I am working on a basket-case 55 TBird.  It came to me in parts and I am slowly trying to resurrect it.  It has a 292 YBlock that was sent out to the machine shop, along with the cylinder heads, crank, rods, heads, rockers and valves.  The block and heads were cleaned up and pressure tested.  The block bored 60 over with new pistons and rings.  Heads redone with new valves, springs and rocker shafts.  I got it back and put it all together using the YBlock rebuild book and of course, the various YBlock internet sites.  Got it installed in the frame and wanted to get it started before I started hanging everything else on it. It seemed a little hard to turn over by hand, but I attributed that to the new rings and compression.  When I installed the starter and tried, is seemed to turn over slowly without the plugs in it and very slowly with the plugs in it.  I thought it may be the 60 year old starter, so I rebuilt that...no joy.  So I bought a new 12volt starter and installed that.  A little better, but not spinning it fast enough to start it.  So I went looking for other issues.  I have consistently pressurized the oil system and have oil up to the heads.  Some folks I talked to have suggested the rings might be too tight, but according to my notes, they are within spec.  Others have suggested the pushrods being adjusted too tight.  So, I pulled the valve covers and pulled all the pushrods.  They all look good, but I have 2 different types of pushrods.  One is skinny and solid and the other is fat and tubular..  I think one is old style and one is new... But that got me thinking and I remembered that the block is not original to the car.  My research shows that it is a 1959 292.  The pushrods are for a 1955 292, while 1956 thru 1962 uses slightly shorter pushrods.  The heads are 1955 292 TBird heads.  Could the difficulty in spinning the engine be a result of the pushrods being too long?  If not, then I guess I would need to tear it back down and build it back up again, double checking my clearances on all the bearing surfaces. Thanks for any help or suggestions you may have! Frank

Hi, first check and make sure the flywheel bolts are not to long (Hitting the seal retainer), next (likely) check the cam shaft end play, also make sure the cam plug at the rear of the block is not driven in to far (hitting the cam), the last thing to check did you put the rod caps on correctly? not turned around or switched from rod to rod?

i think you may be back to checking clearances. did you line bore the block and did the crank spin by hand afterwards? same for the cam .

I doubt the push rods would cause this problem.  If so, you would have noticed this when you adjusted the valves.    Did the motor turn over easily when you had it on the engine stand?  Did you check the rod and main clearances?   Did you check the cam end play?   I have seen a few YBlocks where the cam was too tight in the cam bearings.   With the plugs out, you should be able to turn the engine over with a breaker bar by hand.  If not, don't try to start the engine until you find out what's going on. 

Did the crankshaft turn smoothly as you installed each piston. It had to be turned to tighten the end caps. Is the transmission on the back or did you only put the engine in the frame. I was wondering if it’s some transmission interference problem

I don't know if this is going to be any help, but I had the same experience when I rebuilt my y block. I did a stock rebuild. And when I was finally ready to start it, I had a brand new battery I had another vehicle given me a jump, plus I had my battery charger on very high amperage! I finally did get it to start but it was a real struggle! I never did find out what the problem was,all I know it's running fine now. And from me giving it all that extra amperage I burned a starter up and it actually caught on fire on me. So long story short, make sure you don't get your starter to hot.

Was the Engine dis-assembled when You got it? I seem to recall there were 2 different Camshaft Thrust Plates used on Y  Blocks. If the Camshaft end play is less than Specs because the wrong Thrust Plate was used that may be your Problem. With Plugs out You should be able to turn it over using a Ratchet and Socket. If You can't U need to think about rechecking your clearances. Something is wrong Somewhere.

  

I ran into the thrust plate issue when I built my motor.  The motor that came with my TBird was a Frankenstein mixture of parts. I used that block with a double roller timing chain.   When I torqued down the cam bolt, the cam assembly bound up.  Luckily, I had another engine nearby that had never been disassembled.  I swapped cam thrust plates and the cam end play was perfect.  I could have shaved the other thrust plate, but I got lucky.

If you run an engine that binds, it may start.  There is a good chance you will have problems down the road.  Building an engine is about proper assembly and checking clearances.  I never assume a machinist did their job right.  It's better to doubt their work and check it twice.

There are a lot of good responses to this and each one of them needs to be checked and/or eliminated from the list.  Add this to the list.  You don’t mention what transmission but if an automatic, then there’s potentially not enough free play when the transmission was bolted up to the engine with the crankshaft now being jammed up against the main thrust bearing in the block.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thank you all for the responses!  The engine was disassembled when I got it.

I did check the clearances when for the rods and mains when I was assembling.  Also the endplay on the cam.

All good responses, and again, Thank You!  I will start taking it back down and re-checking the everything again. You all have given me a lot to think about.

Frank