Hello from Germany, my english isn´t the best, but what I´m see, what you show, is very helpful. I rebuild at this time my 1955 Mercury Montclair engine. I follow you ...
Great Video John, thank you for sharing the information, we talked a while ago about these connecting rods, I'm from Brazil and I'm reassembling my y-block turbo ( broken connecting rods heheuheah) I admired your work before, now you have a subscriber!
My engine builder suggested 292 blocks with 312 crank/rods/pistons due to possible cracks with 312 larger bearings. So I have two 292 engines that configuration. Also have a real 312 engine that was crack checked first. All with HE pistons from John. One is single carb, one dual carb and one supercharged with Johns intake (pressure limited to 5 PSI for HE pistons) and all built to happily spin 5500 (w/91 oct). All tire dyno tuned and many years street rod use no problem, and by no problem I mean oil leaks keep bottoms of cars from rusting no problem no matter how carefully I sealed the engines. Retired aerospace machinist so careful is a thing. Suggest dyno tuning for HE pistons and best power gain always from quality long tube headers but they ain't easy to find.
One groove is for the "throw" at the rear of the crank. Essentially this is a ridge that runs the circumference of the crank to "throw the oil off" so to speak. The other groove in the block is for your seal.
This was fairly normal design for lifters in the pre-hydraulic era & even early hydraulic lifters in Cadillac's & Packard's looked similar. The flat bottom allows plenty of contact area with the cam lobe while the skinny shank keeps the lifter bore size down, saving space, material & probably creates less friction than a big diameter shank. Don't forget this was one of Ford USA's first modern / post war engines, so some aspects are bound to be a bit dated or odd ....like the inlet ports!
