In this week’s edition of Homegrown Horsepower, Doug Roope’s project 1967 Mercury Monterey will be the recipient of his latest creation – a stroked and bored Ford 460 big block, starting its new life as a 545 cubic inch champion of both horsepower and torque. This naturally aspirated fossil fuel incinerator is estimated to be capable of 570 horsepower and 700 lb.-ft. of torque. Not bad for pump gas.

Roope’s attraction to his 1967 Mercury Monterey started early on. His father, a mechanic by trade, sparked his interest in the automotive hobby when he was young, and he learned much of his skills from helping his dad out and watching him work over the years. Roope always wanted a car built in the year he was born, and after growing up in a hardcore Ford family, the choice was easy. Roope says, “I became a fan of the 460 Ford with a little help from my dad. He had a 1972 Ford pick-up with a 428 that went belly-up, so he replaced it with a 460 Police Interceptor out of an old cop car, and I was hooked ever since.”

Roope stumbled upon his ’67 by chance, two years ago. What started as your typical show-n-tell with a friend, quickly turned into serendipity. While checking out his friend’s father’s ’64 Mercury Marauder, he made mention of his old ’67 Galaxie Fastback he used to have and how much he wished he had kept it. His friend replied, “Well, I just happen to have a ’67 sitting out back” and asked if Roope would be interested in it. Roope rounded the corner to find a 1967 but it wasn’t a Galaxie – it was better. There sat a 1967 Mercury Monterey with a mere 70,400 miles on the clock. Roope thought, “I’d rather have a Mercury anyway!” 300 bucks later, Roope was headed home with a piece of FoMoCo history his whole family would approve of.

Roope’s intentions for his Merc were simple – drive it. But this Merc will be doing double-duty. This soon-to-be street beast will also serve as Roope’s tow rig for his purpose-built drag car. Roope says,“I’m calling it my Diesel Killer because everybody, now-a-days, has to have a diesel truck… the kids especially… and they all talk about how much power they make, so I’m building this [engine] specifically for that. We have local races here, at our airport, in the summertime and everybody has their grudge match goin’ with their buddies—so I’m purposely building this to show-up the diesel guys.”

To get his ’67 flying down the road to diesel domination, Roope chose to resurrect one of the seven 385 series big blocks he has been saving in his garage. When Roope said he was hooked, he wasn’t kidding. He has what could easily be considered a Ford big block homeless shelter in his garage! These big blocks are referred to as the “385 series” due to their 3.85-inch crankshaft stroke.

This engine family enjoyed a long life in the FoMoCo line-up from 1968 to 1997, finding their way into virtually every variety of full size vehicle – from Lincoln Continentals to RVs. With a resume like that, Roope knew he had the right engine foundation to show the diesel crowd a thing or two.

Roope’s Merc was originally equipped with a 390 cubic inch big block which makes the upgrade to a 460 a lot easier. Already built for the weight, Roope’s reincarnation will feel like it did back in 1967, but with a serious case of ‘roid-rage. After interviewing each of his seven engines, Roope selected the lucky big block destined for diesel oppression and delivered it to Ryan Clark at the CarQuest machine shop in Helena, Montana. The D1VE block was cleaned up and bored 0.030”over to 4.395”. To ensure his big block lives up to its new name,“Diesel Killer” Roope employed some robust components while respecting the 67’s era from which it came. This part of the build was second nature since Roope lives and breathes auto parts, professionally, as a veteran Auto Parts Specialist at this particular CarQuest.

Called to duty was a SCAT 9000 series crank that stretched the stroke from the factory’s 3.85-inches to a monster 4.5-inch arm. Filling the chutes are Probe Industries‘ 18.5cc dished pistons and SCAT H-beam connecting rods, fully balanced by Jody Loomis of Precision Crankshaft in Helena. Lifting the valves is a solid, flat tappet COMP Cams camshaft with a custom grind encouraging some Ford Racing Super Cobra Jet aluminum heads to breathe.

Topping the beast is a torque-matched Edelbrock Victor single plane manifold which will soon be crowned with a Holley 1050cfm Dominator carburetor. Lighting the fire is a complete MSD Digital 6 Plus ignition system, and passing the exhaust fumes are a set of Crites headers. Conveniently, to aid in funding his fun, Roope works on the side porting and polishing heads and as you could probably guess, his heads were not neglected.

With its new lease on life, this once homeless Hercules is now 545 cubic inches with a compression ratio of 9.25:1. This intimidating combination will be backed-up to a C6 automatic transmission with a 2600 RPM stall converter, spinning a 3.50 gear ratio Detroit Locker in the factory 9-inch rear end, motivating 31-spline Moser axles. A complement like that will surely show the diesel crowd that big torque doesn’t have to be followed by black smoke.

In Homegrown Horsepower fashion, all the work was performed by Roope himself, with the exception of the machine work. Roope plans to fire up his 545 after the harsh Montana winter gives him some temperatures fit for breaking in a fresh engine. That gives the diesel guys a chance to come up with a Plan B.

If you’re interested in submitting your garage-built engine to Homegrown Horsepower, send a few quality photos and the details to [email protected].