The much awaited for Mummert aluminum cylinder heads for the 292/312 Ford Y-Block engines are now a reality and have been tested on the DTS engine dynamometer. With no modifications these new heads were found to be worth a solid 56 horsepower increase over the stock “G’ heads with only the heads being swapped out on the test engine. Continue reading “Ford Y-Block Aluminum Head Testing Part I”
Tag: 312
Ford Y-Block Aluminum Head Testing Part II
With the aluminum versus iron cylinder head baseline dyno testing completed, there were some other variables that were begging to be evaluated before removing the Mummert aluminum heads from the Ford 312 Y-Block test engine. These included increased ratio rocker arms and a variety of intake manifolds and/or carburetion setups. Continue reading “Ford Y-Block Aluminum Head Testing Part II”
Modifying the Holley 94 two barrel for late model distributors
The Holley 94 and 2100 two barrel carbs came as the standard equipment 2 barrel carbs on the 1938 thru 1956 Fords. When converting the distributors on the Y-Block Ford engines from the original Load-O-Matic (LOM) design to the later model Ford (1957 and up) distributors, the Holley 94’s original distributor vacuum port for the distributor will supply an excess of negative pressure or vacumm signal to the late model distributors. Continue reading “Modifying the Holley 94 two barrel for late model distributors”
The Ford Y-Block engine
This is a first in a series of articles about engine families and their history/ idiosyncrasies. Eaton Balancing offers services for all types of engines. Continue reading “The Ford Y-Block engine”
Warped Rear Seal Retainer on a Y
It’s simply amazing how many times the rear crankshaft seal gets blamed for an oil leak when there are so many other places at the back of the block that can either be the root cause or at least a contributor. The rear oil seal retainer on the Y-Block is just one of these items that more often than not gets overlooked when it comes time to address an oil leak at the rear of the engine. Continue reading “Warped Rear Seal Retainer on a Y”
Neoprene Rear Seal Installation for the Y (and others)
Y-Blocks would appear to have garnered a reputation for marking their territory when sitting still and so one of the most often asked questions is how to stop those pesky oil leaks at the rear of the engine. Because most of these are in the area of the rear main oil seal, I’ll go through the steps I take to insure that the back end of the engine is buttoned up securely during the rebuild thereby minimizing any oil leaks from this area. Because I use the rubber or neoprene rear main seals exclusively in those Y buildups that I do, I’ll only go into detail on using these seals and not the ‘rope’ style of seal. While neoprene seals are available from several gasket manufacturers for the 272/292 engines, only Best Gasket offers a made to fit neoprene rear seal for the larger mained 312 engine. Continue reading “Neoprene Rear Seal Installation for the Y (and others)”
Engine Masters Challenge Y-Block Entry for 2007
The idea for entering a Y into Popular Hot Rodding’s Engine Masters Challenge competition was prompted by discussions on the Y-Blocks Forever website. I sent off the application form and was ultimately assigned the alternate #15 position which meant as the participants within the first thirty competitors either dropped out or failed to qualify then the alternates would be moved up the list. I realized early on that actually making the competition from alternate #15 was a very slim chance based on what I had seen in previous year’s competitions but would give it a go. There were some heavy hitters actually placed after myself in the alternate list so that did give some consolation. Continue reading “Engine Masters Challenge Y-Block Entry for 2007”
Blueprinting for an eight second Y-Block
Like any engine that’s in its planning stages, particular care must be paid to that engines intended use in order to select the correct parts and maintain those clearances that would be considered optimal for that combination. In the case of the blown engine for Randy Gummelt’s rear engine dragster, I’ve already covered some of the parts selection as well as the main support girdle construction in previous articles. At this point, I’ll cover in more detail some of the specific clearances and specialized machine work that was required to make Randy’s engine a reality. Continue reading “Blueprinting for an eight second Y-Block”