Ford vs. Lincoln YBlock History Questions? (2024)

I've been reading the Charles R. Morris book "Ford Y-Block a Performance History" and found the information about the Lincoln Y-Block interesting. I never saw one of these engines back in the day, probably because there weren't many Lincolns in my neighborhood. I understand these engines were used in Turnpike Cruisers? The port layout used in the Lincoln engines was similar to an FE. My guess is Ford developed both engines separately and used knowledge gained from both when they made the FE? I always thought the Y-Block was replaced because of limited displacement growth? Why didn't they offer the Lincoln engine in all Fords? Perhaps cost was an issue. Whatever the reason, the FE turned out well enough.

I agree. I never made any sense to me that the port arrangement would be so different from the Lincoln to the Ford/Merc. I’m sure it had to do with $$$ to the corporation. The first major use of overhead valve V8’s were out in 49 when Ford made a minimal change to the Flathead that was to be only 3 years but ended up 4. FOMOCO had plenty of time to see the performance gains but chose a difference theory as I understand it.
I would have thought there would have been more “racers” working with those 317 up Lincolns but it was not the case. I realize Lincoln’s were not a high quantity engine but neither were Cadillac’s or Chrysler’s .

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

Is the Lincoln a lot heavier that the Ford - maybe that is why.

54 Victoria 312; 48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

In the fifties, Ford and Lincoln divisions must have had completely separate but similar engine programs? The FE looks like a combination of both engines. Then there's the MEL engine? Not sure where that fit in. 430s were bad ass back in the day. There was a 430 powered 57 Ford custom that used to run at our local circle track that did very well. I don't think I ever saw a 430 in a drag car?

The intake port arrangements on the LYB engines are side by side or in pairs. Likewise the center exhaust ports are together. If the intake ports on the Ford Y are flipped 90° from being stacked to side by side, you have a similar port layout as the LYB engines. Both the intake and exhaust port layouts of the LYB and Ford Y was adopted by GM for the SBC development.

The cylinder bore centers on the LYB enginesare the same as the FE engines so that meant a minimum of machining changeover when machining the blocks. Keep in mind that the LYB engines were still being offered in the truck lineup through the end of 1963 so both the LYB and FE engines were being machined simultaneously. The M-E-L engines were a brand new engine layout when introduced as these blocks had an even wider bore center than the LYB/FE engines. The M-E-L family of engines eventually morphed into the 385 series (429/460) which shared the same bore centers.

The Ford Y-Block has the same 4.380” bore centers as the later produced 289 SBF, 351C, and 351M/400M engines. The Ford Y and the early 221/260 SBF engines were also being machined at the same time so any sharing of bore centers facilitates the machining process when changing over between the different families of engines.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thanks Ted. Very interesting information.

At about 2:45 into the video you will see a MEL win the US nationals. Also some air time for Ted and myself

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/oddball-vintage-engines-engine-masters-2016/