Hey all!

We have a 58 292 2v in a 58 F600 we are adding Holley Sniper EFI 2bbl, a HX35 turbo, and the complete Holley Hyper Spark system to it. Before we bought the Holley kit I did a little googling and read multiple times how the SBF and Y block distributor used the same body, I have found this to be extremely wrong haha.

I'm trying to convert this SBF HyperSpark for use in the 57 292, then put it in my luggage with the turbo kit and EFI and fly out to the truck and install it all, drive it back Oregon to Tennessee.

I found a free mock up engine locally, and it wasn't until I got it home, I realized it was the one year only 54 model...so it's use for distributor mock up might be limited. But that's where I need a little help!

Are the 54 blocks the same as the 57 in reference to the distributor hole in the block and distance from the top of the block to distributor gear pad?

Are all Y block distributors 1.500" in diameter where they go in the block?

Luckily the SBF HyperSpark is billet and has enough meat on it, I plan to turn the bottom of the housing down to 1.375", then make a collar, 1.375" ID and 1.500 OD, and then use a adjustable slip collar to set the gear height. Luckily the shaft portion of the housing is long enough to simply facilitate dropping the distributor body into the block until the gear is sitting on the pad. No shaft drilling or gear relocation required!

My concern is if I use this 54 block to set everything up, that it's different in some dimension than my 57 engine on the other side of the country.

I am familiar with the distributor tooth count difference.

I have found the ID of the tang drive hole in the block is slightly smaller than the OD of the hex drive on the end of the distributor.

I have a ‘54 239. When I swapped to a ‘57 and up style distributor, it dropped right in no problem. Well, except for the gear change, oil pump and drive change.

  Dennis in Lititz PA

I've only heard and never checked for myself, regarding most of your questions.  So I will leave most alone.

What I do have direct experience with is fitting a small block duraspark distributor body into my 292.  Aside from casting protrusions on the side, it was a drop in.  The engineering number on it started with E, so 1980 something.  That is for a "Ford" distributor body.  When you start to deal with aftermarket distributors, you may run into problems simply due to differences in available space between the engine designs.  For instance, Che vy style HEI works on a small block but is impossible to fit in a Y.  So if you are finding that it needs significant changes simply to fit into the block, I would suggest that the distributor is either not for a small block or the aftermarket design is too different to be practical to fit, since it was never intended to fit a Y.

I would also suggest that your mock up engine should be setup in the exact same way as the engine in the truck, same valve covers, intake, air cleaner, etc, to ensure that it will fit when you are installing it on the other side of the country.



Lawrenceville, GA

Awesome thanks!

So I think the only other measurement I need is how far the drive shaft protrudes past the bottom of the gear.

Great points charlie. I've read that the SBF is a drop in. I verified the part number on the Holley Distributor is for a 302 SBF. The issue is the main OD that locates the distributor in the block is 1.500" on my 54 Y block, but it's 1.625" on my SBF distributor. This is what led me to ask on here to see if it was a 54 fluke, or something else.

Supposedly, the SBF distributors are shorter that the Y's. and it's the gear location.  The was a big todo abut the Cardone rebuilds as they were using SBF castings for the y's and they were shorter than a Y distributor.  Has this changed ???


54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

I think you'd be better off driving the truck home as is and then install the EFI later. I know of three guys that went the EFI route and all have removed it due to nightmares with it

SE Wis

I'm with Dave- Unless you're filming a TV show for Motortrend TV it would be really bad to break something important because it over-boosted or because some sensor wasn't working correctly.  The EFI bugs would be one thing and adding a turbo setup would just be that much more hassle...unless you really know turbos.  
Just think of everything that could go wrong.  Good drama on the Roadkill show...not so much fun when you just want to get it home.  

100% agree with you! I'm the guy that gets brought all the EFI failures to fix for these guys. You'd be amazed at how bad guys can screw up simple systems! I've fixed a lot of these and can tell you 95% of the issues are installation errors. I've seen fuel lines zip tied to drive shafts, 02 bung leaks, plug wires laying in header tubes, vacuum booster ports left open, distributor rotor phasing wrong, bad alternators etc etc etc. We actually bought this 2bbl system for $200 with the distributor and everything as "the module is bad, won't read tach signal", we got it home and all it needed was a firmware update, the first page in the Holley manual....works like a charm now. The common joke is "just needs a little tuning" or the older version "carb problems" haha.

Since covid we did get bit with a brand new bad Terminator ECU. Always fun to get a new engine on the dyno that just pops and bangs. But other than that we've only had little quirks like the Holley CTS issues which are common.

Our EFI will be bench tested on our distributor machine and base line tune loaded and test fired if I can find another donor engine that isn't a 54 lol.

Honestly I thought Roadkill was a documentary on a branch of our family haha.

I totally agree that doing an EFI swap comes with challenges, adding a turbo comes with challenges, driving a 58 F600 from Oregon to Tennessee Comes with challenges. But pussies will never be heros! Haha

My wife and I have swapped cranks over night in a parking lot. I guess we love work and hate sleep and money.

The turbo will be very low boost, like 3-5psi. It's mainly going on for a couple of reasons. #1, she likes the noise. #2 it would be nice to do 55mph up hill empty. #3 it made her Grandpa chuckle when we talked about it. Honestly it's as much decoration as anything else.

The EFI has multiple boost protection features to cut fuel and spark. Both are set up in the tune already. One of the reasons for swapping to the Hyper Spark is so we have full control of the timing through the ECU to mitigate the detonation risks of a stick weight, blown diaphragm etc. We could use a drop in MSD distributor and get the same features, but that wouldn't be as fun and unique and adapting the Hyper Spark. Plus the HyperSpark looks better IMO.

The original carb and distributor will come along in a storage box for emergencies if needed. I also have a pipe to replace the turbo if it fails so we can simply remove it, bolt the pipe to header flange and exhaust and run N/A.

YOU GUYS ARE 100% CORRECT, THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA FOR MOST PEOPLE!