Thanks for the replies. Back in the early 60's I had a '57 Custom 300 4 door with a 312, T-85 3 speed (later a T-10 4 speed), 4:11 rear end and in stock form was a Chevy killer. At overhaul it was bored .060, Crane cam (bought from Harvey Crane himself at Hallendale FL), cut heads, Jahns pistons with a total of about 10.5:1. I had it set up for 2 4bbls, WCFB's, or a single 4bbl off of a '62 Pontiac (AFB). Had a mallory dual point distributor and that was it.



In that form, I don't know what the HP was but it was a killer street machine and an occasional weekend warrior at the ATCO drag strip in NJ. One would not believe the cars (including 335 hp 348 Chevys & 406 Galaxie Fords) this combination put waste to street racing. Of course I was young and foolish at the time so that was a way of life. When I posted this I was just wondering how that could have been such a bad ass machine and not have any more than probably 260 or 270 HP.

Doing Fords for 45 years. '56 Customline Victoria

E.J. in Havana FL

Horsepower numbers and especially those on smaller cubic inch inch engines such as the Y are not really about the peak values but instead the horsepower to cubic inch ratio.  For the Y, a horsepower to the cubic inch is a reasonably easy target on pump gas while still being normally aspirated.  1.3 horsepower to the cubic inch is a good target for a normally aspirated Y race engine using ported oem iron heads.  As Paul mentions, peak horsepower and torque numbers get thrown around very freely and putting thoughts of their accuracy to the side, very rarely is there any mention towards average numbers thoughout a given rpm range.  The numbers at 2500/3000 rpm are as important if not more so than the given numbers at 6000 rpm on a street driver.

Supercharging or turbocharging breaks all the rules as the tuneup along with the amount of boost will dictate exactly how much power is actually attainable with either of these setups.  A Y with 15lbs of boost and on injected alcohol will conservatively push the horsepower to the cubic inch ratio out to 2.25 (775 horsepower) and still live to race another day when built for these kind of power levels.

 

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

ej: Among the most inflated & lied about subjects is how much Horsepower "my" engine makes. It's like Fish stories, usually inflated by at least 20 percent. I hear these inflated figures all the time at Hot Rod shows & so on. I take them with a grain of salt. This situation is fueled by the outrageous stuff we see in the major rod magazines. When I read those articles I always try to read between the lines to see how realistic the claims are, particularly for street engines. As Charlie says, its expensive & requires inside knowledge to get big H.P out of a Y-block. The engine was designed about 55 years ago & has been out of production in N. America for 45 years! But.. it's still a wonderful engine, if it wasn't, our group wouldn't be here..

Paul

It's not hard to get power out of a Y. It's just more expensive due to the relative lack of aftermarket parts.

I think, on the street, most are under 300hp. 300 - 400hp is not uncommon. At the Y-block nationals there are race cars which are probably in the 500+ area. The most powerful is probably Randy's railer which dyno'd at 750+ if I'm remembering right. But they had to stop the dyno pull at some RPM for some reason - and the power was still climbing.

When you consider that we have little to work with, particularly in the head department, as compared to other motors, these power numbers are extremely respectable. Can't wait to see what happens with the new heads.

What's most important for the street is torque. And the Y does not have a problem producing torque.


Lawrenceville, GA

What is the most horsepower ever gotten out of a Y-block? Maybe it's just my perception but it seems to me like it's hard to really make a bunch of hp out of a Y-block compared to other motors.

Doing Fords for 45 years. '56 Customline Victoria

E.J. in Havana FL