John Wilson, a long time Y Blocker (went on his honeymoon in a 57 ford) was a High School Machine Shop teacher here in central AL for many years. He told me that he always used a Y Block in his classes and still has the work table that he used. It has fixtures to hold the various parts.

Glen Henderson



Freedom is not Free

Letohatchee, AL

Dan:

By "rear main cap", do you mean the cap for the main bearing, or the cap that holds the rear oil seal?  They are separate pieces on a Y, unlike many other engines.  The cap for the seal is aluminum.

John in Selma, IN

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Dan: Hopefully your project will result in some young blood coming into a generally aging group of Ford Y-Block enthusiasts. About the Rocker Arms, the ones you have are generally the 1.54 ratio, but recently a few of that casting number have been brought to our attention that are the 1.43 ratio. You might want to flip back a bit in recent blurbs on the subject. Main thing in your case is probably to have a matched set. Good luck with the project..

Paul

yes I need the aluminum piece that holds the oil seal-

does a shop manual (or somewhere?) have specs for the lifters so I can measure them and see if they are useable?

we found this enine in our storage shed, looks like an abandoned project-

according to what little research I've done I think these are the 1:5 ratio rockers as they have the numbers cast into the end where the adjuster goes-

thanks for the help and info!

a real quick measurement (lifters havent been cleaned up) shows a diameter of .499 and a length of 2.382 - is this within reason?

Y Block Billy,



I think you are correct about Y-Blocks and High School Auto Shop. We actually had three 292's and a couple of flat heads. One of the Y-Blocks was on a stand and it ran. We used it to practice tune ups. The other engines were used for "rebuilding". Believe it or not but those engine were taken apart and put back together again so many times the cylinders actually were wearing out and had a ridge at the top on the cylinders.





Johnson Rod



Southern California

I wonder how many are still kicking around high schools?? Maybe someone should do a survey, there may be an abundance of them sitting in classroom closets.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

The shaft diameter of the lifter sounds okay but wear in this particular area is typically not a problem whereas wear on the lifter face itself is.  Putting a straight edge on the lifter face and insuring that it is higher in the middle than the outside edges is a rudimentary method for checking for lifter wear.  If the lifter is flat or is actually lower in the middle than the edges, then lifter wear is evident and at this point should be replaced.

 

As a general rule when using used lifters, always keep the lifters associated with the same lobes of the camshaft when reusing them.  It’s risky and not recommended in using used lifters on other camshafts or switching them around in an engine on lobes they were not originally broke in on.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Well brought our engine to the machine shop yesterday to get it checked out. Machinist reports it has .017 taper. I plan to build it to 292 specs so he feels we can work with this block. Getting exciting - the actual work is beginning 

Being a school shop you may have access to a lathe. I put my lifters in a lathe chuck and a dial indicator on the tool post and run it back and forth to check the crown of the lifters

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?