MerCruiser-Ford race engine
 

Hi, new here, and thanks!...has anyone heard of the 4 cylinder MerCruiser engines which used a 460 Ford head, came out as 3.7 liter? They were used in circle track racing in the 80's-90's I believe, with many parts made by Ford. Someone said they were used in Midgets so I figured I'd try looking here, for parts, as a start. Anyone have any knowledge of these or ideas where to look? Thanks again!
This pic is the Drag race version of the "little" boat motor...

Nick Landon ran something like that at the rumble. I know it was a boat engine but not sure of the brand.

I think someone ran an Evinrude at Belleville in 1993 or 1994. It was #76

An ELTO?

Several years ago I happened on to a seller on eBay who was selling a bunch of Cosworth parts, all brand new, for a defunct engine that had financial difficulties, in about this time frame, I was in need of injection assemblies, so I bought all I could, these were all for a Ford midget engine. I didn't buy anything I couldn't use, so I didn't buy anything else, he quit selling his stash, and I never heard from him again, but I'd love to hear if anyone else shared anything from him. I have nothing left of what I bought.

I’m well aware of the 3.7 that was in boats but not with a bbf head. The midget engines that were popular used a Yates ford nascar head, Ed pink built a ton of those as well as earl gearte. There were also some Brayton ford engines.

Re: MerCruiser-Ford race engine
 

mercrusier made a 4 cyl copy oo the chevy 2 engine that was cast iron and the head was cast iron as well it was the head that we used on the midgets because it had dividers between the intake ports and the stick chevy2 's did'nt ., but that being said I think the block you have is a Fontana aluminum block that he made with ford part numbers years ago it was for a drag racing class and had to have the Ford part numbers on it . Midgets also used them with ford heads as the bolt pattern was already there without altering the block .Ricky Johnson 602-723-0554

Mercruiser cast an aluminum block with cast iron liners specifically as an inboard marine engine. The 3.7L used 460 iron head and shared the bore and stroke of a 460, used the same rods, pistons and timing components.

I was working at a Chev dealership at the time, and I sold a lot of components to build the midget engine of the day, not the fastest but definitely the least expensive of the day.

The car I drove at Rumble was a reverse rotation all iron mercruiser also known as a chevy II. I am currently building a chevy II with a Barnes head and injection. The mercruiser Ford is a huge heavy engine. I've never known anyone who raced one. But im not an expert, only pretend to be.
Nick Landon
Feather Ruffler Engineering

Re: MerCruiser-Ford race engine
 

MerCruiser offered several inline 4 cyl engines for stern drive use. Most of MerCruiser's inboard powerplants were/are Chevy/GM based. All were/are identified by their horsepower rating, not their cubic inch displacement.

The 120 hp was for all intents and purposes a 1962-1967 Chevy II, 153 cubic inch, 4 cylinder, 3 7/8" bore x 3 1/4" stroke (same as the anemic 307 CID Chevy V-8). A cast iron head with "siamese" intake port design identical to the Chevy 194/230/250 6 cylinder head, lots of them were raced, but if you wanted to really make the horsepower, you needed to "de-siamese" the port and have individual runners for each cylinder. Later, the 120 hp engine would be the short lived 151 4 cylinder used in '77-'78 Chevy Monzas. It had a 4" bore x 3" stroke (same as 302 CID Chevy V-8) and used a factory "de-siamese" port design. Still cast iron. Rare. And very prone to crack. This engine was NOT the 1979 and later Iron Duke 151 CID (2.5L) 4 cyl as the Iron Duke was a cross flow cast iron head. Pontiac's Super Duty engines, which were popular for a spell as midget, Daytona Dash, and mini-stock engines were based on the Iron Duke.

The 140 hp Mercruiser also found it's way into midgets, provided the club's rules allowed a 3.0L engine. It was a purpose built boat/industrial power unit with a 4" bore x 3.6" stroke. It was never offered by GM in any street vehicle and does NOT mirror any Chevy street car engine because of the 3.6" stroke. This engine also has the better cylinder head design, but again, is heavy cast iron.

The 170 hp Mercruiser is the 3.7L engine originally asked about in this thread. It is a purpose built, cast aluminum block with iron cylinder liners that uses a cast iron 460 Ford V-8 head. At approximately 230 CID, I think this engine falls out of the rules for a lot of midget clubs and sanctioning bodies, but I have no doubt that some found their way into midgets (everything else did, outboard boats, motorcycles, tractors, etc.) I don't think you will find wide spread use of the 170 hp engine in automotive applications or racing applications as they were never that plentiful and the iron head on the aluminum block, along with some other design challenges, prevented them from being an effective alternative.

What I'm inferring from your request for information is that you are building a 3.7L engine and want to know what speed equipment might have existed in the marketplace. I don't think you'll find much, and obviously when you mention "MerCruiser" and "Midget Engine" together, the assumptions people make are that you're talking about the cast iron Chevy-based engines. If you are pursuing the build on a 3.7L, I suggest, if you haven't already, looking at a couple of old posts in other message boards regarding the engine. The first is from HAMB where a LENGTHY discussion that occurred 14 years ago https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...banger.256713/ I couldn't even get through the whole discussion at the time. The second is a much more manageable discussion on hotrodders.com https://www.hotrodders.com/threads/3...ruiser.197289/

I hope this helps.

Re: MerCruiser-Ford race engine
 

I had a midget with a Chevy II/Mercruiser engine back in the day like middle 80s I believe. It had a Duggen Aries aluminum cylinder head that made the Chevy II a cross flow head instead of the stock cast iron intake & exhaust same side style. The Mercruiser cast iron head flowed better than the stock Chevy head and was preferred for those running Chevy II all cast iron midget engines. I think the Mercruiser block was also stronger in the crankshaft webs than the Chevy II. If I'm mot mistaken Fontana bought the blueprints to the Duggen Aries head.

I believe the first Mercruiser 170 HP engines seen in midget racing were a 460 Ford block cut in the middle using only the left bank of four cylinders. The cylinders were re-sleeved for smaller diameter pistons and the crank stoke was shortened to lower the CI to be legal for midget racing. Don Kirn of Kirn Racing Engines in St Louis did one for me. I never raced it as I switched to sprint cars before we could test it. Later on as Pitdad said above there were specialty aluminum blocks built which is the engine in your picture. SESCO did the same thing with using half of a V-8 Chevy. Think Dan Boorse's dad had a lot to do developing the SESCO.

To answer the OP questions on finding parts for his Mercruiser. All internal engine part specs except the crankshaft should be the same as the 460 V-8 Ford.