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INTRODUCTION

Ford’s Y-block engine series has now gained its deserved recognition and consequently has also gained a new lease on life. For a number of years, this venerable engine was maligned and largely overlooked as an antiquated V-8 with little performance potential. That is certainly not the case now. Much of that has to do with the performance aftermarket ignoring the Y-block even during its heyday in the mid-1950s. Although the engine family has always had its share of loyal devotees, most agree that those who loved the Y-block were far more likely to be the restorers of classic Thunderbirds and other 1950s Fords than the segment of the automotive hobby known as “hot rodders.”

Looking back through the decades that have passed since a version of the Y-block V-8 carried the banner for Ford performance (in a time when performance related directly to sales figures), one is sometimes hard-pressed to find an accurate, or unbiased, accounting of just how well Fords powered by this engine series performed. Granted, some things adversely affected the engine’s reputation, such as lubrication problems, but these had more to do with available products and lack of proper maintenance than the design itself.

Ford’s 239-ci OHV Y-block V-8, first offered in 1954, produced 130 hp with a 2-barrel carburetor. They may not look modern by today’s standards, but the first Y-blocks were a major step forward for the company compared to the flathead engines they replaced.

The time has come to set the record straight and to provide a complete and thorough guide for rebuilding these excellent engines. After all, I want to keep as many examples of this fine engine motoring down the highways of America as possible. In this book, I provide a step-by-step rebuild of a stock 292. In doing so, you learn the features of this particular engine series. In addition, through the use of a combination of modern parts and techniques, you learn how to perform a rebuild of a Y-block V-8 engine that is both strong and reliable.

Rather than simply rebuilding a stock engine and making references to performance modifications along the way, I feature a second engine. It was rebuilt using the latest performance parts and technology that were developed specifically for this engine series. This engine is a 322-ci, supercharged Y-block that is based on a 1957 vintage 292-cylinder block.

I have a cadre of longtime, diehard Y-block drag racers, one of whom is my friend Jerry Christenson, as well as the “traditional hot rod” movement to thank for the development of modern performance parts. These hot rodders have stood behind this engine platform and have helped to resurrect it. This engine series was shunned for many years but was the mainstay of the performance industry and is now capable of delivering astounding amounts of horsepower. It also does so more reliably than other engines that have been revered in the performance world for years.

With the introduction of the first mass-produced V-8 engine in 1932, Ford Motor Company launched a new era in American automobile production. Ford’s legendary valve-in-block flathead V-8 proved itself to be strong, reliable, and most important, inexpensive to produce. With millions of the venerable V-8 produced from 1932 to 1953, to merely refer to the flathead as a successful engine series is an injustice. Not only did the flathead, in various forms, power multitudes of passenger cars, trucks, and even military vehicles, it left a legacy of performance everywhere, from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to the back roads and abandoned airstrips of America, where the fledgling hot rod hobby was born. Well into the third decade after its introduction, Henry’s flathead V-8 still powered hot rods and race cars. By 1948, Ford’s management recognized the need to develop a new engine series to replace the flathead in order to keep pace with the competition.

In 1945 Henry Ford II was named company president and embarked on a mission to restructure and modernize the company. Ford tapped Harold Youngren, vice president of engine design, along with talent recruited from throughout the auto industry, to lead Ford into the future. Victor Raviolo, Robert Stevenson, Allen Cleveland, and Paul Clayton were tasked with the development of a new engine family. This engine platform included 8- and 6-cylinder engines using an overhead-valve (OHV) design.

From 1954 to 1958, Ford Y-block engines were equipped with some artistic valve cover logos that identified the engine. The valve covers on the 1959 to 1962 engine series were not adorned with these decals.

Ford launched the first examples of its new OHV engines in 1952 with the introduction of a 215-ci in-line 6 and a 317-ci V-8 that was destined for the Lincoln. There was a Y-block version for Lincoln but this engine was substantially different than the Ford Y-block. It was cast and machined to accommodate hydraulic valve lifters. In addition, the cylinder heads used a conventional vertical port arrangement, which differed from the 1954 and up versions of the engine family.

Ford still intended to remain the leader of the first of the “low-priced three”: Ford, Chevrolet, and Plymouth. The new Ford Y-block was intended to keep Ford in front of the pack. Victor Raviolo and his team forged ahead to develop an OHV V-8 engine that met the performance and design requirements for the Ford and Mercury lines. Ford’s engineering goals for the new engine series were to build an engine that matched its predecessor in height, width, length, weight, and cubic-inch displacement. In addition, the cast cylinder block design provided maximum strength and allowed for later increases in displacement and compression. It featured a short-stroke rotating assembly, and, unlike the flathead, an OHV arrangement. Finally, the simplicity of design reduced manufacturing costs.

Before its 1954 introduction, Ford built and tested 200 experimental Y-block versions of the engine, and these test engines proved to be strong and reliable during the 50,000 hours on the dynamometer. The new engine series became known as the Y-block, because it had a new deep-block design, and was Y-shaped when viewed from the front. The dyno and highway tests totaled more than 700,000 miles.

In keeping with design goals, the new engine displaced 239 ci (the same as the 1953 Ford flathead) with a bore of 3.50 inches and a 3.10-inch stroke. With a 2-barrel carburetor and 7.2:1 compression, the new engine developed 130 hp, eclipsing its predecessor’s 110. The 256-ci version of the engine, used to power the Mercury line, pumped out 161 hp and was fed by a 4-barrel carburetor.

Ford’s plan for the new engine family was referred to as “High Futurity,” which translates to 10 years of progressive increases in output. Output, in this case, referred to higher compression ratios, cubic-inch displacements, horsepower, and torque.

For 1955, Ford increased the cubic inches to 272, with the 292 available in Thunderbird and Mercury cars. The 312-ci Y-block was introduced in 1956; it powered all Mercurys, and, along with the 272 and 292, was offered in the Ford line. In 1957 the 272-, 292-, and 312-ci versions of the Y-block were offered across the Ford line, while the Mercury family depended entirely on the 312.

As it turned out, the High Futurity plan for the Y-block only remained until 1957, and, by that year, the engine family reached its pinnacle of development. By 1958, the 272 was gone from the option list and the 292 was the only Y-block available in Ford cars. The Mercury received the 312 and the Thunderbird received the new 352-ci FE series engine. The 1959 and 1960 Y-block offerings for Ford and Mercury were a repeat of 1958.

Although the 292 Y-block soldiered on in Fords until 1962 and the 312 in Mercury passenger cars until 1960, further development had virtually ceased by 1958, when it was relegated to second-fiddle status by the introduction of the FE engine family.