Quote:
Originally Posted by all american boy
The first two years were mechanically behind the looks of the car.
Same thing with the '49-51 body run.
The body was the 'All New' post war airplane looking body.
Then you open the hood and it's the same old flathead!
The Ford OHV V8(Y Block) 239 was the right engine for them to make at
the time.
|
I'd heard somewhere - possibly this forum - that the Y block was supposed to have been introduced in '53, but the Korean war demanded materials that kept that from happening. I don't know how true that is, but that's what I heard. Maybe someone here can verify or debunk that.
Despite being a good engine (for me) the thing about my '54 Ford Y block that I
didn't like was that to change out the canister type oil filter, I had to jack the left front of the car up and turn the steering wheel all the way one way or the other to get the canister to clear the linkage. Don't know if there was another way to accomplish that to get the filter changed, but the shop manual didn't mention anything. That's the only way I could get it to work, and it took me a few hours to figure it out. I theorized that was what resulted from shoehorning a Y block into an engine bay originally designated for a flathead, but I could be wrong.
I have a conventional filter adapter on it now, and it's fairly easy. You also had to get the old style canister oil housing lined up perfectly with the recess on the block...or oil would spill everywhere once you started the engine. I had to figure that out on my own, too.