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By Roothawg - 15 Years Ago
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Hey guys, I reently acquired a 57 Ford Wagon for the wife that will double as a tow vehicle for our nostaligia drag car. The original engine is a little tired and smokes some when first started. I plan on driving it until it gets too bad, but in the meantime I would like to build up a spare. Just curious what you would build if you were starting from scratch and what mods you would do to the Yblock? Thanks Root
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By grovedawg - 15 Years Ago
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Everything you can to SQUEEZE horsepower and torque out of her. You can do all of the traditional things to every other motor. Bore it out a little, stroke the crank, offset grind the crank and run aftermarket rods. Run stock rods and have a custom piston made to the correct compression height. You can buy a great kit that will do all the "hard" stuff (so you can just bolt it all back together) from John Mummerts Y Block website.
Really, it boils down to how much money you are willing to spend, and how radical of an engine you want. But the sky is the limit, and this website, along with a few others is a HUGE resource. Good luck, and keep us posted.
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By BFOOTER03 - 15 Years Ago
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I second dawg. Money will drive your decision. You can put a price on a new engine or rebuilding the one you have but having something different that not every other car has is priceless in my opinion.
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By Metal Ghost - 15 Years Ago
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Hey dawg...glad you made it over here! Between this site and the HAMB, you should get a lot of good information. I'll second that there's a lot of great hardware over at the 'ford-y-block.com' site for 272s, 292, and 312s, but especially the 292s and 312s. If you think you want to upgread any parts, you may want to check there 1st.
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By Ol'ford nut - 15 Years Ago
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The key word here is you want a good tow vehicle. So well building an engine up is great you don't want to lose your torque. More cubic inches is always nice, but don't go too far. There is a reason why the truck engines had smaller valves and a 2 bbl carb. I would take a look at my rear gear for pulling (and springs) before worrying about a 4 bbl carb, changing the cam, etc. You could free up the exhaust with duals.
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By mctim64 - 15 Years Ago
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Hey Root! Good to see you made it over. Welcome! 
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By grovedawg - 15 Years Ago
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Ol'ford nut (9/16/2010)
The key word here is you want a good tow vehicle.
I think cam selection will help out there as well. You can talk to folks around here who are much more educated on good low end torque cam grinds ^^^ Tim is one, as well as John and Ted, and maybe even the Ol' Ford Nut.  If you want bottom end the Y can give you all you more than enough and then some!
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By Roothawg - 15 Years Ago
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Just found a 292 with a 4 barrel intake partially disassembled for $100. He said the motor was .030 over and the heads are off. Anything I need to be leary of? Apparently this guy died mid project. No one knows why it is apart. It has a truck bellhousing on it. I figure the parts should be worth a hundred bucks alone.
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By charliemccraney - 15 Years Ago
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If the intake is ECZ-9425-B and in good condition then it's definitely worth $100. The rest is icing on the cake.
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By grovedawg - 15 Years Ago
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Recently acquired 57 wagaon, and a $100 spare block! Nice work duder!
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By Ted - 15 Years Ago
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Roothawg (9/15/2010)
Just curious what you would build if you were starting from scratch and what mods you would do to the Yblock?Your basic rebuild where you bore for new pistons and turning the crankshaft restores the critical clearances back to spec. Align honing the mains and machining the decks are also recommended. The block modifications themselves for what your wanting to do is going to be around the oiling system. If pressurizing the rocker arms, then putting a small hole in the block behind the cam thrust plate and grinding a matching channel in the cam thrust plate to direct oil to the timing chain would be recommended. Port work on the heads always helps but don’t overcam as you want to keep low end torque strong for towing. The other oil mods reside around an adequate amount of oil to the topend of the engine. One option is to insure that the center groove on the camshaft is wide and deep enough to do this. But make sure you’re using a ‘hard’ set of cam bearings. Using a ‘soft’ set simply allows the camshaft to wear into the cam bearing material and shut off the oil supply to the top simply by pinching off the oil supply at the center cam journal groove. The way around this is to just put a groove connecting the three holes in the block behind the center cam bearing which circumvents the oil having to travel in the groove of the camshaft. Doing this may require the use of a restrictor at the top of the head as this particular mod does increase the amount of oil going to the top end significantly. Here is a collection of links going into some of the various oiling mods. Center cam bearing Grooving the center cam hole in the block Pressurized rocker shafts Pressurized rocker shaft more Pressurized timing chain oiling Rocker arm overflow tubes Cons Rocker arm overflow tubes Pros Rocker arm overflow tube More Pros Timing chain oil trough Adding lifter valley holes for camshaft oiling Drilling additional holes for oiling and/or venting Valley holes for aiding crankcase evacutation
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By Roothawg - 15 Years Ago
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I bought the 292, or at least I hope it's a 292. For a hundred bucks I figured I would gamble. I can save that on core charges. I'll post info when I get it unloaded.
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By Roothawg - 15 Years Ago
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These are the casting numbers I have. Intake-ECZ-9425A Heads have a lot of numbers. 6090A COAE? Block- B9AE- 59 passenger car/Truck 292
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By charliemccraney - 15 Years Ago
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That's very likely a late '59 or early '60 passenger car 292 which has had the '56 intake swapped to it. The engine probably had a 2v intake when new. The heads and block are the exact numbers that mine had when I pulled it from a '59 Fairlane.
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By grovedawg - 15 Years Ago
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The mix-and-match hodge-podge of Y block motors. I've got three motors and not one of them had all original matching parts. No, not one. But I love em all anyway!
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By Roothawg - 15 Years Ago
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It's kinda weird. It has a big oil pressure gauge screwed right into the side of the block and it has the front mount, like maybe this was in a truck. Someone had done some work on it in the past, the fan blade and front mount were chrome, although rusty now. Someone had painted the lifter valley too.
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