Is it too soon to start asking questions about possible entrants in the Vintage class this year? Ted are you building a Y-block this year? Royce? Anyone else?

As a matter of fact is there even a competition this year? I’ve heard precious little.

Chomping at the bit here. Love to see the great numbers put up by you guys with engines the scrub lubbers laugh at.

Thanks and good luck!

Yes, there is an EMC scheduled for the first week in October at JE Pistons Facility in Mentor Ohio.  The Vintage class has/had three Y block entries.  The horsepower numbers will be down this year simply because they require engine belt driven mechanical water pumps, no velocity stacks.   Joe Craine will run third on Monday with a 375 Y, Jerry Christensen is scheduled fourth with a Y, Ted Eaton scheduled to run fifth with a 403 Y.  Royce will be partnering with Jon Kaase on another MEL to run on Tuesday.   Dyno testing has started for Joe, still in progress, Ted will be going on soon.  Real problem with parts suppliers, but things are falling into place for two Ys for sure.   Expect Ted to set a new Normally Aspirated horsepower and torque record with a true Y block.  Joe-JDC   

JDC

If Ted is likely to set new records, then it seems like power will be up.  Do you mean that it will be lower than it would be otherwise because of the restrictions this year?


Lawrenceville, GA

Aw man this is great news, 3 Y’s and a MEL. I constantly marvel how strong a showing the Y- blocks put out in this class. Glad to hear this will continue.

I realize that the Mummert cylinder head and intake manifold are a huge help and some of the other brands don’t have an aluminum head available.

I know however that the early Olds and Pontiac have an aluminum head available, the Cad, Buick and Mopar Poly not so much which astounds me since they seemed to be embraced by lots of 50’s hot rodders.

No it seems the most unlikely (according to popular opinion back then) engine design has risen to the top or near the top on all three prior Vintage competitions. Of course in large part due to the excellent builders of these Ford’s. For one year I’d like to see the Vintage class open to any engine up to 1957 (including the sbc and the hemis) with 1957 or earlier factory cast iron cylinder heads and blocks.

I’d love to see exactly where each engine would fall in a true factory shootout.

I hope it all leads to mainstream manufacturers making products for Ys.  Some of them do for other vintage engines, which have yet to show at the competitions, which typically has a roster dominated by Ys, with Y's finishing toward the top, if not the top.  It baffles me how they find it worthwhile for those others, but not the Y, particularly with the Engine Masters results objectively verifying, for all to see, that it is an extremely capable performance engine.

A true factory shootout with all makes could be interesting.  The key there is how factory is defined.  If it's open to any factory part, then the SBC very likely dominates and there would probably be a lot of them, making it kind of boring.  There is simply no replacement for the 40 years of development that it had.  Like it or hate it, that's just tough to beat with neglected old iron.  However, if they put a limit on the era that the parts come from for any engine which had development go on beyond the date range of the competition, that would make it interesting.  A potential issue there is how easy a task it is to confirm during tear down of the engine that all parts are legal.  If it is as simple as date codes in every instance, then no problem but if expert knowledge is required, then it could be a deal breaker.


Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie that’s why I think it should be factory castings. Maybe even factory cranks and rods. I’d like to see how specifically the Ford, Merc and Lincoln Y’s which were much malingned in those days, stack up against the competition which was mostly embraced and unfortunately installed in the engine bays of the majority of Ford bodied hot rods.

Yes I admit I'd like some redemption and restitution for that unfortunate phenomenon.

I don't think you understood what I was trying to say.  Depending on how it is defined, a factory SBC could potentially use any factory casting into the 1990s.  Even if the aftermarket never produced anything for an SBC, there is still that 40 years of factory development by the.  That is just about impossible for a vintage engine with little development to beat and would not really work without a firm date beyond which even factory castings are no longer allowed.


Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie what I meant is to restrict the competitors to the castings available in the 1950’s. This would illustrate the potential of each engine design as they were originally.

If those rules were imposed we’d see the raw potential of each of the manufacturer’s first OHV V8 designs at the flywheel without the blurred effect of the chassis and track conditions.

It is kind of common knowledge among drag race enthusiasts that the Mopar hemis were blessed with the best breathing. While that may be true with a blower and exotic fuel, I’d like to see how they do on gasoline and naturally aspirated which is of course what they were designed for.

I feel like Fords were under appreciated and under utilized in the hot rod classes like Gassers and Altereds etc. For one thing the Ford and Lincoln Y’s had a very strong cylinder block with good oiling. The things had decently thick cylinder walls and of course a skirted bottom and the top was tied together as well. You see this on modern day LS engine’s which are capable of holding good power.

The cylinder heads are what scared guys off I think because they were unconventional. I think there was more there than meets the eye initially. Especially in the combustion chamber area I think Ford was very advanced. Several books I’ve read on the Y credit the combustion chamber characteristics for their ability to tolerate higher compression ratios. I think this is true and I’d love to see some of these scenarios played out by good engine builders that know how to extract these potentials.

Maybe so but round shaped flamerings in head gaskets would make living much easier when hunting the horses out of Y.


Hyvinkää, FI

A round flame ring would not work unless you got all the combustion chamber inside the cylinder bore.  The combustion chamber is the real problem to making better horsepower with the Y in stock configurations.  Joe-JDC

JDC