Thread: 541 Lincoln Y-block for '53-'56 F-100s

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I contacted Ford and suggested they have a Retro Engines Program for their 100th anniversary in 2003. As part of that, I suggested they offer a 541 CID Lincoln Y-block engine more or less for '53-'56 F-100s. The Lincoln Y-block ran from '52-'57 in 317-341-368 CID sizes, and is the perfect basis for a large CID engine for '53-'56 F-100s from a heritage standpoint. 541 CID specs : 4.375 bore x 4.50 stroke, 2.20 intake valve, 1.80 exhaust valve, 1.625 piston compression ht, 0.020 deck clearance, 7.605 con rod length (1.69 rod ratio), 11.50 block deck ht. 541 CID features : gear driven reverse-rotation cam from 302-332 Lincoln Y-block heavy truck engines, forged pistons, billet or forged con rods, billet or forged crank, cross-bolted main bearing caps. I encourage any of you who want to see Ford come out with the 541 Lincoln Y-block to contact them at www.fordnewideas.com Mention the Retro Engines Program to let Ford know we enthusiasts are together on it.

Gary, I wish you the best of luck on this one. Despite your ubiquitous campaign across the internet, I think you may still be the only guy on the planet that loves this engine. While I don't fault the sentimentality of your concept as far as period correctness (and wasn't this engine offered in the F350's prior to '58?), there aren't enough of your accolites to justify the tooling.

Now if Ford, who has demonstrated some interest in heritage (GT-40, continuation of the Mustang) were to do such a thing, as Chrysler has done with crate Hemi's and 440 strokers, it would make way more economic sense to do the FE in 427, cross bolt configuration. At least there is pent up demand in the Cobra replica, and muscle car ranks for that engine.

I'm afraid all you're doing is getting your trouser legs wet. But everyone needs a dream!

Ford made 540 cubic inch motors that I think were based on the FE block for BIG trucks,I dont know if they will bolt in where a car/pickup FE was but a local junkyard has one. I am taking a tape measurer with me the next time I go there and will see just how much larger that a FE they are. Jeff

Bob,you said I was getting wet - did I ever - I sent 2 letters to Ford, 1 about the Y-block and Lincoln Y-block, and 1 about the FE and MEL. The Y-block letter came back - Ford said to E mail it to www.fordnewideas.com - so I sent them 3 E mails - about the Lincoln Y-block, FE, and MEL. The new ideas website said that they would E mail me back in about 2 weeks if they went through. Then I proceeded to drum up support for my Retro Engines Program by posting messages on 13 website forums. You mentioned my ubiquitous messages - 6 of those 13 websites have counters for how many views your topics get - and on those 6 websites I got a total of 1042 views at last count - 257 for the Lincoln Y-block, 533 for the FE, 252 for the MEL. Two months had passed since I sent my E mails to Ford, and I hadnt heard back from them, so I tried again to E mail www.fordnewideas.com. This time the computer couldnt find the website. I dont know if the new ideas website was overwhelmed and Ford shut it down or what. But I guess I got a message across to Ford that a lot of guys want to see the old iron back.

Hmmm... how do you suppose they'll get a 4.375 bore out of a Y block?

I'm not sure Ford would be into casting up special blocks for one guy if he's not named Glidden.

If they did give a hoot about retro engines it'd be the flathead anyways.

Tom P, the Y-block and the Lincoln Y-block are two completely different engine series. The Y-block has a 4.38 bore spacing (the same as the Ford small block ) and a 9.77 block deck height. The Lincoln Y-block has a 4.63 bore spacing ( the same as the FE ) and a 10.94 block deck height.

junkyardjeff, the engine youre talking about is probably a 401-477-534 CID Super Duty. It would be interesting to know the overall dimensions, please post them if you have them. Tom P might want to drop a 401 Super Duty into a Pinto someday.

The 390 in my 65 country squire does not fill the engine compartment fully but a super duty might,I keep forgetting to bring a tape measure to that junkyard but I definately want to see if it is similar to a FE. Any way to tell the cubic inch on those motors by looking at them?,hmmmm my 70 F250 has a tired 360 and a 534 would wake that truck up if thats what it is.

hello all; the 534 truck block is close to the 430 block. i don't know if you could bore a 430 to 4.50 without looseing a cylinder. i beleive the truck block is quite a bit heaver. you could probably cut down a 534 steel crank to fit in a 430. you might be able to put 430 heads on a 534 short block and build a sheetmetal intake. i don't have the resorces or the funds to check this out but it would be fun. did you know that the 1959 nationals was won by a 430 powered dragster by rod singer. on the lincoln y-block, i belive you could use pontiac pro stock sleeves and an olds aftermarket forged crank to make a large cu.in motor. with small adaptor plates you could use any intake from a low deck chrysler. unlike y-block fords whitch won't take much of a cam because of small journel size, the lincoln would be easy to cam and it uses the same lifteres as a FE. with a little machineing i belive you could make cross bolted main for it. i have a couple of the lincoln y's but low funds have kept me from doing much yet, mabey next year. i feel your wasting your time talking to ford, like everyone else working on new items for the old engines, they would cost more than most people could afford. why do you think more people use sh_tbox engines than anything else, because any bummy can put one together and it'll run and with 90 billion bummys building them there's plenty of parts durt cheap. with enought money you can build a ford to win but most people don't have that kind of money. sorry i got off on a rant, have a nice day,wayne.

yalincoln, the MEL has a bore spacing of 4.90, the 534 Super Duty has a bore spacing of 5.25 . Bore spacing is the most basic parameter of an engine series, when two different engine series have different bore spacings, no part that runs the length of the engine is interchangable between the two series.