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Florida_Phil
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Group: Forum Members
Last Active: Last Year
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I have everything back together now. I need to connect the exhaust pipes and fill the radiator with anti freeze, but I should have the engine fired by this afternoon. The car now has a 1955 292 .040 short block with 1957 heads, rockers, push rods, intake, Holley carb and distributor. The cam has not been changed. I used the oil baffles from my 1955 heads. The exhaust manifolds are stock 1955 TBird. When I adjusted the valves, I had to screw down the rocker adjustment screws pretty far. This surprised me as I am using the heads, rockers, stands and push rods from the same '57 engine. I think the '55 oil baffles raised the stands a bit. The rocker adjusters are not bottomed out, but it took a lot of turns to get them adjusted. From what I can tell the rocker stands are the same height up or down. My shop manual says there aren't, but the Internet says differently. Should I have used the '55 push rods? Anyway, I'll post again when the car starts and drives. Hopefully soon.
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Ted
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Group: Administrators
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Sounds like you needed longer pushrods if retaining the valve spring baffles. As long as the adjusting screws are still tight in the rockers and there is still some adjustment remaining you should be good to go.
  Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)
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Florida_Phil
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Thanks for the quick reply. We are so lucky to have someone on this forum with your experience. Unfortunately, most Y block gurus are long gone. You're keeping the flame alive.
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Florida_Phil
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I set the valves at .019 and the motor fired right up with no issues. I brought the engine up to operating temperature and checked the head bolt torque. The head bolts were spot on. No coolant leaks so far. There is plenty of oil in the top of the heads, so the pressurized shafts are working. I also removed the passenger side exhaust flapper and replaced it with a straight through part. I don't have time for a test drive right now, but the engine sounds much stronger. The only real issue I had making this swap was the temp sender fitting in the driver side head. NPD sells both fittings. They are near me, so it worked out.
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charliemccraney
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Group: Moderators
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Adding anything that acts as a spacer under the rocker stands, that was not originally used, can have a significant effect on the required pushrod length. The change in adjuster screw positioning required will always be greater than the thickness of the spacer because the adjuster screw rotates away from the pushrod as the stand height is increased. So hypothetically, a .030" change in stand height might require a .040-.045" change in adjuster screw position.
Lawrenceville, GA
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Florida_Phil
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Makes sense. I have never seen the oil baffle plates before. Probably because I've never worked on a 1955 Y Block before. All looks good to me. I guess I could pull the rocker shafts and use the '55 push rods which are suppose to be longer. Now we know why.
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Florida_Phil
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Went for my first drive with the new '57 top end. The car now runs like the Y Blocks I remembered. You can feel that first gear torque and the engine pulls like it should. I'm pretty sure this little TBird would have given a few 283s a run back in the day. I'm starting to worry a little about the brakes. Those drums just aren't cutting it. 
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2721955meteor
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Florida_Phil (10/8/2017)
I am in the process of swapping the heads on my 1955 TBird. The engine is the stock '55 292 .040 over and it runs well. I have a rebuilt set of 1957 G Heads, '57 high ratio rockers with the longer push rods and a 1957 "D' code iron intake with a new Holley 4 barrel. I also have the a set of '57 exhaust manifolds off a passenger car. When I removed the '55 small port heads, they had metal oil baffles under the rocker stands. I worked on a number of Y blocks back in the day and have never seen them before. I assume I should not use them on the '57 heads and rockers? There seems to be a number of thoughts on this. I plan to close the end of the oil drip tubes to pressurize the rockers. I am using Fel Pro blue head gaskets on the '57 heads. What torque readings should I use? Should I re-torque the heads later? I looked at the G heads and the ports are much wider. The valves are also bigger. It will be interesting to see what difference these heads make. To be honest, I do not see much difference in the '55 TBird Exhaust manifolds and the '57 passenger car manifolds. I'm not sure they will fit my TBird and from the looks of them I don't think there is that much performance to be gained. Thanks for you input. gaskets have used felpro gaskets recently with no issues, i spray high tack sealer on both sides,clip the pushrod side to copy best gaskets, use grad 8 cat head bolts. also remove tin flow spacers frome rocker stands a way to compensate for thicker head gaskets.tho my exp is limited to 3engines this year,so not the same history as ted by any means
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MoonShadow
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And this is how it begins. Little better horsepower, little more pull in first, little more looking for scrubs to embarrass, little more brakes (yeah, discs that's the ticket). Your dormant Y-Block genes are coming awake! Get ready for a great ride!
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
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oldcarmark
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Florida_Phil (10/10/2017)
Went for my first drive with the new '57 top end. The car now runs like the Y Blocks I remembered. You can feel that first gear torque and the engine pulls like it should. I'm pretty sure this little TBird would have given a few 283s a run back in the day. I'm starting to worry a little about the brakes. Those drums just aren't cutting it. Nice to see a Picture of your Ride. Looks great. Power Disc Brakes are the way to go. You can expect some negative Comments from some Members on this Site in regards to upgrading your Brakes. I like to Stop NOW which is why I put Discs on mine.
 
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