Found some Ford stuff for sale in my area. A '54 Ford 239 Y block with a OD 3 speed on a rolling chassis. What's this worth? Like to eventually build a 292 Y with a OD for a '50 Ford coupe. He's asking 500. I'm not sure. Hate to pay that for a trans and be stuck with the rest.
That is not too bad of a deal,it looks to have the later dual exhaust manifolds and the rear end gears could work in a 50 and it could be a 272 or 292 painted like a 239 but would need to check casting numbers.
In my humble opinion...a 239 is worth its weight in scrap metal. Nobody wants one. I have had one for decades and couldn't give it away so its in a scrap pile, what's left of it.
One nice thing about it is the parts will have easy access,I am planning on grabbing all the manual trans parts off a 55 in a local junkyard and its sunk to the frame and will have to cut the floor to get the parts.
I've still got my '54 239 out of my '54 Coupe... under a tarp outside my garage. Offered it up, no takers! They all want my 312, though...LOL
Is that frame welded ? By that bolt sticking up. It kinda looks like it, in one picture. If so buy it remove the OD transmission and bell housing and clutch, fly wheel, the carb, air cleaner, exhaust manifolds,valve covers, the fuel pump, water outlet, water pump, front mount, generator and brackets and one transmission. Also keep the adapter with the spark plugs. Then take the rest to the scrape yard! At $300 a ton , you will get a large portion back…..especially if you haggle him down a little. Also that overdrive is the “ weaker” type over drive, I believe. It looks like it has the square bottom. Bones
Since there’s easy access, pull the distributor. A “tang”’drive will be a 239 or a 256. A hex drive will be for 272, 292 or 312. Hope this helps!
My thoughts are similar. Some pieces off of that engine are worth keeping but the engine itself is likely worthless. Trans is worth something but isn't anything amazing, although that bolt-on floor shifter kit on there is definitely cool and worth getting. The wheels on the frame might be worth something, I'm sure you could sell the spindles off of it and if the steering box isn't sloppy that's worth some money too. No one is going to want the engine and the frame will likely be very hard to sell (unless the forward A-arm crossmember is really nice, then someone will want that frame for sure). But if you're willing to break it down into pieces and sell off the extra bits I think you could pay $500 (or preferably get it for a bit less), sell off the shit you don't need and get your pieces in trade for the effort you put in.
Yep, all three of those trans are the light-duty Ford units. The non-OD ones will be useful for parts if the OD trans has issues.
After I thought about it and re-looked at TheSteamDoc’s pics, I seemed to remember a visual difference between the early heads (239/256) and the later (272/292/312) heads. I looked at my ‘55 Merc 292 and checked the James Eickman Y-block book. The early heads have core plugs at either end. The late heads do not. So, the engine is most probably a 239/256. I say “most probably” because people did weird things to get cars on the road. There’s still the odd chance an early top end was bolted to a later block. But, that would be REALLY weird! :0
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