From Left to Right, Ethan, Kayla, April, Dan, Leah and Jonatan Avila
Merry Christmas from the Jessup family to all of our subscribers! It amazes me how much the website has grown this past year - well over 1,000 of you are visiting each month with many others on our YouTube channel. Over the past month, time with the family has kept me pretty busy and you would think that I have not had much time for getting anything done in the garage. However, the main reason for my delay in posting to the blog has been that many of you keep me hopping in the Y Block parts world! I do not know what drives the market this time of year; maybe it is the fact that most people are in the shopping mood just ahead of Christmas. I am having a little trouble keeping some things in stock - the B intake manifolds, rebuilt rocker arm assemblies, and some other odds and ends. Hopefully after New Year's we can have more available to you.
One trip my wife and I made was to Dollywood in the touristy Gatlinburg, Tennessee area. I am not much on the crowds, the traffic, and al the rest, but we did run across this 1955 Ford Customline sitting inside the theme park near a restaurant.
1955 Ford Customline on display at Dollywood theme park.
Y Block Parts
This past month I have been pretty busy working on sub-assemblies and other parts for the Ford Y Block as there have been quite a few requests from subscribers. I tend to be one that gives great attention to detail when it comes to restoration and/or refurbishment. Parts not only need to look right, but they need to function correctly also! What follows is a healthy montage of photos and short descriptions that will let you know what has been going on in the garage lately.
Ford's best 4 barrel intake for the Y Block is the ECZ 9425 B manifold.
Removing the old heat choke tube from the manifold before cleanup can be a chore!
Most of the B intakes have the numbers cast just behind the carburetor base.
My intake manifolds are usually sold with new gaskets sets and hardware if needed.
This EBV timing cover (specifically for a truck) was restored and is ready to go!
The engine side must be cleaner than the exterior of the piece.
Every surface must be cleaned and the threads checked/chased if needed.
Most of the parts I sell are shrink-wrapped for obvious reasons.
Some parts I receive have not been treated very kindly.
This passenger car oil pan had a recessed oil pan plug that was hard to access.
How this damage had taken place I had no idea, but it needed to be addressed.
After some careful massaging the repair looked very good.
Once things get cleaned up it will be hard to notice there ever was a problem.
Removing all of the oily residue is next up for the pan before we strip and paint.
Pretty soon, the passenger car oil pan will look like this F100 oil pan (I have a few of these).
For some reason, hardware like this rocker assembly set is in high demand right now.
I have a hard time keeping these assemblies in stock, but I hope to have more soon.
I recently ran across a part number I have never seen - ED 6564-B2 - new one on me!
Some of you may be wondering what is going on with the 312 build that I mentioned in the my last post. I promise to give another update in early January, but I do have some good news to relay. Since my last entry I was able to locate a set of C1TE rods for the engine. As you may recall I sent Tim Mcmaster, the Y Block Guy, two sets of ECZ rods (Ford's original 312 rod) for him to examine. One set was used and had been pulled from a core block, but the other set was rebuilt and sitting on the shelf of a retired machinist in South Carolina. The more that I talked to Tim about what I wanted to do with the 312, he encouraged me to use the C1TE rods. A very helpful soul in the midwest, Dave Fuszner, contacted me and was very gracious to give me 7 rods for the cost of shipping. We will see how things turn out. You may recall way back in July I posted about the Fast Fords race and going up against Dave during the time trials. You can read more about that at this link: Fast Fords Drag Race Part 1.
Among many of the upgrades I plan to give the Y Block, the exhaust system is high on the list. This begins with the exhaust manifolds of course. While Ford's 1957 exhaust manifold (and variants up until the 60's) tend to flow decently for stock units, nothing beats the movement of air through 4 into 1 headers when considering those higher rpm's and top end. Only two companies that I know of currently manufacture headers for 1955/56 Ford passenger cars and the offerings are ultra-expensive. Red's Headers has a set, uncoated, running close to $1,000. Up in Canada a well-respected outfit has 4 tube headers (the short version) for roughly $950 to your door. That price includes a coating from Rex-HP though so those headers seem to be the better deal of the two. There is another gentleman who has done much in the Y Block performance world (Jerry Christenson) who used to make steel, uncoated headers for 55/56 Fords for about $700 but I think his health precludes him from that work these days. Why go the header route? If you have the time, I would suggest you read an excellent article from my friend Ted Eaton down in Lorena, Texas. Visit this link Y Block Header Test to see what results can be had from such an upgrade to an exhaust system when considering performance modifications.
Speaking of parts, exhaust, and header options, I did run across this set of headers for sale:
These coated, Sanderson Thunderbird Y Block headers look nice!
Sanderson is noted for their high level of craftsmanship and performance...
The owner purchased this set of Thunderbird headers for his F100, and they do not clear the frame of the truck. While I am pretty sure these will not work on a passenger car, I told him I was willing to purchase the set if the price was right. I hope to use them on my engine run stand at the very least. I did pick up a set of SBC headers at a local swap meet way back in the summer time, and I do have a brand new set of flanges to see if I could not mock up something myself. The obvious hitch here in fitment will concern the driver's side of things and the tight spacing there at the steering gear and clutch mechanism. It will take some work I am sure. Maybe I will just have to bite the bullet, but spending close to $1,000 for a set of headers off the shelf seems insane. Especially when you can buy SBC headers all day along for less than $200 at most places. But, I guess that is what you get when you consider the Y Block world. As a general rule, parts are much more expensive than the small block and big block Ford cousins, not to mention the paltry sums that people can pay for SBC parts these days.
Y Block Magazine
While I have no personal financial stake in its publication, may I suggest that you consider subscribing to the Y Block Magazine? There are 6 issues each calendar year that cover information on the Ford and Lincoln Y Block, including some of the MEL series of engines into the late 50's. From time to time, I submit articles for this publication, but there are always good articles from likes of John Mummert, Ted Eaton, Tim Mcmaster, and many more who know way more than I do about this FoMoCo power plant.
Full color covers and article pages are included in each issue...
On occasion, the editor prints articles that I have submitted.
You can contact the editor, Bruce Young, by emailing him at yblockmag@yahoo.com. Be sure to tell him that the Hot Rod Reverend sent you. If you visit this page on the Y Blocks Forever website you will run across a host of valuable website links concerning the Y Block. The Y Block Magazine is included in the list of course.
Let me end this post with how I began - Merry Christmas! Many of you know I am a believer of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and that I am a preacher. While I usually do not post videos of my sermons here on the website blog, I believe it apropos to direct you to a message that I preached last week from Luke 2 and the gospel narrative concerning the birth of Christ. I encourage you to watch and listen and allow the Word of God, the Bible, direct you to faith in the Lord Jesus alone.
As always, do not forget to subscribe at https://www.hotrodreverend.com/blog-subscribe if you have not done so already.
The Hot Rod Reverend
aka Daniel Jessup