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By Missouri Mike - 17 Years Ago
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Good Evening All I have an original 30,000 mile 272 in my '55 2dr Customline (the car has been in the family since '56) and of course I want more horsepower.Don't we all I'd like to use an Isky E-4 cam, along with a tri-power I have, and a five speed behind it. I would think headers and G heads would help the little Y muscle up a bit but what about about a distributor? I know it won't be making great gobs of HP so I was hoping the stock pistons, original lifters, etc would work. Suggestions??? Your thoughts, please??? Thanks. Did you know I don't make mistakes????? I just have educational experiences.............. Some hurt.....and some cost money. May your education be painless and free. Missouri Mike
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By PF Arcand - 17 Years Ago
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Mike: Assuming the condition of the engine is in keeping with the low mileage, presumably you don't plan to rebuild the entire engine. However, under things not to do, don't install the performance Cam on old lifters. Too risky! Also, being a 272, " G " heads will not do much for your compression, unless milled a reasonable amount, & early G heads have somewhat thin decks & are not "Posted," so can only be milled moderately. Others on the site will chime in with other advice I'm sure. Oh! and if you are wanting good performance, avoid the Offenhauser Tri Power, as they have a poor internal design..
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By 46yblock - 17 Years Ago
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PF Arcand (11/17/2008)
Mike: Assuming the condition of the engine is in keeping with the low mileage, presumably you don't plan to rebuild the entire engine. However, under things not to do, don't install the performance Cam on old lifters. Too risky! Also, being a 272, " G " heads will not do much for your compression, unless milled a reasonable amount, & early G heads have somewhat thin decks & are not "Posted," so can only be milled moderately. Others on the site will chime in with other advice I'm sure. Oh! and if you are wanting good performance, avoid the Offenhauser Tri Power, as they have a poor internal design..All good advice. If the E4 is installed with new lifters, new rockers, rebuilt heads milled to 66 cc chamber, steel shim gasket, 4V manifold, new carb, new dist., I expect the CR would be in the area of 8.5. Kind of borderline. With composition gaskets the CR becomes a problem with estimate of 8.1. So how much the cost? Around 1K if the parts arent on hand. Then there are the hidden costs. The shop doing the heads will want to put in hardened seats on the exhausts. If you say yes that is more. And as a couple of us have recently experienced sometimes they dont get the seats installed correctly, and you may have to redo some of them down the line. If you have a perfectly good running 30,000 mile engine, enjoy it!
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By charliemccraney - 17 Years Ago
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The G-heads should provide an increase in compression over what you have. If it is in the budget, an increase in displacement will be very helpful. You had mentioned that you had a 292 block available in a previous post. Why not use that?
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By PF Arcand - 17 Years Ago
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Further, 46Y has a point, if the engine is sound, I'd forget about the cam & lifters because the engine gurus here say doing the change in chassis is very difficult, in part because of the mushroom style Lifters. On the heads, link to J.Mummert's site Ford-Y-Block.com and the Head chart, & consider your options. What heads do you have? Some things like the Tri Power can be done without a major undertaking. Also an improved dual exhaust system, (assuming you have a stock single exhaust set up) say with 57 and later manifolds. Headers are probably overkill with a stk cam. And of course the 5 speed would be nice. Distributor? A Pertronics conversion maybe in a 57 & up unit ?.. I'll let someone else advise you on the proper vacuum hookup depending on what carb set up you decide on..
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By Missouri Mike - 17 Years Ago
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I had initially planned on using the 292 in place of the 272 but decided to keep the car numbers correct and use the 292 in another project. I really appreciate your input to the point that I'm rethinking my plans for the 55. The car ran good when I parked it two years ago, leaked oil but didn't use any. So, I believe I'll just get it back on the road with the stock 272, put my 5 speed behind it and enjoy. I may put the 3x2 intake (Weiand which John Mummert says is similiar to the good Edelbrock) on it at a later date or maybe not, since it's really only for ooooohh aaahhh factor anyway. Now I don't usually gush, but the fact the people on this website are so friendly, eager to welcome new folks and willing to help each other really makes me look forward to logging in and checking out what's new. Thanks Again Missouri Mike
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By ejstith - 17 Years Ago
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Mike, where in MO are ya? I'm comin' to Lebanon for Christmas. All of my family is there. Anyway, on my 272, '56 Customline Victoria,which was bone stock when I got it, I put a late model 4bbl manifold on it with a new, out of the box, 390 Holley. I put a Mallory electronic module in a '59 distributor. I put dual exhaust manifolds on it and had a local muffler shop put duals on it with Magnaflow mufflers. It really perked the old 272 up and besides with the T-Bird valve covers it is pretty. I'm pretty satisfied with it just as it is. All I need now is an overdrive transmission and I'll be good to go. Hope to get that around Christmas time. Good luck on your project.
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By Missouri Mike - 17 Years Ago
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eistith- I'm up the road (I-44) between Washington and Union on Hwy 47. If you're coming from the east and driving I-44 you'd pass pretty close. What you've done to your 272 is right in line with what I'm now thinking of doing. First get it roadworthy, brakes, fluids, tires, etc and then maybe a couple of upgrades. I'm getting wound up about getting it back on the road. Missouri Mike
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By ejstith - 17 Years Ago
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I'll be coming up from Memphis, West Plains etc. I'm real happy with what I did to my 272. Didn't cost much and really made a difference. The most expensive single part was the new 390 carb. The exhaust manifolds were pricey but I got a deal on the 4bbl manifold on Ebay. To get the exhaust done was about $350 including mufflers. Total for everything engine related was $1,171.00 including gaskets, plug wires etc ...
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By mctim64 - 17 Years Ago
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Missouri Mike (11/22/2008)
I'd like to use an Isky E-4 cam, along with a tri-power I have, and a five speed behind it. I would think headers and G heads would help the little Y muscle up a bit but what about about a distributor? I know it won't be making great gobs of HP so I was hoping the stock pistons, original lifters, etc would work. Missouri Mike Definitely get the later distributor with mech. advance, a 3x2 set up looks nice but a single small 4 bbl works better (don't go overkill on the carb, as you will see most guys have the best luck with 390 cfm) Stock big port duel exhaust manifolds work nicely on the "G" heads. Make sure you look closely at your rocker assemblies when you have the engine down. I like the idea of the Isky cam, sure makes a nice sound, but you MUST use new lifters. It is a bit of a chore to change the cam, but You can still do this in-frame, you have to have the pan off, along with the front cover and such, and get a set (16) of old wooden style clothespins. Pull the lifters up and clip a pin on each one. When they are all up pull the cam out. Then let the lifters down one at a time and replace them with a new one, holding it in place with the clothespin. Then after coating the new cam generously with cam-lube slip it in, release the lifters, and reassemble. A double roller timing chain would be a nice addition to the project. Make sure when you time the cam you know what you are doing, DON"T line the dots up, and use the right oil when breaking in the cam. This subject has been covered here a few times so I wont repeat. These are just a few suggestions as to what I think I would do, Good luck with what ever you decide to do.  Here is the link to my rocker rebuild video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ZjObWyRJU |
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By ejstith - 17 Years Ago
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That's a cool video. But, how come you threw the tube away? Don't you still have to get the hole in the rocker stand to match the hole in the shaft? How is it pressurized? I guess I missed something there. I put a set of rockers together one time and didn't line the holes up and made a mess of a set of rockers .. I was a Chevy guy workin' on a Y-block.
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By mctim64 - 17 Years Ago
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Watch it again, it show how I shoulder a short bolt to go through the hole and locate the shaft. then the oil is forced to the rockers.  The old way was just to crimp the tube, but I think this way is a little neater.
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