Is anyone Running a 368 Lincoln Motor from the mid to late 50's?

Is a 368 Lincoln a Strong Running, Cool Running and Easy to get parts for Motor ? I see that EGGE has rebuild parts and a few other's have parts as well.
Thanks,
60'Coupe

 

This is a 368" Lincoln engine....

 

So what do you think ? Is it a strong running mill is it cool running ? What kind of horsepower is it making ?

 

The earlier 317" version won the Carrera Pan America road race 3 or 4 years in a row. In 1956 the 368 Lincoln was the largest displacement V8 you could get in an American car. The Lincoln benefits from some of the same characteristics as the smaller Y's. Shallow valve angles, tight fast burn comb chambers raised exhaust ports and ample short side radii on the intake ports.

Since there is a curse on using FoMoCo power in hot rods there was never a huge following. Hence not a ton of "go - fast" stuff. Not to worry a 368 comes from the factory with the good stuff including a, large for it's time, 4" bore. Clean-up the ports, bump the compression, get a performance ignition and carb. That'll twist yer axles.

Here's some stuff.... http://www.ford-y-block.com/lincoln.htm

 

Below is what you want-

1957 MERC TPC M-335 Option;

 

Not yet but I'm still looking for one for my 56 Ford. It seems that any good deal is 500 miles away. Definitely not a cookie cutter engine. I've collected some script valve covers and the truck ram horn exhaust manifolds. Now all I need is an engine to put them on.

As far as rebuild parts, they are all over Ebay. Engine kits, gaskets etc. It doesn't seem like you need to pay the "collector car" prices. Shop around. Parts aren't rare....except speed parts. Speed parts are rare and costly.

 

Nuthin' wrong with a Lincoln Y.

It depends on what you want to do with it....but the basic engine parts are available, from Egge & others. The distributor & oil pumps are compatible with Ford/Merc Y pieces; you can use a late truck four-barrel intake to get the Holley carb pattern (or use an adapter, for that matter); you can get performance cams from a variety of places (generally, regrinds); headers can be fabbed up...& so forth.

If you want to get exotic, they can be bored/stroked out a fair amount, using the steel truck cranks, though as with any first-gen OHV, it will cost. Quite a bit.

The Turnpike Cruiser option of '57 offers dual four-barrels, some dress-up pieces, & so forth, shown in one of Kultulz' pictures....( I thought he'd make it here eventually )....but, be advised they are NOT cheap, & don't come up for sale very often.

There are a few aftermarket speed parts from "back in the day", but not many. A couple of Weiand intakes, injectors, trans adapters, & so on. Again, they don't come up often (one on eBay right now, I think)....sometimes expensive, especially for the injectors.

So far as automatic transmissions are concerned, you can use the Hydramatic, or the Lincoln versions of the Ford-O-Matic/Cruise-O-Matic....or use a Wilcap or Bendtsen adapter to go the modern route....

Manual transmissions- try to locate the rare Turnpike Cruiser bell....or, use the common truck bellhousing & adapt the late Saginaw 3-speed or the Sag 4-speed to it- pretty easy. Or, use an adapter to convert the Lincoln bell pattern to flathead, then use another adapter to convert flathead into T-5. Thanks to Royce B. for those tips.

 

You NEED TO TALK TO vintakes.

 

Thank you Everyone that had Advice, It all sounds solid !
Rob

 

This is the 368 out of an old east coast 57 T-bird. It's got a B&M hydromatic behind it. Vintakes is the mack-daddy on this stuff I think.

I'm actually building another one right now too.

 

unclescooby,
So what kind of horsepower can you squeeze outta one of these things ? Maybe 400 ?

 

Maybe. The only person I know of who has actually put one on a dyno is Royce Brechler. I was thinking his made close to that and I'd bet he's got the fastest one around (or should be). There is at least one twin VS57 supercharged 368 hot rod around too. I'd think that would be cool.

 

If your looking to put a manual Tranny behind that mill. I have a Cragar 601 adapter, New in the Box that mates that bad boy to a late Ford Tranny.

I am looking to get rid of this adapter

 

Thanks 61cad, If i go with the 368 it will be with a automatic, I'm just doing some research right now, Im just a little worried that the 368 will run hot since they thinned up the walls of the 318 y-block !
Thanks,
Rob

 

They weren't known for overheating if that's what you're askin. Something not mentioned is that this one like all Y-Blocks had a very stout lower end.

 

All the Lincoln Ys have very thick cylinder jackets. I suspect that Ford reworked the cores from the 317 Lincoln/truck block to the 341, & again when they built the 368. Even if they didn't for the 341, they would have had to for the 368....it's got a .200 larger bore than the 317. At any rate, they were built for the Lincolns...Ford engineering did not fuck around when it came to the Lincoln and Continental lines. If you read some history of Ford during this time period, they were making a hard run to become the quality leader in the luxury field...not necessarily to out sell Cadillac, but to out-build them. And, as Pork says, they aren't known for overheating. These are first-gen OHVs, heavy catings, really more iron than was needed to do the job.

The only Y block that does (comparatively) have thinner cylinder walls is the 312 Ford/Mercury Y block...as I noted above, not the same animal (or casting cores) as the Lincoln Y. Even the 312 has a fair amount of meat in it, usually.

 

Can you really shoehorn that thing into a T-bird?? Wow.

 

apparently so. Wish I could have gotten the whole car!
On an unrelated note, I did find a 57 Lincoln two door with a 368 and dual quads, headers, and finned valve covers that actually runs. If I can sell the Turbonique 1000HP drag axle for big bucks this week, I'll buy it.