Engine Swap: 1970 Mercury Cyclone GT 429 V8

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Gentlemen: start your engines! I should say, gentlewomen, too, but you know what I mean. For the well-heeled muscle car aficionado, it was hard to beat a car like this 1970 Mercury Cyclone GT, they were both fast and fancy all wrapped in one stylish package. The seller has this one posted here on craigslist in Golden, Colorado and they’re asking $18,555. Thanks to Gunter K. for sending in this tip!

You can see the right-front fender needs some deep tissue massage to straighten it out but otherwise, I don’t see any glaring issues on the exterior of this stylish two-door hardtop muscle GT bruiser and cruiser. Mercury made the Cyclone for the 1964 through 1971 model years and it came back as a trim package for the Mercury Montego in 1972 and that was it.

The grille and whole front-end treatment is the best part of these cars I think, at least design-wise. The engines were, of course, the real best part. In 1970, Mercury offered the Cyclone, the Cyclone Spoiler, and the Cyclone GT. The Cyclone GT, such as with this car, came standard with the 351 cubic-inch V8 and 250 horsepower. The seller has a surprise under the hood with a “429 TJ” in place of the original 351.

The interior looks good for a fifty-two-year-old car that has seen some track time as seen in this photo provided by the seller. The seats look good front and back other than the driver’s seat bottom but that’s an easy fix. One thing that is a major change is that along with the original 351 V8, this car came from the factory with a 4-speed manual and it’s been changed to a Ford C6 automatic transmission. The gauges mounted into the right side of the dash are great, other than the adjacent crack shown in this photo.

The engine looks super clean and according to the seller, it’s a 429 V8 TJ with CJ valve covers, exhaust manifolds, and a dual-point distributor. It runs great and other than some work that’s needed on the rusty driver’s floor pan and needing a new exhaust, this looks like a fun one. Hagerty is at $18,500 for a #4 fair condition 429 GT but that’s a factory-original car, I don’t know what a swapped engine would do to the value. What would you say this car is worth with a 429 V8 in place of the original 351 V8?

Auctions Ending Soon

Comments

  1. Steve Clinton

    I’ve never cared for that ‘military gun site’ grille.

    Like 6
    • Melton Mooney

      Funny, I think the gunsight is one of the good points.

      Like 46
    • Steve Clinton

      Looks like I’m outnumbered 9 to 1!

      Like 4
  2. 433jeff

    Love the nose, can you get more odd While your going 429, go 460 and put the 4 speed back in. I cant wait till i find one in my barnfind.Need to get a raygun that sees thru garage doors

    Like 10
    • Ike Onick

      X-ray setup might be better. You don’t want to kill the little old lady you are trying to buy the car from.

      Like 7
  3. JCAMember

    I’d restore it to it’s original condition and with the original drivetrain. Seems like a better combo and definitely rare

    Like 5
  4. Sam Shive

    Put the 351 and the 4 speed back please.

    Like 10
  5. Jasper

    These look so homely and awkward next to the ‘70-71 Torino…especially the Sportsroof with hideaway headlamps and the honeycomb taillights.

    Like 1
  6. scottymac

    Those dashes have the best gauge panel to ever come out of Detroit/Dearborn. Non-functional rim blow steering, original spinners on the Magnum 500 wheels, unbroken grill, functional ram air hood scoop, Cobra Jet valve covers and exhaust manifolds (try to find a set!), what a great car! I’ll overlook the original green paint, Thunderbird 429, C-6 My only problem, if I bought the car, I’d try to bring back 5-6 more cars from this guy’s fleet. Ranchero, Lightning(?), numerous Fox bodies, Torino, more Comets, Fairlanes! Need a bigger bank balance, and a car transporter!

    Like 13
    • 19sixty5Member

      I agree that the dash is pretty cool, but not the most visible location for gauges. Looks good, but not so useful. I would counter that the 67-68 Cougar XR-7 dash is the best Mercury dash ever!

      Like 2
  7. Greg Smith

    never heard of a 429 TJ with CJ valve covers I don’t think they know what they have along with some serious body damage

    Like 4
  8. Troy s

    It had to look sharp, maybe more upscale next to the Ford Torino, think Cougar/Mustang here, and have its own appearance in order to sell. Ford blood and bones, with a bit of class… mine had those gauges and I thought it was the coolest I’d ever seen, but I dont think Mercury sold too many high performance versions. Ive seen the numbers some time ago and was a bit taken how few 429 powered Cyclones were actually built, or even the 428 cj powered ones from the late sixties. They are rare….but had little interest from car collectors or even gear heads for that matter. How many factory big block Cyclones have you guys ever seen?

    Like 3
  9. Marvin Askins

    I noticed the dash guages at one of our car shows and it prompted me to design and have fabricated a similar dash setup for my 1967 Fairlane XL500 convertible.

    Like 2

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