 lead me to be over confidant in how much work it would end up being. I ended up replacing almost everything along the way.

 

I feel your pain! Most thing in replacing items/parts in old car hobby don't go as planned esp., when using non OE replacements. In some cases replacing OE parts can be frustrating. I was fortunate, my car came w/ 302, engine was freshly rebuilt when I acquired July 2009, only thing I've replaced, ex. headers, radiator and recently, water pump.
My car is a cruiser, no racing although had some mild engine performance upgrades. Enjoy your car, congrats on engine upgrade.

 

Is that diner named the "Shiny Diner?"??