Y-Block – Page 5 – Eaton Balancing

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”

Building the foundation for an eight second Y-Block.

When Randy Gummelt and I set out to build a Y engine for his rear engine dragster, the plan was to have an engine combination that would run an eight second quarter mile. And Randy also had his sights on the Australian Y record and with a target of an 8.99 or better et, that plan would achieve both goals. By now, it’s pretty well known that Randy ran a best of 8.15 @ 162mph at the Y Shootout during this past Labor Day weekend at Columbus Ohio so the plan was definitely a good one. Continue reading “Building the foundation for an eight second Y-Block.”

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”