Hello.
So, this is my second summer i am driving my stock rebuilded 272, and it geting boring. I have been thinking about building a new y with some more power. I have never build a perfomence engine before, so i am pretty fresh at performnce tech. Can any one give me some advise and tech on this term ? What block should i use ? It looks like a 312 is begining difficult to find. A friend off mine have 292 in his garasje, what could i get out off that block ? I have another friend with a 66 chevrolet chevelle, he is building some hi tech crap out off. I want to beat him so baad with my old foord!!

Best regards
Robin Norway

Hello Robin

Can you tell us if your car is a manual transmission 3 speed or O/D 3 speed or a Ford O Matic?

Your friend will have 350 cubin inches to power his Chevelle so at least a 292 and if it is a FOM you really do not have much chance to beat him.

The guys here will tell you all the secrets. Good luck Pete

Robin: You've come to the right place for help. However, you need to get some basics down to help yourself. First, do you have a Factory manual? Then you might want to obtain a copy of the book Ford Y-Block by James Eickman, 1984, Motor Books International.(try the internet) It's not a perfect book, having a couple of mistakes in it & one or two controversial suggestions also, but is the only aftermarket book available. Caution, some bad reprints were issued a few years ago, so shop carefully. Also peruse a link from here.. Ford-Y-Block.com Also consider linking from here and signing up for Y-Block Magazine.. Hope this info helps.

Paul

Use the 292 if that is what you have, it will bore out to 301 cu in, (0.060" oversize), isky e4 cam, B 4 barrel manifold, 465-600 cfm Holley, set of twin exhaust manifolds and a 59-61 distributor ( the one with the bent arm on the vacuum canister).

This will fire your old girl up without being to radical, from there it all depends on you and the depth of your pockets. You can chase up all the good bits while you are driving yours now. A set of G heads with 1.54:1 rockers would be nice too.

Just fitting the twin exhaust will wake her up substantially.

Regards

Rick - West Australia
Do Y Blocks Downunder run upside down? Gravity Sucks!!

Pete, the trans is a fordo matic. But it is in bad condition, so i was thinking about a new trans regards on how the engine turns out. I guess it is a manuall trans that is the thing if you building a performence engine ? i Have also thinking about a Ford 9" rear end!

Thank to you other guys, i will se if i can get hold off that book! The 292 have the same casting number as a 312, but i dont think it is a 312 beacause off the 2 barell intake. My pocket aint that big at the moment, but a will first try to take a look at that block and take it from there. At the moment it is no rush, the car is runing and we are speaking off a project that will take some years and a lot off money.



Best regards

Robin Norway

Robin:

Since you are going to be driving the car as is for a while, I would suggest you upgrade the distributor now.  The added response and fuel mileage will make you feel a lot better about the car, and then the distrubutor can be transferred to your new engine when the time comes.  That old loadamatic system leaves a lot to be desired.  You could also upgrade the exhaust now too.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

I did some dyno testing a couple years ago that you might find helpful in deciding what upgrades to make



My engine was a bone stock 292 with G heads and 2bbl carb from a 58 Ford. Factory rated at 215 hp



I left the short block un touched but added a 215 degree cam and 57 4bbl intake



it made 225 hp on the dyno with stock exhaust manifolds and a 600 Holley carb.



We added headers and it made 240 hp.



Changing the intake to a Blue Thunder made 250 hp



Later I made some more changes and retested:



I changed the Cam to 230 degree. Used a shim head gasket to raise compression. I had the G heads street/strip ported. Testing was with dyno style headers and the Blue Thunder intake and a 750 Holley



It made right at 300 horsepower.



After consulting a few guys I made one final test where I ran the cam 4 degrees retarded instead of 4 degrees advanced. Final best number was 325 horse.



Your buddy is probably making 275 horse with a relatively stock 350 scrub in a good state of tune. However he can open the Summit catalog and buy bolt on parts to get him over 400 horse pretty easily. You can get a Y block there also but it will take some coin, and I sense that is not in the cards



Best bang for the buck is a stock rebuilt 292 Short block. If you could find a 312 crank cheap, use it..It would be worth about 20 horse at the power level you will be running. Spend a little extra and get the heads bowl ported and a good valve job. Use the 57 cast iron intake. Spend some money to get some headers. Use a 500 cfm carb, but if you have access to a cheap 600 Holley,(they are everywhere, as Holley has made 10s of thousands of them), it will work fine. You still have to contend with your soggy Ford-o-Matic and cruiser rear gears, but that's another whole project. You can tell your buddy you have a stock 272 when you suprise him with how quick your car is.

Rb-John. Regards on the ignition and exhaust, thats a great idea. I have dual exhaust on my ford, headers would probably be the next step ? So iff i understand right a 312 crank will fit in a 292 ? It also sounds like i need some G heads, what is special with these heads ? and iff the heads have "G" in the cast number does it mean that it is a G head ? The dyno test you did RB gives me a little clue off what to shoot at. If i could get a y with 400hp, i will spend the money to get there. But it will take some time. But thats fine as long i can drive the car with the stock 272. The 66 chevelle are waiting on a brand new chevy smal block, it is not a 350. I have heard him talked about 500hp. But its not that bad, the old ford will suprise him enough to not joke about y powered cars again!



Regards

Robin Norway

Yes, it is a common upgrade to use the 312 crank in a 292 block. .



Here is a good 400 hp combination to shoot for. This would make your friend sit up and take notice. This is cut and pasted from a Feb 1 2012 post by Ted Eaton. The engine belongs to the site administrator Jim Culver.. This is a pump gas street engine An example of what can be achieved with a Y Block. There is a link to the dyno video in Jim and Ted's postings



[And here’s just a tad bit more info on Jim’s 318” Y. We were rewarded with peak values of 429 horsepower and 388 ft/lbs torque and it didn’t take a whole lot to get there. The engine is a 292 block bored +060 (3.810” bore) and a 292 crankshaft offset ground to 3.480” stroke. The heads are unmodified Mummert aluminum units while the intake is a stock out of the box Blue Thunder. The carburetor for the 429HP run was a 750 vacuum secondary Holley. The static compression ratio is right at 10.0:1 while the camshaft is a custom Isky grind that has 270° advertised, 242° at 0.050”, and is ground on 107° lobe centers. The camshaft itself is installed at 2½° advance.]





[I’ll add that even at 318 cubic inches, the 750 carb that was being used is sized just about right as the 625 cfm carb that was also tested was showing a vacuum increase in the upper rpm band. That by itself is a very good indicator that that particular carb was undersized while the horsepower increase with the larger carb was another indicator. There will be a full article with more details about this engine in a forthcoming issue of the Y-Block Magazine. ]