tri-power for a Y-block

[Jantrix]

Any kit come with a triple carb intake for a y-block? Or by a resin caster?

Edited July 27, 2018 by Jantrix

[Ace-Garageguy]

It's an odd manifold / cylinder head design, with stacked intake ports as opposed to the usual side-by-side ports of most engines.

                                         

Even in the dim recesses of time, there wasn't as much speed equipment made for the Y as there was for more popular engines like smallblock Chebbys and Chrysler hemi engines.

The manifolds below are all 3X2 Y-block parts. You see how far apart the port runners are on the casting, compared to anything else. There's also a forward coolant crossover, with the thermostat housing integral, and a center coolant crossover passage as well.

      

I've been looking for something to use myself, and both the AMT '56 Ford and '57 Ford kits get the manifold layout wrong, incorporating the front water crossover passage into the too-wide front ports.

For the two AMT kits mentioned, the single-4bbl manifold in the '56 would be the easiest to modify into a pretty correct tri-power.

The Revell '57 Ford single 4bbl manifold gets the ports and water crossovers pretty OK (though the front bolt-hole ears are missing). Modifying it into a decent 3X2 manifold would be straightforward. File the top flat, make three flanges as shown, glue them on, and fill.

The ancient Revell '56 Ford pickup has a Y, as does one of the AMT '57 T-birds, but I haven't been able to dig them out for comparison yet.

EDIT: The Revell 2X4bbl manifold is also a contender as a starting point (and has better front bolt hole ears). File off the two carbs, fill the space between the flanges with a small piece of styrene, let dry, and file flat again. Then make up three 2bbl flanges, etc. 

Either way will give you a decent 3X2.

 

Edited July 28, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[Bainford]

I was looking at the old AMT 60 Ford F-100 a couple nights ago and noticed it has a tri-power on a Y block. Probably not an easy kit from which to find parts, and I never really looked at it with an eye towards accuracy, but some bits of that kit were molded more accurately than I thought.

Just tossing that out there...

[BigTallDad]

'62 Fords were available with the tri-power 406. I don't know if there are any kits for this configuration, but it might be a starting point for an online search.

Edited July 27, 2018 by BigTallDad

[Ace-Garageguy]

17 minutes ago, BigTallDad said:

'62 Fords were available with the tri-power 406. I don't know if there are any kits for this configuration, but it might be a starting point for an online search.

The 406 is an FE engine.

The Y-block and FE engines have zero similarity, and the intake manifolds are as different as different can be.

The FE manifold has even port spacing, and the casting forms the upper valve-cover gasket sealing rail as well.

                                      

Edited July 27, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[espo]

3 hours ago, Jantrix said:

Any kit come with a triple carb intake for a y-block? Or by a resin caster?

I used a setup from Replicas & Miniatures on a build last year. They offer part #P-143 that includes a perfect intake manifold and carbs, with air cleaners that I would recommend replacing as they look to small to me. They also have some valve covers from the AMT '63 Ford pick-up #P-127. Hope that helps.  

[BigTallDad]

3 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

The 406 is an FE engine.

The Y-block and FE engines have zero similarity, and the intake manifolds are as different as different can be.

The FE manifold has even port spacing, and the casting forms the upper valve-cover gasket sealing rail as well.

                                      

Well gosh, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I totally overlooked the even port spacing aspect; I'm sure that would be blatantly obvious in that scale, so I'll stop trying to be of help in the future, and leave all that to your obviously superior knowledge...in other words, LIGHTEN UP!

Edited July 28, 2018 by BigTallDad

[Ace-Garageguy]

26 minutes ago, BigTallDad said:

Well gosh, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I totally overlooked the even port spacing aspect; I'm sure that would be blatantly obvious in that scale, so I'll stop trying to be of help in the future, and leave all that to your obviously superior knowledge...in other words, LIGHTEN UP!

It's blatantly obvious to anyone interested in accuracy, and anyone who's familiar with the real engines.

An FE manifold can NOT possibly be of any use whatsoever to someone building a Y-block. The manifolds are ENTIRELY DIFFERENT DESIGNS, which is fully illustrated by the photos I posted above.

Posting incorrect information HELPS NO ONE.

If you have a problem with a polite FACTUAL correction, please, by all means REPORT ME.

 

Edited July 28, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[Jon Haigwood]

4 hours ago, espo said:

I used a setup from Replicas & Miniatures on a build last year. They offer part #P-143 that includes a perfect intake manifold and carbs, with air cleaners that I would recommend replacing as they look to small to me. They also have some valve covers from the AMT '63 Ford pick-up #P-127. Hope that helps.  

