Is th early Y block reliable? I've heard they have oiling issues to the heads. Thank you for your comments.
The engine in many displacements was made for better than a decade and installed in every kind of p***enger and commercial vehicle Ford made. Yeah, I think you could say it is reliable.
most oiling issues were due to dirty oil and the returns in the heads if kept clean oil and the p***ages clean they are very reliable i have a 58 ford y-block that i,ve run all over the east coast for years
There really is no oiling issues today as there is a lot better oil than was available in the 50's & 60's.There was little if any detergents and sludge build up would clog up the rocker arm shafts,if you are building one and it has sat for a while take them apart and give them a good soak & clean and you'll be good to go.They are tough motors!
Y-block charcoal surprise is what we used to call it. Back in the day motor oils were low in detergent and high in coke. the dinky little hole on the center cam bearing that feeds oil to the top end would plug-up with sludge. Looking back I think that's why a lot of Y-block motors had a lot of clattery top-end as noise... eh, what do I know?
Yea, had many of them apart, The poor oil was definatly a problem, Most of the ones I worked had clogged screens on the oil pick up tube, My moms included. She was a driver and not a checker, so she had 30000 miles on it with very few oil changes. The front main was wore 2 under, the rear was almost 30 under. After the rebuild she changed her habits and never had a problem again. Had a 54 Merc that had well over 150,000 on it and was still strong when I sold it. Wish I had it today. Iceman
New oils and frequent changes get rid of all the old style problems. Had a 272 that went on and on even with a teenaged kid (Me) driving the snot out of it.
i have been driving my 58 ford now with a 292 yblock motor i dropped in it last summer for almost a year now. it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad ***. i havent had the money for an exhaust yet, so im running it open headers. its a beast. oil problems for me? yes.... it leaks from the pan and the valve covers. but i fixed the oil pan problem, it just leaks a little now compared to what it used to do. only real problem is the carb on the thing for me. but it runs like a beast. very reliable motor.
I am pretty local to you. (Santa Maria) I have a ton of stuff and a could offer some specific advice if you need it. PM me... Pretty much a Y-block/FE kinda guy...
My 57 tbird 312 had to be rebuilt, There was no oil flow to one of the heads, I replaced the cam bearings and all was well. Mart.
i'm not an expert at all but i've been researching Y-blocks alot lately(trying to build a respectable 292 at the moment) and the general concensus(as most have wisely stated above) the the oiling issues were more to do with poor maintainence and the oil avaliable at the time.. more pertinent an issue however is the cooling issues.. though not as prone to over heating as the previous motor(the almighty flatty) there is a design flaw in the head that needs to be addressed.. alot of block that have had a factory rebuild will already have this modification but it involves drilling small holes into the block and heads.. there are two exhaust right next to each other in the middle of each head with no coolant flow between them and it causes a hot spot.. try this link to check it out in more detail http://www.webrodder.com/article.php?AID=385&SID=9 and if you're worried about the oiling there is an old hot rodders trick they used to use for quick fixes.. they would tap oil tubes and run them from the pan directly to the valve cover to get more oil there.. avoid doing this at all costs though as it has been found to cause oil starvation in the bottom end under heavy load.. here's another link explaining some much better oiling modifications.. http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/tipstricks/74739/index.html hope it helps.. and i've been told that after you solve these problems they are one of the most reliable engines ever made..
If you are looking at a running Y block, it has been running for around 50 years. Do you need to ask if it's reliable?
I've never been able to get more than 200,000 to 250,000 out of one. Using the right oil and keeping oil and oil filters changed every 3,000 miles is the secret. Keep clean fresh oil in them and you can't kill the things.
I'm a huge Y block fan. Everyone is right, just keep em clean and you'll be golden. I've had a few over the years in various cars/trucks...they start everytime and run all day long.
