For you Y-Block experts out there. I have a 56 F-500 with a 272 in it. I want to pull a bit more power out of it. How hard would it be and, is it advisable to use a turbo or blower?

 

chang heads, 4v manifoldand carb,inst 1957 and later dist with cent advance.
later 57 and up dist. they can easley be converted to dura spark ingn. heads from 56 292 4v would help.eczs 57heads have to big of intakes and interfear unless the engine has over size bores.

 

I ran my old 56 272 for years with nothing more than a "B" manifold and 390 CFM Holley. Sure changed how it ran from the old carb & manifold. PO had already installed the newer distributor so I just added a PETRONIX Ignitor and flamethrower coil. And deep sixed the oil bath air filter.

 

Howdy Steve,

That F500 is a cool truck! This question might better discussed in the Y-block forum but there is actually a lot you can do to your 272 (including boring it out and stroking it)

All of it will cost a fair amount of money. I had my 292 rebuilt, balanced, and had the heads ported (the shop called mild "street porting"). The machine shop decked the block and milled the heads sufficient to make everything flat etc and the shop owner told me I would probably need to use "midgrade" fuel.

I am also pretty sure you can easily rebuild/bore a 272, make it essentially a 292, and stroke it using one of the kits indicated above. But I am not sure I would want to stroke a medium duty truck engine.

Also, you can get much better performance if you get yourself a 2-speed axle and/or use an automatic transmission (I am going to use an E4OD out of an F450 + the tail mounted brake)

You can turbo or supercharge , but you'd have to make all your plumbing. I would absolutely rebuild the engine in that case and maybe focus on lower compression to prevent detonation.

I bought a new 390 Holley complete with throttle position sensor (for transmission control) .........I'm getting close to start-up this year after having not worked on this thing for quite some time!

Cheers,


Rick

 

BangShift.com twin turbo 292 y block..........721 hp at the rear tires!

 

900 horse at the crank in a Y-Block is just scary. But, quite cool. Thought about a 360 or 390 FE but, I think I would like to stay with the original motor. I have to pull the engine to make sure of the size. Y-Blocks all look alike to me. Going to rebuild it no matter what so going for more power is just a gearhead's way to do it.

Since the truck is an F-500 small power isn't going to cut it. I'm looking for good HP (400 or so) and lots of torque. The rear end came from the factory with 5.20 gears. Thinking of dropping that to 4.10 or 4.88. Would like to hit 65 on the highway.

 

I recently asked about doing that to my 272:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ild-costs.html

While the original motor does have a cool factor in my opinion you'll never use it as a truck on todays roads with it, least not a larger truck. Mine has 5.83/8.11 gears, fastest I ever dared to go was 45mph. Not to mention how bad the brakes suck on it, lol.


An engine choice was a big thing for me, in the end I'm going with a built 460 and a ZF5 manual transmission, and probably 4.10-4.56 gearing (37" tires, I need to calculate this again now that I know for certain what I want, all the parts effect it)

Mid fifty makes the braces and other conversion parts to put in a 460 and C6.



Guess the way I see it is you have three choices:
1. original cool factor that's impractical to drive on modern roads

2. newer drive train

3. original drivetrain with a tremendous amount of money put into it that's still not going to work like modern drivetrains.




And one thing to keep in mind if you go with the 272, take a look at some of your parts, being an F500 they might differ from ones in a F100. I know my water pump did and I had to rebuild it with the original pieces. Not a big problem but if you ever need to fix something on the road you'll never find that part, even if you find a guy with a bunch of y-block parts in his garage, forget about an autoparts store.

 

Make sure that the 4V manifold is from a 1957/58 292/312 car, the truck 4V carb used beginning in 1957 has a governor on it.

1955/56 car 4V manifold uses the awful Holley "teapot" carb, the bolt pattern for the teapot is different than the Holley 4V "double pumper" used beginning in 1957.

 

The last part of your statement is incorrect, all engines in 57 used ecz-G heads no matter the size 272 292 312

The only time there is a problem of valve to cyl contact is when you run a HUGE lift cam

 

My books say 272 /57 pn is b7a6049-a cast#ecze 5752113
292/312 pn b7a6049e cast#eczf and eczg is the sot after 1

Tho the ford performance book i have agrees with your statement,
My sugestion was to avoid 57 heads as was under the impresion with stock bore ther could be intrferance,as well 57 heads a quite rare as wher suceptbl to cracking, especialey in warmer arias.

 

I'm going to kick around a few ideas but, if bad goes to worse I'll go with a 302 and C-6 tranny. As far as highway speed goes I can build the front axel to deal with it.

 

I've got a 6.80:1 single speed axle in mine. With the original T98 transmission (direct drive 1:1) I was able to get about 60 mph with the 9.00-20's I currently have on it.

At 60mph, it was turning about 3500 RPM in 4th gear.

With the 5.83:1-- 2 speed axle I am going to use, it's going to turn a tad over 3000 RPM (@60) in 3rd gear (drive).....then with the E4OD in OD (0.71:1 ) and the torque convertor locked, I it should turn a little under 2200 RPM (@60 MPH)