I have a set for my 56. Will most likely order some more nice stuff. The air cleaners did look small. Going with a air cleaner that covers all three carbs 

[Ace-Garageguy]

4 hours ago, espo said:

I used a setup from Replicas & Miniatures on a build last year. They offer part #P-143... 

VERY helpful. Thanks for the part #.  

[SfanGoch]

1 hour ago, BigTallDad said:

Well gosh, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I totally overlooked the even port spacing aspect; I'm sure that would be blatantly obvious in that scale, so I'll stop trying to be of help in the future, and leave all that to your obviously superior knowledge...in other words, LIGHTEN UP!

Why're you getting your shorts bunched up for? The OP asked about a Y-Block engine, nothing else. No need to get cranky. 

[Mark]

On ‎7‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 4:30 PM, Bainford said:

I was looking at the old AMT 60 Ford F-100 a couple nights ago and noticed it has a tri-power on a Y block. Probably not an easy kit from which to find parts, and I never really looked at it with an eye towards accuracy, but some bits of that kit were molded more accurately than I thought.

Just tossing that out there...

The pickup engines have three twos even for the stock version, but the intake/cylinder heads/distributor/coil are all molded as a single piece, and the area under the carbs is just a flat, long rectangular slab.  On the other hand, the engraving on the valve covers is absolutely superb, though I'm pretty certain the raised "FORD" lettering on the kit parts would actually be a decal on the 1:1 truck valve covers.

The AMT '57 T-Bird engine's intake has an undersize blob meant to represent a carburetor molded as part of the intake.  Still, it might not be a terrible choice as a starting point.  As suggested by others already, get another intake and alter it by adding the carburetor mounting areas.  

[Jantrix]

On 7/27/2018 at 1:02 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

The Revell '57 Ford single 4bbl manifold gets the ports and water crossovers pretty OK (though the front bolt-hole ears are missing). Modifying it into a decent 3X2 manifold would be straightforward. File the top flat, make three flanges as shown, glue them on, and fill.

Thanks Bill. I got the Revell engine in a trade, and the single carb intake is what I have from that. I will give this a try. Thanks much for the advice.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in. For the record, as this will be in an open engine hot rod, I am concerned with accuracy. I'm using the Y-block because I like the way they look.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Jantrix

[Ace-Garageguy]

Here's a little more about getting the Y-block look reasonably accurate:  SBC vs Y block exhaust spacing

 

The port spacing is similar, but far from identical. Today though, I don't have access to a Y-block to measure it.

The problem with the old Y is the location of the plugs in the heads.

The Y-block positions the plug bosses almost directly under the ports. There's also more space between the center ports than on the Chebby. Y shown immediately below.

     

The SB Chebby puts the plugs farther to the sides.   

This may not seem like much, but it makes a difference when you go to do manifolds or headers that still allow easy plug access.

 

A lot of the exhaust manifolds and headers for Ys are kinda up-and-over, as you've probably noticed, to clear the plugs.

  

The Chebby rams-horn cast-iron manifolds are typically (though not always) kinda flat. 

Cast rams-horn manifolds for the Y typically have a lot more arch, and have the additional space between the center ports for the stud location. 

  These look like they still might be a pig to change center plugs on, too.

 

 

[espo]

I think the "Rams-Horn" Y block exhaust manifolds were O.E.M. on the larger 1 Ton and up Ford trucks.

[Jantrix]

11 hours ago, espo said:

I think the "Rams-Horn" Y block exhaust manifolds were O.E.M. on the larger 1 Ton and up Ford trucks.

Any y-block kits come with them?

[espo]

1 minute ago, Jantrix said:

Any y-block kits come with them?

Not that I know of. I think the best posable donor would be a kit of a heavy duty Ford truck from the '50's era, I don't remember every seeing any. Maybe some resin caster offers them. I might be a player for a set, if you find anything please let me know.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

There are bajillions of Chebby manifolds that are of a similar style. It shouldn't be hard to modify a set of those to look just like these...

Edited August 3, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[espo]

I really wish I had known about these in the late '60's when I was playing around with a '56 F100.

[Ace-Garageguy]

The Mopar up-and-over cast iron manifolds in the AMT '49 Merc kit could make the basis for a very respectable set of these...

[Jantrix]

You guys are aces. Thanks very much.

[Ace-Garageguy]

For what it's worth, here's a better, larger shot showing both sides of the Fenton cast iron headers shown above. These would have been early-1950s-vintage hop-up parts.

And here's a link to more pix:   https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/nos-fenton-cast-headers-for-ford-y-block.1021626/

Edited August 3, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy