Howdy. I posted a thread about this in a different section, but I thought I'd try here, too. I just bought a '55 317c.i. Cargo King out of a '55 Ford work truck and I'll be putting it into a '54 Mainline 2-door sedan. It's a good find..an old farmer out west had it and kept the chassis and lower engine half sprayed with old motor oil...so the factory rams horn manifolds are like new. Matter of fact..the motor is still bolted to the frame with fresh gas in it. I'm trying to find out if the cranks from the 341 and up c.i. blocks are the same stroke length as the 317. I'd like to get about 340 cubes by adding stroke length instead of cylinder oversizing,..largely because the 317's are cut from the same block as a 312 and I don't want to go oversize too far..or am I wrong? If I'm wrong..I'll go ahead and use the stock crank and cut the cylinders bigger. Can any of you guys answer a few of my questions?

1.) Are 317, 341 and so on cranks the same or different in stroke lengths? Can anybody give me these stroke figures or direct me to a website, book, etc. to get them?

2.) Would I be able to find newer pistons to match a 317 stroked to 340?

3.) Will the new Blue Thunder y-block manifold bolt to the 317?

4.) Does anybody know what the cylinder head figures (cc's both chamber and intake runner, compression limits, etc.) are on the stock 317's, or where I can go to get the info?

5.) If I can and do add the stroke length to get to 340..will I have to have any of the rods clearanced?

6.) Will one of the new high lift Schneider or Isky Y-block cams ( I think they measure .450+ lift on I and E) work with my plans, or am I setting pistons and valves up for a date?

7.) Will the stock heads breathe good enough for this, or should I look for a casting like something from a Thunderbird, etc.?

8.) Is there anybody that makes good, smaller compressed height gasket kits for these Y-block motors?

That's enough questions for now, but I'll surely have more. Anyone thatcan help...please respond. Thanks.

Chuck Shaffer
email address removed

 

I don't think there was ever a 317 cu. in. version of an actual Y-block.The 312 was the last and biggest of the y-block series, and the 312 was never factory offered in a truck of any kind. What I think you've got is a Lincoln engine, same bore and stroke as a '55 Lincoln, except if it came in a truck it's got lower compression, maybe a milder cam, and maybe a bigger water pump, smaller carb etc. The best thing to do with it if you want more power is "Lincoln-ize" it any way you can. The '56 and '57 Lincolns were the last version of this engine and probably the most powerful. They were 368 cu. in. simply by changing the stroke. Same bore, diferent crank rods and pistons. In '58, Lincoln went to the 430 series which is also a great engine, but completly different. The 430 (and later 462) series was never used in a truck to my knowledge. About that time ('58 or so) Ford came up with a "strictly truck" engine, the 477's and 534's which are huge, heavy, inefficient and totally unsuited for cars and/or pickups.
The 317 will have NO interchangability with a 312 or y-block.

An actual Y-block is what came originally in a '54 Mainline V-8.

BobJonesSpecial

 

I answered that question on the other forum but to recap:

The 317 is a 52-54 Lincoln based engine that was used in the Big Trucks 52-55 and was replaced in 56 by the 332/302 which was a true truck engine version of the Lincoln. The truck 317 went thru a whole bunch of head iterations in that short time. The truck used a different cam also.
A 279 was also available trucks in place of the 317; just a smaller bore.
Those are not really suitable in a car as the torque curve is primarily low end rpm's. However a head change with any of the Lincolns and a trip to a cam grinder and you have a real hauler.
BTW, Lincoln offered a racing cam in 52-4.

In 55 the Lincoln went to 341 and 368 in 56-7. Many were installed in trucks as swaps even tho the torque curve was higher. There was no substitute for inches!