There are some things in life that will never change. Take for example the old adage that "oil is cheap insurance." With crude oil selling for over $100 a barrel the average person probably doesn't get it, but to any gearhead it's obvious that the oil in their engine should be clean and provide the right lubrication. This makes all the sense in the world, as oil is the internal combustion engine's lifeblood. It determines whether an engine will die a slow, grinding death, or if it will vanish instantly in a terrible explosion.
Narrowing our sights to the subject of how to prevent such a tragedy occurring to an older engine that has now become relatively rare and an increasingly expensive proposition to rebuild we have focused on the Y-block engine, Ford's first series of overhead valve V-8s.
Introduced in the 1954 F-100 (first year for all Fords) with a 239ci displacement, the 239 engine was manufactured for one year only with 863,096 units produced. By 1955 the displacement of the Y-block had increased to 272 ci. There are several improvements that can be made to the oiling system of a Y-block engine. The first is to replace the canister-style oil filter found on '54-'56 F-100 Y-block engines with a spin-on type oil filter. Coinciding with the Y-block's debut, WIX filters introduced the spin-on type oil filter to the world in 1954, but it wasn't until '57 that Ford Motor Company became one of the first manufacturers to offer spin-on oil filters as standard equipment. Bearing in mind that the canister-type oil filter on Y-block engines has been obsolete for over 50 years, it is not hard to understand why locating a replacement cartridge on the shelf at your local auto parts store is next to impossible. Of course there are advertisers in this magazine that stock high-quality oil filter cartridges, but that requires planning ahead-we all know how hard that is.
Right off the top, there are several good reasons to convert a Y-block motor to a spin-on-type oil filter. First and foremost, the spin-on-type oil filter is a more sophisticated design, incorporating an anti-drainback valve that prevents dirty oil from running back into the engine and keeps the oil-filter full so the engine achieves oil-pressure faster. In addition, there is a bypass valve that serves multiple functions. The bypass valve opens when the filter isn't capable of passing enough oil because the filter material is clogged (dirty), the cold oil is thick at startup, or the oil pressure is elevated due to high rpm. Last but not least, the filtering media in a spin-on filter is better because the more expensive spin-on filters use higher-quality synthetic materials, as opposed to the paper that's used in cheap oil filters. The synthetic media traps more dirt particles and flows more oil per square inch.
 1.The Y-block oil-filter canister...  1.The Y-block oil-filter canister is located on the driver side of the engine. This is a top view. |  2.This is a view of the oil-filter...  2.This is a view of the oil-filter canister from below. Notice that it is next to the Y-block's oil pump. |  3.We used a 12-inch adjustable...  3.We used a 12-inch adjustable wrench to remove the oil drain plug, because it can fit the drain plug snugly and not round the corners off like some flunky at a "Quickie-Lube." |
 4.We used a 3/4-inch box wrench...  4.We used a 3/4-inch box wrench to remove the bolt retaining the canister to the block. |  5.One of the distinct advantages...  5.One of the distinct advantages of converting the canister type oil filter to a spin-on type is not having to flush out all of the dirty oil that must be cleaned out of the canister before it can be reinstalled. |  6.Here's the genuine Ford...  6.Here's the genuine Ford spin-on oil-filter adapter kit that we got from Sacramento Vintage Ford Parts. The finger tip indicates a "TOP" marking on the backing plate that signifies it must be placed with "TOP" pointing straight up (12 o'clock) position. |