Building a 1963 f100 unibody g***er. I want to do it the right way and make it period correct, so I figured whats better than a y block?Just pulled a 292 from a 57 bird and was wondering if i could make 300 hp without breaking the bank. Is this reasonable? All suggestions welcome. Thanks!
I never dynode my old 312 but I was running consistent low 12s back in the late '60s and early '70s with it in a 55 Ford. I don't know that you can make 300 without breaking the bank it really depends on what you have to play with. It should be easy enough to make one HP per inch though and that is close to your mark. Maybe drop @Lancer a not here on the HAMB he is building a Y block powered gas cl*** car and is just finishing up his mill.
Like ****** mentioned 300hp would be hard to reach without putting a serious dent in your bank account. They do respond with the right combination of parts though. McTim64 on here built Lancers engine and it should run good. Go to John Mummerts ford-y-block.com web site for the yblock "candy store" and some very good information. You can also go to Yblocksforever.com for the most complete yblock advise. Some pretty good old guys over there.
Depends on the bank. But I have no doubt that your 292 could be warmed enough to respectably push that F100 around, using good old hotrod tricks of the period. Wheels-up g***er fashion may require a bigger bank, or an entirely different route, possibly of the FE variety (also period correct). Beano, impressive, what'd that thing weigh-in at?
Gutted with me in the seat and 5 gallons of gas it tipped @ 2950 (and change). The vic was only a 3100 pound car stock (unless you get yourself into a crown I think they were a little heavier). Impressive for the time, not so much by todays standards.
Even after putting 2 Autolite 4bbls and using a supercharger cam I figured I had about 260-270 HP out of my 272 Y. It looked great and ran good.
A local dude (Robi's Repair) built a twin turbo 292 Y-block, I believe dynoed out at 606hp at the rear wheels & 750 RWTorque! Bunch of John Mummert speed goodies in it. Motor was in a 1962 Ford F100. There's a YouTube somewhere on it.
Y blocks just run good, maybe not big impressive numbers like some of the fellas seem to think they need to have but they are just good engines. I think that sometimes we get caught up in big numbers and we should be caught up in big grins.
I run two Y block, both Mummert strokers, a 320, and a 340 F code. Like ****** said, big grins. Build it for a broad torque curve, and they're a kick on the street. More dyno info than you wanted to know here http://www.eatonbalancing.com/blog/
A '57 T-bird should have had a 312", shouldn't it? A 272" could have been subbed in at any time. As mentioned, you can't get 300hp from a 272" without spending serious money. What's better than a Y-block? If one wanted to have period correct horsepower with torque, can't go wrong with the 462" Lincoln. One of these BIG Y-blocks was the NHRA Top Eliminator back in that day. jack vines
Not all '57 T birds had 312s but yes '57 was the first yes for the 312. The 312 in my '55 came out of a wrecked bird. Fun story on that but why hijack the thread any more than I already have. Most trucks came with 272s and 292s. Not to say that a truck didn't get a 312 I have seen a few but I always figured that they were swapped in. I have been told that the big trucks had the bigger Lincoln Y blocks in them but I have yet to find one. I have actually decided that it must just be one of those stories.
We had a 57 with the build plate showing it to be a 312 . Always thought it was . But years down the track when it got tired it was obvious it had had a 292 transplant. So check the numbers of your "312" .
I am not sure but I don't think anyone said that they have a 312. If you are talking about mine I haven't seen it since '71 and I do know for a fact that it was.
1957 C 292 9.1 3.750 x 3.300 212 2V . D 312 9.7 3.800 x 3.440 245 4V . E 312 9.7 3.800 x 3.440 270 two 4V - stock cam .. E 312 9.7 3.800 x 3.440 285 two 4V - sc cam .. F 312 9.7 3.800 x 3.440 300 4V supercharged! . D 312 9.7 3.800 x 3.440 300 supercharged - 12 built; called D-F birds because their data plate reads D, not F. Verified only by their factory invoice. C codes had the 292 but I have never seen a 292 thunderbird at any show. The 312 is significantly more common, my 55 Bird has a 292 and even in those where the 292 was the stock motor the 312 is more often swapped in if there were any issues with the 292. My opinion is sell the 292 and find something else from that era with more CI. getting power out of a y-block is not really that hard but its cost 3x the cash then a big block of the same era wold ever cost and will be significantly more stressed if you are actually racing it.
