anyone here running a Y-Block in a 40 ford? wondering what troubles I can run into if I decided to put my y-block in my 40 tudor sedan ….. thanks !
I have never done it, but Y blocks are really long engines and I am sure you will have to do some firewall mods to get it to fit. My dad does have a 46 Ford convertible with a Y block and it fits pretty danged good...do you never know
I think Matt at Iron Trap Garage has an old 39 or 40 Ford "forgotten" hotrod with a Y-block. I think he had to modify the front of the oil pan to clear the crossmember. You could search his YouTube channel, or PM him here on HAMB.
This should like to @IronTrap play list of the 39 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSVjn4kU05GV9Yv86-RNOrT3ZlxznsW88 they do cover what’s involved in putting the y block in when they swap the existing y block for a better one.
This ones likely got the most pertinent information. I want to say it’s mostly a modified oil pan and some fire wall clearance. Though his car already had it in there so I’m sure there’s more than one way to go about it
FWIW, that looks like a tbird pan, and it's the shallowest in front. From the side steady rest bars and what I saw of the front mount that pretty well confirms it. I did not watch the whole thing. Easiest to find and modify would probably be the rear sump truck pan. Pass cars are a front sump, so you also have to modify or exchange the oil pickup tube.
Gosh, there are so many modifications required to make a Y-Block fit. Consider a more "Period Correct" engine that is an easier fit and easier to work on.
I think there 3 different pans, the std. car pan the T bird pan and the truck pan. By truck pan, maybe not a F100 pan but a F500 truck pan, not sure what a small truck pan is. anyway, the car pan is a front sump as miker98038 said and the T bird pan is a rear sump, the truck pan is another rear sump but the front is not quite as shallow. The big truck pan will be a lot cheaper to get than the T bird one and it may get you out of trouble. edit sorry, I just re-read miker's post and found I said the same thing....
46, you jogged my memory. I think the big truck pan was deeper in the sump, 6-7 quarts. Might be easier to section one of those and fit the small truck pick up. Never done it, so I'm guessing.
Yeah there is. Drop that SBC in there and use adapters to put Tbird rocker arm covers on it. No cutting of anything and a heck a lot less headaches. You won't know the difference on the road. When you open the hood just squint a bit.
I'm working on putting a Y block in a '35 pickup and decided that yes the motor is long and many of the points you all mentioned come into play. Seems like quite a challenge to me and cant tell you how much time I have spent just looking and tweaking along the way. Here are some quick points I can share about what I have underway: 1) Originally thought to use the Hurst front mount, but was not happy with how low the motor would be relative to the radiator and the resultant oil pan problem even with a rear sump. Also, I became concerned with the distance between having all that distance between the front mount and the rear mount which would essentially be the transmission mount. Additionally, it seemed to me like I was leaving space on the table up front that I would need for firewall clearance. I have fabed mounts that come off the side mounts of the engine block. These mounts go onto typical biscuit mounts on fabed flathead mounts placed on the boxed chassis. The mounts are made to clear water drains and sending units in the block. Also, the engine will be as close as possible to the radiator while leaving a safe space. I have the engine off center towards the right by 3/8 inch to give a bit more space for the steering box, oil filter and exhaust. 2) Started with an engine out of a T Bird and took the spacer out from the timing cover/water pump to pick up an inch. This pan clears the cross member nicely given what I noted above. 3) Planning on using COE Ford ram horns 4) I have yet to mount the cab so while I think I may be able to make this work without alteration, I would not be surprised if the firewall needs some work. 5) I will not need to split wishbone and have modified the original chassis center section to accommodate the wishbone as is and built a rear transmission mount. I have attached two photos. One is the engine sitting in the chassis with the mounts almost complete and the second was taken today as I took it all apart to sand blast the chassis in the driveway today so cant provide much in the way of additional pictures at this time. I need to take them more often! Hope this helps!
Avatar, when you pulled the w/p spacer did you have to go to the pass car or truck balancer to get the pulley lined up? Nice work on the motor mounts to get the rams horns to clear.
Miker, It ended up being pretty simple. I cruised flea markets and picked up a bunch of old Ford pulleys and had one with the right offset to make it work. I also bumped back the pulley mount on the water pump. Sorry, should have mentioned this in the earlier post. All this helped accommodate the switch to the alternator and the home made mount. I realize alternators are touchy here but didn’t feel I had room for a generator and at the time there was an article about Ford 3rd gen alternators that made it seem like a good idea.
You need a rear sump pan and oil pump from a truck or T-bird, a T-bird/Truck timing cover (so you can bolt a Hurst style engine mount to it) and a Y-block to tranny adapter. If you find the tranny adapter, make sure it comes with the starter cover. I’ve got a Little Book around here somewhere that lists what needs to be done. If I can find it I’ll scan it and post. I don’t believe firewall alterations are required. Edit: Found it. 1958 Hot Rod Annual. There’s an 8 page (or so) article about new power for your car. I’m pretty sure I’ve got a scan of the instruction sheet for the hurst engine mount that gives a bunch of info also. I’ll have to look for it.
Here’s pics of my Y block in my 36 frame in process now. It’s being backed by a C4 using a Chassis Engineering C4 mounting kit with a Flat-O adapter. Engine is mounted with Boling Brothers side mounts with a fabricated offset to clear a Ford steering box. Up front we used a modified F100 oil pan and relieved the crossmember a bit to get it a tad lower to level the engine. Everything was established front to back by putting the radiator on the frame and checking that the stock fan clears. Surprisingly it bolted into the hole locations CE had for their kit. We haven’t put the body on yet to check how it fits but the firewall is already offset back about 4” and should be close. If not we’ll just modify it more and make it fit.
There's a 40 convertible on eBay right now with a y block in it. Take a look there's some detailed pictures. It has an electric fan and some, I'll say interesting headers on it. I'm with Moriarty, I just put a 331 Cadillac in mine. It's snug but it fits without major surgery. Sent from my SM-G973U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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