Y Block Head Change

I was comparing a Y block Ford head gasket to a 260-302 gasket and saw that the bore spacing matched faitrly well and that the bottom row of head bolt holes also matched fairly well. Has any one tried to swap a late Ford v8 head on to a Y Block?

 

It's been contemplated by a number of people. I couldn't say whether it's actually been done in years past.

From what I have seen, most "Y block guys", meaning the folks who want to run a Y block because it IS a Y block, feel that the head design is what makes it a Y. Most of its other characteristics are shared, at least to an extent, by other FoMoCo engine families; the extended block skirts & so forth. The heads are unique to this engine family; changing them to the Windsor design "would make the engine no longer a Y" (even in spite of the extended skirts still being present ).

In addition, the Y block is limited in displacement because of the comparatively narrow distance between the cam and crank; about 365-370ci, and it's damned expensive to get that much. There are also some fairly difficult pushrod angle problems to solve. I can't go look at things right now but if I remember correctly the top head bolt holes would have to be plugged & redrilled; drilling different holes is one thing, but redrilling holes that are partly in an area where there was already a hole is another. It can and has been done, though.

Obviously, there would be little advantage to doing the swap from a "Windsor" point of view, for the same reasons; although the block itself is stronger than a 5.0 block. But if one is going to spend that kind of money, they will want a much stronger block and more CI.

I'll have to admit that I have played around with the idea once, more or less simply playing LEGO with engine parts laying around. Beer will do that for ya. If memory serves, Ted Eaton did some slightly more in-depth measuring some years back & wrote about it in Y Block Magazine. It might have been someone else, but I seem to recall that it was Ted.

 

Having put a Y block head on a Plymouth block, I naturally looked at the Windsor and Cleveland heads also. Bore spacing apperes to be the same and It's been a while but I thought 3 of the 5 lower bolts lined up. Two needed to be redrilled. That is one bad point as the deck is "Proububly" not as thick where no bolt was planned. On the Plymouth I had studs pull out after a few years. You would need a billet cam to accept the new valve sequence. But it is interesting.