If you've been drooling over the '67 Mercury we've been transforming into a Stock Car replica over the last few issues and want to see the completed car that will be given away, here it is. In this final installment of the Timber Wolf Comet project car story, we yanked the FE 390 for a look-see at what made it spew oil, while we hung out with Russ Stevenson at Gold Coast Customs for the addition of subtle Stock Car cues to go along with the retro graphics applied last month. It makes us weep a little to know this neat stick-shifted big-block cruiser won't be in our garage for much longer, but who knows, it might soon be in yours.
Originally built at the Lorain, Ohio, plant and shipped to the New York sales district as a white-with-blue-interior stripper with the base 200-cube six-popper (T-code) and C4 slush box (W-code), it is one of 14,251 Comet 202 two-door sedans built in 1967.
Surprisingly for the luxury-oriented Mercury brand, production records show that the 202's stubby, pillared body with angular lines was the highest-selling Comet model of 1967, outpacing all other two- and four-door and wagon Comet body styles. By contrast, the next closest two-door, the pillarless Comet Capri, shifted 11,671 units in 1967 while the sexpot Comet Cyclone hardtop accounted for only 6,101 sales. This is one instance where the cheapo body outpaced all others in the model line.
But thanks to the owner before us, a guy in New Mexico with Ford Blue blood coursing through his veins, the granny-spec drivetrain was axed in favor of a Cyclone-inspired 390, four-speed, 9-inch setup that elevates the car into the fun zone quite nicely. On the other side of the coin, while the 390 ran strong enough during Car Craft's post-purchase jaunt from New Mexico to L.A., it had some issues we needed to take care of before we could send it along to a lucky winner. Let's dig in and give it the treatment.
Back in the early '80s Lincoln Mercury ran radio, television, and print ads exclaiming, "The cat's full of surprises." When it came to the Comet's 390, we were in for some big ones. Here, Gold Coast's crew preps the engine for a trip to JMS Racing in El Monte, California. | 
The driver-side exhaust manifold is a nice 390 GT item, much more efficient than the log-style castings used on garden-variety 390 mills. These eight-bolt castings are virtually identical to 428 Cobra Jet parts. | 
Likewise, the passenger-side manifold is also a high-flow 390 GT/428 CJ casting--nice. Note that the heads are of the common 14-bolt variety with four bolts on the outermost ports, three bolts on the inner pair. The upper row of exhaust manifold bolt holes are not used with the GT castings, but there's plenty of clamping force to prevent leaks. |
With their 2.02/1.55 valves, the Comet's 390 GT head castings (74cc chambers) share valve and port dimensions with early 427 high-performance heads. Sure, later 427 Medium- and High-Riser heads are better for all-out performance, but for our mild street/strip cruiser, these castings are just fine. | 
Continuing the theme of reusing most of the parts we had, we retained the Edelbrock Streetmaster cast-aluminum intake manifold and Edelbrock 1406 600-cfm carburetor. The pen points to the internal plenum dams that maintain flow velocity for maximum fuel atomization and low-end torque output. | 
OK, now here come the nasty surprises! This is what we found lurking at the No. 3 intake valve. The protruding lock was only semi-installed before the builder moved on to the next valvespring installation. This thing was getting ready to drop a valve. And to think Glad and McGann drove this car all the way from New Mexico to L.A. without any trouble. |