My neighbor has a 53 Ford sedan he is selling.  It has an I6 motor now.  How easy or hard does a Y go into this year car, and what motor mount method would be used?

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Mike,

           I've wondered that also, seems like the '53's sell for less than the '54's. I'd almost bet that all the '54 mounts crossmembers, etc. will fall right into a '53.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

I noticed on an ebay description of a Canadian '54 Ford that the flathead motor was still used in '54, for cars built in Canada.  So it seems like you said Frank, that the '53 and '54 frames should be alike, except for maybe some extra mounting points for the flathead cars.  Didnt the '54 239 Y use a front motor mount instead of the side mounts?

I am going to go over and take a closer look at the car.  It is far from cherry, and has been sitting out in rain and snow all winter.  I took a ride in the car late last summer.  It may be silly to be thinking about this, but my 318 292 is going to need a home before too long. 

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Hmm, gasser style, straight front axle, big radius wheel wells, slicks, Pipe rear bumper, no front bumper. Gee sounds good to me!

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

Looks like 52-53 frames are different than 54 frame. Here is pictures of them from parts manual.

Tero from Nurmijarvi, Finland

56 Country Sedan, 61 F-100, 61 F-600, 55 F-620, 52 Mercury

http://www.dlc.fi/~teros

http://www.y-block.info

http://www.hollowheads.net

http://www.fordnationals.net

46Yblock:

From what I remember, this is a fairly difficult swap as swaps go.  First, you'll need a T-Bird pan.  Then, unless you carve away some of the front crossmember, you'll still have to section the front of the pan.  You'll also need a dropped drag link.  Maybe you could carve enough of the front crossmember away to use a front sump pan.  Then you wouldn't need the dropped drag link.  The flathead front mounts are of no use, Bruce at Y-Block magazine did this swap a long time ago, he used the second crossmember with the mounts from a '54-'56 car, cut to fit and welded in.  I don't know if rear outlet exhaust manifolds cause a problem with the steering box/column or not, but they may.  But don't let me discourage you from doing this project.  It can and has been done.

John

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Wow the front of the frames do look much different, and the 53 crossmember looks massive compared to the 54.  I wonder if most all could be removed and a FE style underpan crossmember/mount welded in place.

Good point of concern regarding reardump manifolds and the steering column.  That would not be cool.  I have suffered from the same issue in the 46.  But surely the two generations of frame are the same width? 

A gasser style would be neat.  Or just leave it looking like gramp's old car, with a surprise under the hood .

Thanks for the responses,

Mike

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Like Moonshadow said, 2x4 front frame clip, straight axle, black primer, piece of cake and way cool.

Glen Henderson



Freedom is not Free

Letohatchee, AL

When I was a kid I did this change on a 52 Customline I cut into the top of the front crossmember to fit stock pan I had a standard tranny so I used the stock tranny location and set the engine and tranny in as a unit and made my own engine mounts and the only other problem I remember was the ball for the Z bar was missing on the Y block I had  I used stock exhaust manifolds. This was only 40 years ago so if you take you time it will work

Mike,

     I didn't realize there would be that much to it. Maybe pick it up, make it run and swao for a '54 when you get a chance. 

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart)