Probably a weird place to ask this but what the hell.....

My young bloke and a couple of his mates have an old (real old) ski boat.

It has a Y Block 292 Ford motor in it, and has unfortunately burnt out the starter motor.

Are there any petrol heads on here who might know if there is an alternative starter motor that can be fitted to this engine?

I'll suggest it, but it might be a bit hard to get up to speed when pushing a boat in the water

Hey Grumps,

The 292 is a stroked 289 found in mustangs, should be an easy replacement, take the stuffed starter out call Ford Parts and if they say yep, take the old one to compare.

Good luck.

Mintox

I thought the term "Y block" referred to the old 90 degree bank V8s, which were prior to the 60 degree bank V8s which came out in Oz in the early 60's compact fairlanes, which were i think, 260 cubic inch. They then went to 289 cubes and then 302 cubes, but all 60 degree bank.
I still think that but then what would I know? I'm just an old person and everyone knows old people don't know anything.

Anyway, the 90 degree Y blocks in aust. were most commonly the old 272 cube Customline motor from about 1955/56 on.
There were also some bigger Y blocks in the old tank failanes, which i think were 312 cubes (i think) but these were not all that common here. There was also an even bigger engine in the imported galaxies but I don't remember how big they were, other than they were wall to wall engine!

My guess is it's probably a 272 customline motor bored out to 292 cubes. That was common back then when you hotted up your Cusso or put the motor in a hot rod or speed boat.
In which case you won't get anything from the wreckers for these motors because they are now collector items and highly sought after.

This being the case your best bet is to take the motor out and sell it for a fortune to the collectors and use the money to put in a newer 302 or 351 cube falcon motor. (might be a bit of work because the mounts are totally different.)
Otherwise, take the starter motor to an electrics place and see if they can rebuild it.

Make sure they don't junk the motor because if it is a customline motor it is worth money. Even as a wreck.

FormulaNova said...

MintoxGT said...

Hey Grumps,

The 292 is a stroked 289 found in mustangs, should be an easy replacement, take the stuffed starter out call Ford Parts and if they say yep, take the old one to compare.

Good luck.

Mintox

I don't know much about this Y-block, but the 289 was a Windsor motor in the same series as the 302 (Windsor). According to this Wiki page, the Windsor replaced the Y-block.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Windsor_engine

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Y-block_engine

They do say that the 292 crank was used to stroke the 289 out to a 340, but I am pretty sure that even though the cranks could be used with some machining, that they are completely different engines.

I agree though that you need to contact a Ford specialist and see if they know if there is an alternative.

Can you get the existing starter rebuilt?

Fair call,

Far out 1962, have you got a pic of it???

I would also guess that Deerings or similar could rebuild it.

Mintox

did the auto sparky say whays wrong with it any thing is fixable with the right gear give send us a pm if you want and well se what we can do

pics pretty please!!!!!!

thanks

thanks grumps ...that picture made me feel 8 years old...dad and grandad had a clinker hull with a 289 windsor and straight through pipes...starting that thing at 6am was the only outrageous thing my grandad ever did.....but he used to say it would only wake the neighbours up for a couple of minutes untill we cleared out across the bay to a deserted spot

That is a nice boat!