My black 56 vicky had a 312 from the factory.....also had the red T-bird emblems on the front fenders.
Must have been a late '56. I am sure that some of those got out and if anyone could have had one it would be you.
An FE would be more correct fo a 61-63 body style "g***er" Ford pickup, even though the 292 was the production V8 engine of choice by Ford for 1 more year. The FE introduction in 1958 pretty much diverted attention away from the Y block by the time your truck would have been produced and raced. There were a couple of 427 powered 63 F100s running back then. Now, if you had a 53-56 F100, the y block would be appropriate.
OK, I'm primarily a Chevrolet guy, but just looking through these two on-line sites and their products........I'm just blown away! Those are some NICE pieces, and no doubt add a bunch to the looks and power to the Y-Block of the Ford Motor Company. Outstanding ovation! I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
If you're wanting to build a real stompin Y-block, you don't want to start with a 312. You want to find a 292 out of a big truck that has a steel crank. Often those same engines have a block with a better material mixture than most blocks......you can dig into all the details on Mummert's site.
Thanks for the education. Learn something every day. I was there when the '57 'birds came out and always ***umed the 312" was the standard engine, because that's all I ever saw. In all the years since, I've never seen a 2-bbl 292" in one, so maybe Ford shipped them with the 312" and the customer had to pay for it to get the car. FWIW, the "mandatory options" are still with us. In this month's Automobile magazine, there's a road test of the new Mini JCW. The base price is $31,450, but the factory says a base car won't get built. They have enough demand, all the cars will be loaded with overpriced options. Reality is sticker at $37,500 - 43,000. jack vines
My '56 T-Bird has the factory installed 312 in it. Standard motor was an M code 292, optional was the P code 312 BTW - There was the one that Jon Kaase brought to Engine Master compe***ion this year - this engine came out with a three-pull dyno average of 477.6 hp and average peak torque at 557 lb-ft. Of course if would break the bank as there is over 10 lbs of welding rod and hundreds of hours in the heads alone to change them from the peculiar stacked port arrangement to something more like a SBC.
porkn****** : The large trucks(F-8s & some F-7s) was where the original Lincoln Y-Block engine came from, but they had some different displacement numbers, however many parts can be swapped. Refer to "Mummerts" for some stats, or to the "Y-Block Lincoln" site, or maybe just ask Rich Fox, as he knows quite a bit about them.
. Y blocks are Torque monsters, and Torque is what it's all about. Unfortunately, hp is what the m***es always refer to. While horse power will move things, Torque will twist iron into pretzels above and beyond pushing it to the breaking point (and then some). ..People always refer to the Flathead as 'can't get out of it's own way' but a 1952 Mercury car engine (with just the factory 125hp and 211 foot pounds of torque) in a roadster will out smolder the tires as-well-as embarr*** the hell outta of any guy with 1980 California Spec Chevrolley Corvette. And it will get more girls too. Life's really all about torque. jmho moe .
Read this about Y-block torque; http://www.hotrod.com/events/1510-s...engine-just-smashed-chevy-ls3-torque-numbers/
Given the budget, Kaase can make horsepower out of an anvil. Horsepower comes from getting max air in and out. What he did was take a pair of aftermarket aluminum heads and spend a week machining away all that was Ford and welding them into a Chevrolet intake port pattern and using a Chev intake manifold. The end result has little to do with what we recognize as a Ford Y-block. It's a tribute to Jon's talent; that it was on a Y-short-block, not so much. jack vines
Ted Eaton was there also, all parts off the shelf, lots of porting and tuning to make 542 hp and 496 ft lb torque. A bored 292 with mummert heads and intake would push that truck around just fine.
Big trucks had a 332 that looked like a Y block. rear distributer air gap intake etc. it had the bigger lincoln mercury bellhousing. It wasn't a FE.
, The 312 was first offered in 1956. Those big truck engines were Lincoln engines or MEL (MERCURY EDSEL LINCOLN)
============= Hi Jack, I was surprised to read this - "With conventional drive there's the 212 HP Thunderbird 292 V8" http://www.autominded.net/brochure/ford/Ford TB'57 - fold B.jpg regards, Dan T
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