1957 Ford Country Sedan mocha silver V8 4dr wagon

[djfordmanjack]

mpg is a concern. I really don't understand it but my wagon usually gets 13-14 mpg on the highway at 65. the 3.56 rear is short and the Fordomatic sure is pumping a lot of gas in the radiator heat. Yet, the Y block is a (relatively) high compression engine, with rather large valves and channel cross sections. In theory, it should be a highly efficient engine.
Certainly this engine here is old and tired, but a fresh Y block with a long legged rear or OD, should be able to reach 18-20 mpg, when driven carefully.

[1930artdeco]

The auto trans doesn't help. They were gas hogs up until a few years ago.

[djfordmanjack]

somebody posted this pic online, from our last Saturday night car cruise. My son and me having a burger and fries. yummy yummy ! 


lots has been going on with and around my 57CS lately, so I will post further updates soon.

about 2 weeks ago we attended the annual Trash'n'Burn car show/Rock Festival in northern Croatia. just a 75 mile drive one way, and we made it there, just. Anyways the show was a blast, and again we managed to cruise out and park our 57 wagons together.











on our way home our friend DD from Stuttgart joined us in his (late model, but by now already collectible, 36 yo)) German longroof.

[djfordmanjack]

Finally found some time to mount the new tires and (old) rims. They are original, Made in the USA, Superior Typhoon slotted chrome reversed 14x6 with about 1/4" offset or 3-3/4 bs. These came out in 1968 and ther is no clearance issue whatsoever, even though my CS is lowered about 2-3 inches all around.
This may just be a non permanent addition, for a change. I can go back to the whitewall/steelies/dogdish look anytime I want. I have to say the US Royal Safety 800 7.75-14 ride and handle extremely nice. it seems the (relatively) low 80% profile of the mid 60s makes a difference. Even with higher tire pressure like 30 psi the tread bulges a lot more and generates quite a large surface contact area.

[CobraJoe]

Great pics Guenther; really nice to see that your boy enjoys the same interests!!!       

[djfordmanjack]

Thank you Joe ! I think my son grew into this by spending lots of younger years with, and around our and my friends cars. I never forced it on him. He always liked riding shotgun, from when he was a little kid. Actually his first ever ride, from the maternity clinic, was in my old 1966 Volkswagen bug.

[djfordmanjack]

There is a major decision on engines coming up with my 57CS. The old 292 in the car is really tired and needs replacing, but I really want to keep a Y block instead of just shoving in my nicely running spare 351W+AOD.
There is an offer for a very well built and documented 312 that I could buy for $6k.
I have another full spare project engine (1961 truck 292 block) that is already bored/honed 080 over and I have matching 1957 ECZ-G heads, turned down 312 crank, 312 con rods, rocker assemblies, Isky cam, Mallory magspark distributor and such, but it basically needs everything blueprinted and assembled, since it has been cobbled together from at least 5-7 parts engines.
Then I remembered about this old 1957 292 that I bought about nearly 20 years ago. before I even had another 57 to go in. Back then I had it running, but only without water, for very short time.

By now, you all probably guessed it. I have the hoarding disease badly and probably should seek therapy at this point. 

Anyways, I need to make decisions to keep my 57 running, because I love it so much. It's just great and comfortable for daily driving, grocery getting, cruises and long distance trips, so I really do want to keep it on the road.

This story is getting long winded and boring already, but I needed to explain the reasoning.

So I finally dug out the running, but left sitting for decades, donor 1957 292. if this engine could talk it would probably fill several novels....



it originally came out of a 1953(!) Mercury, that was brought to Austria (from Turkey, of all places), decades ago. it has had all sorts of old repairs that made me hesitate to even think of using it. but....

so I put my trusty IKEA cart into use and even mocked it up with a re cored 1950s radiator and started the inspection process. so it has been running for hours and the compression test shows 150psi on most cylinders, with 130 on the worst. not bad. good oil pressure when cold, but drops to around 10psi when hot. as usual. a worn out work horse. anyways I still keep going. more to come.






so on we go.

