Hello. Do anyone have some idea why my yblock wont fire. I have newly rebuild the engine, but it wont fire. I have ligned the distrubator upp, and all the wires are in the corectly firing order. But my carburator is leaking. The one off the gasket off the bottom og the carburator are leaking. But anyway, i belive that the fuel who comes into the sylinder would be enough to make it fire. I have checked that the spark plugg haves spark. I am out off ideas at this point. Also, i have cranked the engine a couple time, but cant se any oiling at the rockers. Do the engine need a little more RPM before the pressure would push the oil upp to the rockers ? I am shure i have mounted the rockers the right way. The oiling outlet tube is at the right hand off me when i am looking stright down at the rockers. This is a 6V electrical system ins this car. Please advice, cant wait to rev upp that Yblock )

Some of the other veterans will probably bite on this but I'll take a shot...

First of all, welcome to the site. This is a great place to connect with all of us Y block enthusiasts! Your question(s) may not be solely Y block, but almost sound like what anyone would face with firing up an engine.

to get back to basics, you definitely need 3 things to get an engine to fire - 1. air/fuel mix   2. spark   and 3. compression.

Is the carb putting fuel down into the intake, or is that leak just a symptom of a carburetor that has more issues? I would expect so. Definitely take care of that leaking carb before firing anything up!

You said you have spark, so that seems to be taking care of. The only thing I would say to do is that you need to double check the distributor orientation and make sure you are on the money and not 180 degrees out. (Bring up cylinder #1 to Top Dead Center, and put distributor in so that the rotor is right on #1 spark plug wire)

For compression, if you haven't done a compression test, I would have to ask what all did you do for the rebuild? some fellas have different definitions of what a rebuild is...did you do anything to the engine concerning the heads/camshaft/valve timing, etc? I would assume so. If you have the crankshaft dampener containing the rubber insert (just about all of them do) that separates the timing ring/belt groove from the assembly, you need to know that those timing rings have a tendency to slip and your timing marks could be way off from what you think you have.

can you post any photos of your engine and your car/truck?

hope this helps you out

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

one last thing about the oil pressure....take a drill and a 1/4" extension to place on the oil pump shaft (tape your socket to your extension!). After removing the distributor, operate your drill counter clockwise to see if any oil will come to the rocker shafts and out your end tubes. You should see oil after a few seconds - provided you have pre-filled your oil filter and primed your oil pump ahead of time. Keep in mind that the cross-drilled center journal camshafts will need to be rotated to a position where the oil supply hole can line up correctly with the center bearing. Once that happens, you should have seen oil flow to both sides. For the grooved center journal camhshaft, this is not an issue.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

About the fuel leak on the carburator. I would say it is bad, if you pour some fuel into the carburator and the port on the carburator is almost closed, the fuel will drain stright out of the gasket. Maiby the gasket is dried out ? The carburator have not been in use for some years. Everyting in the engine have been changed, the sylinder have been bored and is now 0,60. I have not taken any compression test, but i guess it is okay since its new pistons and rings. But you dont now anyting shure. I have not mounted the short block, a local shop have done that. I have just completed the long block and mountet into the car. everyting is cleaned with toughts on the oiling. But i will try the drill on the shaft to see what happen. Also, i will check the dist when i have it out to check the oiling. I cant find any marks to align the dist to on the block. But i find the the mark on the dist body, and have aligned the rotor against that mark. The number 1 piston was at 6BTDC when i mounted the dist.

I would rebuild that carb first. Is the carb the old Holley 94, with an ECG on the side? 2 barrel, 3 bolt mounting flange, right? If the gaskets are dried out, odds are so is the plunger for the accelerator pump, and so when you give it a couple of quick pulls on the linkage, no gas is actually being squirted into the barrels?

That is a CLEAN looking block and assembly - nice! I can see that you have early heads from the core plugs on the ends...therefore you probably have a cross-drilled camshaft, so that may be why your are not seeing any oil yet to the rockers. But, I would not fire that engine until you are sure that you are getting oil out the overflow tubes on both sides.

About the distrbutor...I think on most Y dizzy's you won't find any marks for alignment on the housing, but you will find the number "1" marked on the cap. Transfer the cap indication to your dizzy housing and that will give you number one so that you can look at the rotor move up on that cylinder. If you do have a number one cylinder mark on your distributor, double check that with what is on your cap...

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

One other thing that looking at your good photos reminded me about...

The Y block is also known for its different timing gears and chain where the dots on the cam gear and crank gear are mounted not facing each other (up and down), but facing to the drivers side of the vehicle with 12 pins between the two?

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Well, we will all try and help but need to establish baseline of important settings etc, one of my thoughts is the valve lash clearance, have you set the tappets at approx .018" in the correct timing sequence? then check #1 piston is at top dead center when both the valves are shut, then check rotor button faces #1 on the cap. just basics but so important, all this right will fireup in some manner.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Because of the cross drilled cam you will need to rotate the crankshaft while turning the oil pump shaft to get oil to both sides. You can have a friend rotate the crank as you turn the shaft.

Did you use the front cylinder on the passenger side as number 1? Thats a common mistake that many people new to the Y-Block have made. This may not be your problem but I thought it was worth a mention. Don't overthink this. It's often best to back off for a while and start at the basics. Do any of your friends have a carb you can borrow? Good luck, Chuck in NH

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Also please post your location in the text or your tag line. It helps to know if any of us is close to you. Chuck in NH

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

The block is looking nice, i dont get tired seing the old Y. You have right about the carb, it have two mounting nuts in the front and one in the back. I dont know it is a holley, it is marked with ford on it. And no gas is actually come into the itake when i give it some gas. But i have tried to pour some gas stright into the carburator to be shure it get gas. I do now understand i am pretty green on the y block when i am talking to you guys, but thats fine, i am just learning more to talk to you. I agree i have to be shure that the oil come out off the tube, i will try what you say with the drill. I have replaced the cam on this engine, the original cam do have cros drilled journal. The new one have center journal. And yes, i have been shure to have 12 pins between the marks on the timing chain, the marks should also point at the oil filter. thats what i read me to from the shop manual and chilton. After i mounted the chain, i make 2 turns to se if the marks where at the same place and the number one piston was at tdc. Both valves where closed. I have adjusted the lash to 0,19. This was the hot adjust, do it have to be 0,18 to be the cold adjust ?