Took my daughter with me to the Santa Maria show and she commented on wanting an old truck. I knew where there was a nice 1955 F100 that needed attention and we ended up buying it. Now she got a job offer and is seriously thinking of PCS'ing to Denver. So, here is old dad with another project. It runs fine and seems very torquey - crawls around in 1st gear nicely. Now I need to find missing parts - headlight buckets and trim, tail lights, door panel sheet metal,ashtray, hood latch, steering wheel, master cyl floor board cover, rear view mirror and door mirrors. It was painted and mostly put back together, then the painter ended up in jail (never to be seen again) and it has sat for many years uncompleted - almost a barn find.
The 239 in my '54 purrs like a kitten with over 110K on her. The consensus is to run a '57 and up dizzy for better performance over the Loadomatic (pre '57). There are also some people making new performance parts for them. Blue Thunder intakes, etc.
You are right about the dizzy, but it won't work with real early 239s that have the "Big" cam and spade type oil pump drive, also don't hook the vac advace from the old carb to the newer '57 dizzy, that is venturi vacuum. The Blue Thunder won't work with the 239 heads but there are other options for carburation including some 3x2 set ups, just make sure you get a manifold for the small ports.
My mother ran her '57 TBird out of water until it overheated and stopped. After it cooled off we filled the radiator and she drove it away. Just keep clean oil in them. Charlie Stephens
We ran several trucks with them and a cupple cars 55 and 57 fairlanes. One 54 2 ton truck we pulled the 256out and put in a 292. (256's were in the bigger trucks, Had a 272 in a 53 pickup ( the old flatty went in my 52 crestline after port work) and we drove the **** out of them with 0 problems. We used the best oil you could and marvel mystery oil. No oiling problems with rockers. About 10 differant fords al with y blocks.
If you ever rebuild one, email me for three sugestions that worked well for me to make them live longer. Very little money involved, just tinkering.
Let me preface this mini-story by saying I am definetely NOT a ford guy. When I was a senior in high school in '65 I received a 55 ford customline 2 door sedan as a graduation gift. I'd been driving a gas-hog 56 Olds 98 rag top that was draining my wallet..[making $1.00 HR washing dishes]. The ford had a 272, 2 barrel 3 speed overdrive. Visions of gas mileage danced in my head and I conned my folks into buying me the car. First thing I noticed was a slippery clutch. Found out it was because of a gusher rear main seal soaking down the clutch disc. I dropped the pan and used the old chinese finger-trap tool to pull a new rope seal around the rear main journal..I was 16-17 years old. The new seal held for at least 15 minutes before gushing again so I lived with it..skimmed the top of the 55 gallon barrel of diesel drain oil at the local truck stop...free oil! I kept 10, one gallon cans of the drain oil in my trunk at all times and on a normal day I'd use 2 gallons. The little 272 purred like a kitten but I had to be very careful with the throttle pedal so I wouldn't slip the clutch...especially in 3rd gear and it was really bad in 3rd overdrive. One night I was cruising the local town's streets in my super clean 55, leaving a pencil-lead size trail of black diesel motor oil everywhere I drove. I'd been drinking beer and wasn't paying attention to my aftermarket oil pressure gauge....I ran the engine out of oil! Finally, the engine began losing power..I kept driving. Pulled up to a stop light and the engine died...tried to restart it and it would only click...wouldn't turn over at all. I pushed it to the curb and piled in with a buddy of mine in his car, with my beers and we continued to par-tay all night. He drove me home and I didn't come back to my car until about noon the next day..pulled the stick to find dust on it..no oil. I poured 5 quarts of used big-rig oil into the old Y-block and murmered a prayer...hit the key and the old engine came to life...ran like a top! I drove that car [replaced the clutch once and it was great for 15 minutes] until the very day I had to get on the bus to go to Army basic training. In fact, I drove that car to the bus station and next door was a used car lot....asked how much the guy would give me for the car and he plopped 35 bucks in my hand. The 272 was still running like a watch...and still pumping used oil out the rear main. My brother said somebody bought the car and he saw it cruising the streets for a long time. Came home from the military and one of the first cars I bought was a pitch black 56 ford vicky with a 312..found out it would do at least 111 MPH before I chicked-****ted out [worn tires] and backed it down. It was also a good car while I had it. New oil makes the old "gooky oil plugging up the top-end-feed" problem a thing of the past and that was their biggest fault. Don't tell anybody I said anything good about a ford, ok? Oh yeah, the ford Yblock has the very nicest exhaust note [with dual pipes] of any V/8 I know...bar none.
