I bought the hot rod in a box kit too (non stroker) what valves did you get with your kit, that will obviously determine what head you can use, if you know what intakes you have will help 1.78 or 1.92 diameter???

Unless someone has changed the engine in the '60 it won't be a 312.  If its original, it's a 292 with 1.64" intake valves.  Look carefully.

John in Selma, IN

'60 Merc had a 312 originally, unless it was the big car with the MEL engine.  Not sure what heads it would have had, but they would be low compression.

John in Selma, IN

Go to Mummert's site and look at the head chart link, print it out and carry it with you when you look at motors, heads etc. I carry a copy in all my vehicles along with other vin code info etc so when I come across a car on the side of the road I can decode it on the spot.

The 113 and 471's were not made in 55 - 56, they were a later replacement head for the G's.

The 471 head is a ‘big’ truck head and came equipped with the larger 1.92” intakes but the combustion chambers were in the 82cc range.  Don’t know the exact year they were introduced but should be 1958 or 1959.  And there’s additional information that some of the ’59 Mercury’s equipped with the 312’s had these also.  This is the head of choice when putting a blower on the Y as the larger combustion chamber requires less work in regards to piston choice in getting the compression ratio lower while mantaining some measure of quench at the deck.  And this head also works great with domed pistons in keeping the compression ratio low enough that it's pump gas friendly with minimal dome modifications.  Under the water ports you'll find '5750' on one end and '471' on the other.  Here's a couple of pics.

Sorry.  I have no extra heads available.

The G heads are typically around 69cc’s if unmilled or that’s at least a good value to use if not cc’ing the heads to get an exact value.  On a stock bore 292, these heads will net about 8¼:1 CR with a composition head gasket while on a similarly built stock bore 312, the compression ratio will be 8¾:1.  Both of these engines are with a flat top piston and sitting at 0.020” in the hole.  Adding a 10cc dome to each without any other changes makes the compression ratio for the 292 jump to 9.27:1 and 9.84:1 for the 312.  These values just give you a rough idea of what the compression ratio numbers look like with these combinations but you’d need to recalculate using your specific bore size and deck clearances for a more exact compression ratio.

Thanks,

    The posts are in the water jackets between the flat part of the combustion chamber and the top surface of the head. You can see or feel them through the water jacket holes on the machined face of the head.