English Ford Model Y

One of the challenges of driving a stock one is a) lack of power and b) ridiculously low gearing (5.44:1). You can put a 103E engine in with only minor modifications and jump the horsepower up considerably. There are even many aftermarket bits to get a 103E to put out around 60HP or so...which is actually a pretty strong engine for such a tiny car.

If you're willing to go open drive, you can then use a 105 ****** and there were even bolt-on overdrives with their own lever (all mechanical - almost making it a 6-speed).

The back axle in this case is most easily made out of the mix-n-match 103/105 stuff I mentioned earlier.

When I was looking into this as a temporary measure until I could fully engineer a V860 swap, I discovered that the little Jeep Go-Devil 134 engine would probably fit right in there too. It came with 60HP stock and could probably be mildly modified with standard porting, milling heads, open exhaust, intake and electronic ignition to put out around 80HP I'd guess. There was at least one aftermarket head for it too - very rare and I've only ever seen one on eBay.

Now you've got an engine that has a plethora of adapters for various transmissions to bolt up to. Puts out a healthy-enough HP number for such a small car. Is small and light enough to fit into the Y without over-burdening it.

You're still stuck for a back axle though.... ;)
 
Speedway engineering in LA has a small quickchange that they will make what ever width you want , that will give you the bolt pattern you want also & rear discs & the features of a Q/C rear axle.
Cheers
Tony
Flat Ernie said:
The challenge with the V8-60 is steering. The current location of the steering column as it exists the firewall is smack dab in the head of the V860. It's not an insurmountable job and if you were converting to LHD, it would have to be fiddled with anyway. This may be one application where those offset chain re-drives might work well.

I've done a great deal of "tape measure engineering" on this conversion as I've owned two of these great little cars - I brought the second one home with me. It is a '37, runs and drives and is one of my long-term projects.

There is a good thread on the HAMB that isn't currently active, but a search should turn it up easily enough. Lots of info.

My plans for the V860 were to use an 103-type front axle that puts the axle behind the spring and move the front crossmember forward about 3-4". There is room in the radiator shell to move the radiator forward nearly the same amount (whether or not you can cool a 60 with that small radiator remains to be seen).

The firewall & footwell will require some surgery and installing the T5 will require frame rework. The only wrinkle here? The body is rivited to the frame and while it can be relatively easily unrivited and then bolted on later, it is yet another small niggly bit that must be sorted.

For me, the real challenge was the front and rear axles. The front axle was a straightforward solution in my eyes. I was going to have a custom width tube axle fabricated that took early Ford kingpins and most likely use F1/F100 front brakes.

Out back was another story entirely. The Y is so petit and tiny that there really isn't an acceptable swap that goes in without looking complete out of place. And getting the early bolt ford 5x5.5 bolt pattern onto anything that might fit (small import) is near impossible. I was originally looking at modifying later popular open drive stuff - mixing and matching 103/105 and other bits. But I never did figure it completely out.

There was one interesting option. If you could use two short-side E83W axle housings and axles, you could machine the internals to take Model-A guts (in theory - I never actually did it - but it measured out about right) and center banjo section. You would end up with an axle that was quite short and took the early British Ford ends (or whatever ends you wanted to make work). E83W are scarce enough as it is and while I didn't search super hard for these axle housings, I did always sort of have my eye open for them while living in the UK.



There's also a good book on it:

http://www.amazon.com/Ford-Model-Henrys-Europe-Motorcycle/dp/1901295885?tag=atomicindus08-20


I will eventually put a V8-60 into my Y, but it's a long term project on the back burner. ;)

Here's a pic of mine.
Click to expand...
 
Ern, Suzuki jeep axle. Same pcd. Not too wide. I'm talking the little SJ type. Come in a few ratios, 5.13:1 4 something:1 and 3.9:1. I think. As for open drive original axle, use 100E stuff. This is the same design as the Pop (Anglia) and back to Model Y. This would give 100E ratio 4.429:1. Easy way to do it would be fuzzing some Model Y spring mounts on it and stick it in. You'd have to figure out brakes n stuff. But it's a reasonable place to start.
Martin.
 
Might be worth looking into some furrincar independent rear for something this small. As with any really light car, almost anything normally used in hot rods is going to give a terrible problem with unsprung weight. Even if I contribute my magnesium banjo!
An open axle midget setup might be as light as you could reasonably get with a live axle.
E83...Looong ago, the Hot Rod magazine tech column did a short piece on the various obscure Ford England components out there in the world, mostly about those ultra-shorts because they could be used to assemble a dragster rear!
 
I saw one a few months back that had a v8 60 just dropped in it ,it was a un finished project , see if I can get a photo .Ted .
 
FlatheadTed said:
I saw one a few months back that had a v8 60 just dropped in it ,it was a un finished project , see if I can get a photo .Ted .
Click to expand...

If you can, see what they did with the steering. I did some tape-measure engineering on mine - the steering column would come out right smack in the middle of the right head/block area...
 
Of course, if you're not interested in the more traditional flat-head 4-cyl of some variety or another, or a V860 is too much to work with regards to steering and suspension, the Fiat Twin Cam is always an option! ;)
 
If someone needs one of theese little flathead 4cyls i have one in the storage...supposed to be rebuilt for a boat...any descent offer brings it home !!
 
I think he had the steering box removed you could consider the stock box with a two U joint to go under ,rotate the box anty clock wise HHmmmm . the boxes are most likely ,?? actually the casting can brake , Ted
Flat Ernie said:
If you can, see what they did with the steering. I did some tape-measure engineering on mine - the steering column would come out right smack in the middle of the right head/block area...
Click to expand...
 
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A friend has a German Y car, LH drive. He put a V8 60 in it. By all means use a crab
distributor, with some ingenuity it can be made to work WITHOUT an adapter....every
inch matters in this swap. He used the 60 trans and rear end.....shortening the torque tube and drive shaft and narrowing the track. '40 rear brakes and front discs and a
R&P from a rice burner. A lot of trouble with the stock steering box.....it was weak
to begin with and the exhaust heat caused it to bind up.
It look so docile until he started it up, a pair of steel packs....yikes.
Charlie ny
 

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If anyone has a RHD steering box for the Model y they want to part with I will purchase from you. I need one for my 35 Model Y. I'm located in upstate New York. Here in the US it's hard to find one. Does anyone know what would be a good box to swap out the Model Y box with in the event I cannot get an original Y box? I thought possibly the Anglia 105E RHD box but it is 10" shorter than the Y box and column assembly. I suppose I could get it to work if I had to.
 
I may have one , will try to look later but it may be next weekend before I can check.
Cheers
Tony
 
Wow that would be great!!! Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!! Please let me know when you check on it. Thanks
 
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