The Ford Y-Block

239 - 272 - 292 - 312

brought to you by:  Dave Williams
This page: www.bacomatic.org/~dw/fordv8/yblock/yblock.htm
Main page: http://www.bacomatic.org/~dw/index.htm
Last Updated: 18 Sep 2003

Author: Dave Williams; dlwilliams=aristotle=net

Y-Block Engines

This is a 1954 passenger car engine, 239 cubic inches. The tube looping over the front is the exhaust crossover. Yes, it was easy to burn yourself on it if you were working on the engine. Note the petcock to drain the water jacket, the recessed bellhousing for the starter Bendix, and the 3-blade fan like a flathead.
Front cutaway. Note no oil galleries for the lifters - all Y-blocks were solid lifter engines; valve adjustment was be a ball-head screw in the rocker arm. The oil pump is external on the driver's side. You can see the main oil gallery inside the block by the oil filter. Note the extensively baffled oil pan.
Later 292 inch engine. Large air filter housing dampens noise.
Y-block in a racing car, circa 1959. Multiple carburetion and neat exhaust stacks were the hot setup.

Y-Block Specifications

Y-Block Heads

Y-block valvetrain. Mushroom lifter, solid steel pushrod, forged steel rocker with adjustment screw, two-piece valve retainer to allow the valve to rotate to reduce seat wear.

When the FE came out it used a very similar rocker arm, and the two-piece retainer lived on in the 5.0 into the 1990s.

Y-Block Intakes

Hilborn fuel injection intake for Y-blocks, circa early '60s.
3x2 Stromberg intake from Edelbrock, all dressed up and ready to go.
Staged linkage on another Edelbrock 3x2.

Y-Block Oiling System

Rocker shaft oiling system. Separate tubes took oil from the heads to the rocker shafts. All Y-blocks were solid lifter engines.

Y-Block Blocks

Angle cutaway. The Y-block casting looks quite similar to the old flathead V8 casting. It was probably done deliberately to simplify changeover to the new engine; Ford had built flathead V8s since 1932 and they weren't used to doing new things. Head bolts are attached to the water jackets, not the cylinder bores, to prevent bore distortion when the bolts are torqued.

Y-Block Reciprocating Assembly

Y-Block Exhaust Manifolds

Nice set of custom headers on a 312. Note lack of a harmonic balancer, location of oil pressure sender, front engine mounts. The oil pump goes in the hole between the engine mount and the sender.
These cast iron ram's-horn exhaust manifolds were from a Ford racing kit.
Hedman Hedders for 292 or 312 engine in '55 and '56 Ford passenger cars.
Hedman Hedders for 292 or 312 engine in '55 through '57 Thunderbird.
Racing Hedders for 292 and 312.

Y-Block Miscellaneous Bits

This is a McCulluch centrifugal supercharger installation on a '55 Thunderbird. McCulloch was later bought out by Paxton.
This is an aftermarket Latham axial-flow supercharger on a Thunderbird. The Latham was very rare and very expensive.
The Latham's turbine compressor worked just like the one on a turbojet engine. These complex components are why the Latham was so costly.
Aftermarket McCulloch installation on a 312 with dual quads. Holes in carb bonnets are for reed valves to admit air a low RPM when the blower isn't turning fast enough to feed the engine.