Hello, My name is Mick and I live in England in a place called Norwich.
I own a few American cars, My every day drive around is a 1999 GMC Suburban, for the shows and just cruising around I have a 1960 Mercury Park Lane Cruiser with a 430 MEL engine. I have been told it is the only one on the road in the UK at this time so is a rare and BIG car to see around the roads over here. I am also building my first full custom car its a 1959 4 door flat top Chevy Impala that will have a 8/71 blown 500cid Cadillac engine with a TH400 auto box, the car will have a lot of modern bits like Dikota Digital gauges electronic push button gear selection Air bags all round and big disk brakes, she is a long time off being done.
I need some help with the Mercury, she is running like a dog at the moment and can't find anyone over here that can get parts for it, I also don't have any timing figures for it, I have fitted a 4brl carb as the original 2 barrel was well broken.
Could someone help me in getting her running nice again. All I have done so far apart from the carb change is an oil change and now all the problems have started??? The guy I got her off never done a thing to look after the car in the 4 or so years he had her and also hardly ever drove her, the oil I drained out was almost like crude (really thick and black)

Hope to here from you guys soon
Thanks
Mick

It sounds as the performance problem may be as a result of the carb change, whether it or possibly reinstalling the distributor incorrectly causing timing problems.

Did you install a 4V intake and what type of carb did you use?

Below is a MERC dedicated site that you will find interesting;

http://www.mercuryclub.com/forums/