Hot Rods The all inclusive,almighty Y block thread

The 272/292 engine may be tougher for all out horsepower and hot rodding, but in my opinion the 312 is a better engine for stock or a little more than stock. On the ranch we had a 1959 Pickup with a factory 292, two barrelHolley, it was a tough, good running , load pulling truck. We also had a 1956 Pickup that had a factory 223 six. We rebuilt a stock 312 T bird Special with a 4100 four barrel and put in it. The difference in those trucks was amazing! Granted two barrel vs four barrel carbs. If you are just building a basically stock engine, mild cam, headers and keep the rpm reasonable, I would opted out for the extra cubes. We never had any trouble with that 312 and I drove it pretty hard. We had a straight smooth dirt road by the ranch, I would get that 56/312 up to 50 mph and then stomp the gas. That truck would start spinning both rear 6:70x15 aggressive mud grip tires, throwing a shower of dirt and gravel out behind the truck for quite a distance! Quite a sight in the rear view mirror!
The 292 powered truck would not even get close to doing that! Just my personal , 55 year old , experiences with Y-blocks. At one time we had four of them running on the ranch.








Bones

 

I ran across my old 63 Motor manual And found some notes wrote about a service bulletin for main bolt torque on 56 312 do not torque the 120-130 numbers use 95 -105 like 272-292. A 312 shorter main bolts on the rear main than the other main. In some time in 59 292 went to longer main bolts. On early engines I Run the bolts in finger tight and measure and compare to the height of the cap to make sure the a replacement bolt was not used.

 

i read where ted eaton says top end oiling problems are sometimes caused by too soft of a cam bearing.

is there a preferred brand of bearing to use to prevent this from happening?

 

Ted's post on cam bearings last month. Near the end.

http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/FindPost155092.aspx

 

Rock Auto is the best place to get the Engine Tech cam bearings. Unfortunately, I didn't discover that until buying them off ebay. Unless you buy locally, I would always check Rock Auto first.

 

anybody running a mummert short aluminum timing cover? what pulley do you need for the water pump to line up with the crank pulley? and is anyone making an aluminum water pump for the Y block yet?

 

Glad to find a wizard of the Y Block. I just bought one in a Fairlane and while I've wrenched on cars all my life I don't believe I ever done more then a tuneup to a 292. I just bought the 56 Pictured and was told the engine had been rebuilt. has sat sense 2002. Speedo shows 52,000miles, hummm. The seller was kind enough to allow me to get it running at his house. At a glace it looks good. Bad Seller replace the 4 barrel with a 2. Worse wouldn't start and due to how it turned over I pulled the valve covers to fined half the push rods bent. The motor is very clean inside, no sludge or buildup in the lifter valley or heads. I haven't check yet and unsure if the motor can free wheel with a bad chain but guessing with this many bent push rods there is a timing chain problem. Anyone agree? I don't see much on the net about this. I see where people mention stuck valves and recommend tubular pushrod replacements but also see where there maybe issues with the ball size on the rocker arm adjusters with those replacement. Mine has a flathead adjuster with a locking nut. I'm going contact Motor Machine today but would appreciate any voice of experience in this matter. Thanks

 

So, if it was just rebuilt and it never ran, and now the push rods are bent it could be the cam was timed wrong. The gears don't go "dot to dot" they go off to the driver's side with 12 pins of the chain between them. If it is wrong, valves could hit pistons.

 

I concur with 46international,
The timing chain is easy to get wrong so it was probably wrong from the rebuild and never has run.


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Hello Rick , I’m trying to reach you about your intake manifolds for sale . Please call me . 540-248-1967 Chris


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292’s 57-up 2 barrels were very responsive and make good street engine especially with a cruise-o-matic but many want 4 barrels which were only available in 57 312’s for the most part. Blue Thunder and Mummert have them as high risers but sometimes hard to get.
A 312 has a longer stroke so it’s pulling power is greater. Nice thing about a 292 is boring since you have a lot of choices including.050” which is stock for a 312 and can use those pistons as the rod height is the same.

 

There is no comparison to the power of the 312vs292 stock for stock! If you can, build a mild 312!






Bones

 

Seems to me if you have a 312 crank you can have the mains ground to the 292 size, bore your 292 .050” oversize, buy standard 312 piston and have the Holy Grail a “Stroker” 292 .......or just a 312 with stronger main webs....

 

There is a guy locally here in Oregon that runs a Y block dragster named Bob Lindsay, he held the record for Y block 1/4 mile. High 7 seconds at about 180mph. The family has several y block cars and trucks. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/drag-racing-with-ford-y-block.732197/

 

There is a group of us from our car club that have been building cars at night for years, we use donated parts and try to do the build on the cheap! Then when the cars are done we sell them and use the profits to give to charity keeping some seed money to start the next project. Built a Tommy Ivo tribute T with a nailhead a while back and the proceeds went to Dornbeckers Childrens Hospital, last built was a 30 model a tudor sedan. This build is a glass 32 roadster with a 292 Y and a C4 using one of Gene Benson's bellhousing kits (Google FlatO products) and a home made frame. We meet once a week on Thursday nights to work on the car so it takes a while for us to do a build, I will attach a couple of photos.

 

This is the original block out of my 57 T-Bird. You can just see the crack heading up towards the cam bearings. If I remember right, three of the mains had cracks like this. Most went across the main bolt holes. I was able to find a good replacement block with a local T-Bird guy and it's been in the car the last 15 years or so.

 

Kind of an odd place to crack, isn’t it! Looks like it cracked in the thickest part, but I guess the bolt hole weaken it some. I guess the y-block could use some cross bolts, like the 427 FE?






Bones

 

I was wondering about that. They did have (excessive) incorrect torque specs in the shop manual at one time. That's about how they would crack if reefed down too tight, no?

 

I had a 292 block that looked just like that, cracks in at least 3 main bearing bolt holes. someone had tried to braze them up but they had re-cracked.

 

anybody have any run experience with those hi performance pro series HEI dristributors they sell for Y blocks all over ebay?

 

I sure have not, but what do they look like? do they have the big HEI caps?

 

Ted Eaton has answered your question on the yblocksforever site. Best to look there for yblock performance and typical other questions.

 

i never asked the question there but i will now.

i'm talking about this one

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ford-y-blo...i-distributor-45k-coil-usa-wires/322646614526

 

Just bought this one. When it dries up I’ll remove it

 

There is a Y-Block to C4 adapter bellhousing with flex plate and starter for sale here locally for a good discount if anyone is interested.
https://salem.craigslist.org/pts/d/salem-bell-housing-for-1957-ford-272-to/7329417564.html

 

The 312 has larger diameter crankshaft main bearings along with more load due to longer stroke. Also some manuals had the wrong torque spec (too high) and two of the main bolts are longer on some engines. Eaton balancing (or maybe it was McMaster) has a common Y-Block assembly mistakes page and lists many of these issues.

 

Anyone have a set of Lake Style headers they could let go of?

 

I do...they were on my roadster...some little cracks and old chrome.

 

I will be stuffing a 312/fordo I to my 57 wagon next year. Hoping it is in good shape but won’t know until I tear it down later this year.

mike