Back around 1959 I had a '55 mainliner 2dr, looked good, but had the worn cam bearing oiling problem. The parts stores sold top oiler kits, so I installed one. finally i pulled the engine and had short block rebuilt, and my dads mechanic, ol' Charley over at his 'Red Star Garage' in Riverside taught me how to do a valve job and the rest of the dirty work. Good training for a young guy. It ran fine then, but my Girlfriend, smashed the front end while i was overseas in the Navy. it never was the same.
I had some experience with a Y-block Ford engine. In 1959, my older sister needed a good used car so I went down to Washington Ave. in Houston TX and scoured the miles of used car lots on both sides of the street. I found a 1957 Ford 2-door sedan with a 312 Police Interceptor engine, single 4-barrel with a 3-speed manual transmission with overdrive. The used car lot said it was a former Louisiana liquor patrol pursuit vehicle. I had....er, I mean "my sister" had to have it so I took her to the used car lot and she bought it. From 1958 to 1961 had a black '55 Studebaker Comander V8 coupe which was a 1960 high school graduation gift from my parents. The 312 Ford Interceptor would run circles around the 259 CI V8 Studebaker "low-boy" which was a car designed by Raymond Lowey who also designed the famous Coca-Cola bottle and Coca-Cola logo. I tell you what...I was king of the street in that 312 Ford for 2-1/2 years, and my sister knew nothing about it. I drag raced it several times at the Houston Raceway on the Gulf Freeway at ****inson Texas, across from the Gay Pontiac dealership as well as many outlaw strips in northwest and east Houston. I raced it so hard one night the clutch pedal stuck to the floor but it was working normally the next day after it cooled off. I was never beaten when racing my sister's 312 Ford Police Interceptor at the outlaw strips. My high school friend had a 1956 Ford 2-door sedan with a 1957 Pontiac side trim that appeared as if it was made for a '56 Ford. His '56 Ford 2-door sedan also had a 312 engine with a 4-barrel , 3-speed and O.D. He put a toggle switch on the dash, left of the speedometer that operated the overdrive. I had to have a toggle switch for the O.D. also so he installed a toggle switch for the O.D. on the dash of my sister's 1957 Ford. Besides the clutch sticking to the floor, the only problem I had with "my sister's" 1957 Ford was lack of oiling to the noisy rocker shafts. My friend said that was a common problem with Y-block Ford engines and he fixed the problen on my sister's Ford in an hour by pinching the copper oiling tubes to the rocker shafts with pliers. Apparently pinching the oil tubes raises the oil pressure in the rocker shafts and quiets the rocker arms. Anyway, it fixed the problem. On the other hand, my friend in central Texas had a 1956 Ford Crown Victoria with a 312 T-Bird engine. He ****tered that engine all over the highway one night at 105 MPH. I never saw a engine destroyed as bad that was not supercharged on nitro-methane. My friend's 312 Ford engine even broke the camshaft in half when the engine let go. The lower end of the Y-block Fords are their weak spot and the crank will seize and take the rest of the engine with it if the rod and main bearings do not receive sufficient oil pressure, especially at high RPM. The only thing that saved my sister's 312 Ford Police Interceptor during the numerous time I abused that engine was because it was a former state liquor patrol pursuit vehicle. It was probably set up by Ford Motor Company for high engine speeds and it was well maintained as long as it was in service.
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