Ford Repair: engine conversion/swap, maveriks, 351 windsor

Question
I have a super nice 76 Mercury, leather interior, a real deluxe model that I acquired by chance, and I do not want to drive this big boat around, it is either a 302 or 351 Windsor, I have had it for years, it came to a friend from the Chief of Police of Chicago, years ago, he meant to make a kit car out of it, got too old, gave it to me, runs fine, anyway, I now wish to convert the engine to Stick Shift and put it into my 70 Maverik, Someone said Ford went from a "Detroit Balance" Flywheel to some other system along the way, and I now do not know how to figure out or find out what I should look for in a Flywheel, and wonder if you know of such things.... the engine is really cherry, I have two nice Maveriks and one has the big 6 with positraction, low miles, cracked block (we had a freeze, went down to zero in about 1990, out here on the desert and tons of really nice vehicles went to the boneyard with cracked blocks as the hicks here from Southern States are not smart enough to run anti-freeze and all kinds of bad things happen to their vehicles on the Desert-stupids) anyway, I like the old Maveriks, with the 170 cubic inch sixes, I get around 30 miles per gallon with them, I've owned Maveriks for years and years....
only other good car I owned was a 76 freebie Corolla, got it at 132,000 miles and turned it off at 592,103 it is still in my yard, I GOT TIRED OF DRIVING IT!  there are some cars that are nearly indestructible, others are Poo Poo from day one... FIAT, MAZDA, STUDEBAKER, BLAH CARS
NO HURRY ON A REPLY, IT IS THE DEAD OF WINTER HERE RIGHT NOW, I AM IN FALLBROOK UNTIL THE DESERT WARMS UP, IS SUNNY AND 70 HERE RIGHT NOW,, C YQ LATER AND THANKS IF YOU HAVE TIME TO REPLY.. YOU ARE REALLY GREAT AT THIS STUFF... MY FIELDS OF EXPERTISE ARE MOSTLY IN OTHER AREAS

Answer
George-

  Ironically enough, the first motor swap I ever did was in my brother's '77 Maverick.  Went from a straight 6 to a 302.  The 302 should be pretty straight forward since you can usually pirate some V8 mounts from a factory V8 Maverick (although those seem to be rare).  I would keep the motor and transmission together if at all possible.  It'll make the swap MUCH easier.  As for the flywheel...that's a tough one.  It'll either be a 28oz or 50oz balance...depending on which motor you've got.  In a '76 Mercury I would guess it's a 351...but it could be a 302 I suppose.  A 351 will pose a problem since Mavericks never came with 351s.  If you can find out what motor is in there all you'll need to do is head up to your local parts store and order one for that year/model.  If you want, I can tell you what motor you have if you can give me the part number.  It should be on the passenger side rear of the engine block by the starter.  Hope this helps.

Steve