Michigan Mick's 71 Comet Project

Ouch!! Glad you were able to get it fixed.

 

2026 Comet Update. Well late last summer I was bragging that I just went over 200,000 miles on the original 302 in the ole Comet. At 201,000 miles a lifter exploded (see picture of the debris in the oil pan) So instead of trying to fix the old engine I decided it was time for a little upgrade. So I purchased a 347 stroker from BluePrint engines in Nebraska. Dyno on the engine was 433 horses with 430 torque. My brother and I put the engine in last September. Car ran great but had an annoying tick in the first cylinder. The entire engine replacement was documented on my brother's YouTube channel Dan's Messy Garage. We told the folks at BluePrint to watch the videos and hear the tick for themselves. Long story short they asked my brother to stick a bore scope down in the number 1 cylinder and we found the cylinder walls were all scored up. So we had to pull the engine out in November and send it back for a complete rebuild. We finally got the engine back in early February, reinstalled it and it runs like a top. I believe it is even faster than before. Last weekend took the Comet to three car shows. The Trick Flow aluminum heads and Air Gap intake manifold were taken from the old Comet engine and put on my daily driver. I have a white 1976 Mercury Monarch Ghia that is my daily driver. Car now has some balls.

 

2026 Hot Wheel update. Starting my 11th year of giving out Hot Wheels. Totals so far are 80,000 Hot Wheels and just under 15,000 beanie babies. Goals for 2026 are 100 car shows and 10,000 hot wheels.

 

Sorry you had to do things twice with that motor. 200K out of the original motor is really good, rings and bore finishes weren't what they are now.

Being the only guy to show up in a lot of places with a Comet is already something. Then you throw a Monarch of any kind on top of that, much less a really clean Ghia. Geez ..... lol. I'm diggin' it.

 

Yeah I love driving the Monarch it is a great cruiser and since we put the aluminum heads and air gap intake from the blown up Comet engine it has some guts.