Are You Getting Ripped Off?

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Y Block Ford Engine Parts

Parts availabilty and prices are really what drive the sustainability of keeping Y Block-powered cars and trucks on the road. If there is anything I hear the most about the reason engine swaps occur in mid 50's Ford vehicles it has got to be the excuse of the high price of rebuild parts. While the Y Block is not a mainstream engine like the SBC, SBF, or even the Flathead, there are various sources for parts and these days the offerings are continuing to grow. If you are considering swapping out your Y Block for another engine, please wait on that decision until you have watched the video posted below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC5Fd4sqhZQ

Very few classic car and truck engine series rebuild parts have such a fluctuation of parts prices and availability like the Y Block Ford. Prices are all over the place, and literally all over the map. Take for instance the last blog entry here on the website. It included a review of a NEW aluminum intake manifold from a company in Australia, cast in China, and being sold by an outlet in the United States. How is that for "all over the map?" The good thing about that four barrel intake manifold is that it is very affordable. Even though it does not come close to what a Mummert four barrel intake can do, that Top Streeet Performance offering pretty much matches what the original cast iron 1957 four barrel intake in improvement over two barrel stock cfm flow. It is a good deal for a stock Y Block build. If you watch the video below then you will discover that one of these exact intakes is being sold on eBay for almost $800! Crazy. Especially when you consider I only paid a little more than $210 for the unit to be shipped to my door.

Internal engine parts such as pistons, rods, camshafts, bearings, etc are "all over the map" as well on prices and quality. It can be a confusing world to walk through. Hopefully, Mummert Machine will receive their order of high performance connecting rods and we can get back to my 342 c.i. build soon. That has really been a hold up for the work that Tim McMaster and I have been trying to accomplish with walking thousands of people through this build series. But, it would be fair to say that if I had not gone to the upper end of power numbers for this 292 to 342 build then I would have been well on my way for the 312 .030 over plans that I had originally set up. All the parts were there in the garage and I was ready to go. And then I visited Tim McMaster and made the decision to go big or go home. We went big.

I will say that for internal parts you certainly want to acquire quality components. This is not a time to save a few bucks and end up wiping out a camshaft or destroying your rotating assembly when you run in your Y Block to mate your camshaft lobes and lifter faces.

Helpful Advice

I just uploaded a video to the YouTube channel entitled "Are You Paying too Much for Parts?" While the video is just about 30 minutes long, it does take the time to do a deep dive into various listings on eBay and Facebook Marketplace for real world examples. The video lists several tips for people who are new to the world of Y Block engine parts. Among them are such recommendations as researching the part you need, comparing prices among listings, and boning up on your Y Block engine knowledge before making a purchase. In short, do your homework - it really will pay off in the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJkZYjg5wJU

Quick Update on Parts from the Hot Rod Reverend

We have finally located a company that has the potential to help us with the PCV adapter that so many have been asking me to reproduce. You can tell from the photo below that the part is somewhat simple in design. To my knowledge, no one is offering this part new, and the only cross-referenced adapter that will fit (from a 1960's GM application) is well over $50. That is just too much to pay in my opinion. We will keep you posted.

Real Gaskets Tennessee has recieved my sample valve cover gaskets and is now working on a prototype for me to test. Hopefully in the month of March we will receive a set, install them on my daily driver 1955 Ford Club Sedan's 292, and put the gaskets through real-world testing. (Taking the valve covers off and on a few times for maintenance such as rocker arm adjustments comes to mind very quickly.)

Of course, here at HotRodReverend.com/shop, I do have a few parts listed intermittently - items such as rocker arm assemblies, intake and exhaust manifolds, and hopefully more parts beyond those offerings will be listed soon. I do not know if I have the capacity to keep up with parts inventory on the side as I am busy full-time as a pastor, but we will see what can be done as we test the waters this year. Some of the issue is where to keep the inventory for such an endeavor and right now space is limited.

Thank you for subscribing to the blog - hope these things are a help to you as you keep your Y Block Ford engine on the road!

The Hot Rod Reverend

aka Daniel Jessup