[mustang6984]

The '61 truck engine sounds tempting...

[djfordmanjack]

I know Hugh, but I am just a hobbyist engine builder and it will take me several weeks to blueprint all details on such a hot rod engine. everything needs checked. I built a flathead that way for a friend and it easily took 200 hours or more. Every single valve lift, ring gap, and con rod weight got checked. The reward is an engine that is running exceptionally strong and reliable after 5000miles. I reckon this special Y block build will be a long term winter project, not a quick overhaul and stop and drop.
So in the meantime I am working on the spare 292 to hopefully get it running reliably, so I can put it in the car for a few thsd more miles.

[djfordmanjack]

been working and troubleshooting my 292s lately. A lot of minor details were off and caused trouble. The og fuel pump was putting out slightly excessive pressure ( > 5.5 psi) which caused carb flooding and fouled plugs. Both engines are running pretty sweet right now, but still need thorough test runs.

[djfordmanjack]

there have been all kinds of problems with the engine in my 57CS over the past years, with many of them coming from the overhauled Holley 2 bbl carb. It was working nicely from when I tuned it in about 2018, but was getting rougher, with a leaking accelerator pump diaphragm and  although I checked for fuel level, power valves and dirt, it wasn't running as nice as before. also mpg was down below 12 and that is a horrible thing.

So I swapped over a  'rebuilt' 1968 Autolite 2bbl, which was designated for 302 use, so should be good for a 292 I thought.
In the end it really worked out fine but there were quite some obstacles to overcome.
the fuel bowl vent mechanism would hit the og 57 air cleaner, stalling the engine. Hammered a little dimple in the bottom and that worked nicely. It took me a long time to find this error.
Then sometimes the carb would still flood on irregular occasion. needle valve would not close and the fuel pressure was quite at the upper limit just above 5.5psi. so I put in a good quality fuel pressure regulator and set it at 3.5 psi, which really helped a lot, but there still was occasional flooding.

So after disassembling the carb, I found. that the last owner, had lost the check ball for the acc pump passage. Luckily it was included in the carb overhaul kit I had ordered (for the Autolite on the second engine on the run stand).

So after that, concerning how tired and worn the engine is, it runs really fine and I was able to take it on a 400 miles round trip last weekend. All these modifications and thorough tune up work really paid off, with mpg going up from 11 to 16 !
I did also plumb for a vaccuum gauge, which helped chosing a proper power jet (7.5 jet with about 15psi idle and hot). also checked and adjusted the distributor and timing.

So here's the pics ! 

















and just a few from our trip !

[RICH MUISE]

You live in a beautiful country, Gunter! Great to see the CS on a long trip, especially with a 50's Dodge in the rear view!!!
Thanks for the info on your carb issues.

[CobraJoe]

Nice job and nice scenery too!

[djfordmanjack]

Thx guys!
Rich the last pic shows the highest summit in my region, it is called 'Dachstein', which means Roof Stone. You can easily see why it's got the name. The weather and view was stunning that day !

I was honestly surprised, of how much improvement I could make on the mpg and performance of the ole Y block. I learned that it pays back to do thorough investigation and tune up on carb, pump and ignition. Even if it's minor problems, they soon add up and will foul the plugs and make an annoying driving experience.

In hindsight, I should have started the trouble shooting much earlier. as I really enjoyed finding and correcting all the little obstacles in the end !

[djfordmanjack]

Just got this pic from my pal Wolfgang, who was riding shotgun in Rob's 57 Dodge.

I am not one of those 'persons' who needs to wave a rainbow flag at any given time. But I have to admit this is very touching. The photo is absolutely real, no photoshop, filter or AI.
we were driving into a bit of drizzle, while the sun was sinking low over the mountains.