Just after the first of the year, Mike Smith was moving forward on wrapping up the work on my high performance Y-Block. Mike bolted down the freshly chrome-plated parts, re-installed the ignition wires and custom routed the setup, checked out the torque on the bolts, and fitted my Ford T-10 four speed (that I purchased more than a decade ago) to the ‘57 bell housing!

With the reproduction aluminum T-Bird valve covers flanking the Mummert intake, and topped-off by the metal sprayed prototype exhaust headers, this engine is looking great! As a nationally-famous IPMS aircraft modeler, Mike Smith has learned to vary “metal” colors in his engine: the bellhousing is a different tone than the body of the four speed. Lots of visual candy here!

Seen from the front side, it’s clear this isn’t just another small block Ford/Chevy anodyne engine! Many parts were chrome plated: valley cover, oil pan, pulleys, fan, exterior oil system (driver’s side), oil fill tube, all mounting brackets, and a handful of small parts. Against the background of the red paint, this is a beautiful engine that will easily light up the rear tires – a LOT of custom machining, and a custom turned cam by Chris Nielsen, will wake up the engine especially when fed by the exceptionally rare Mercury 4150 four barrel carb.

With the four speed bolted to the bell housing, the entire setup is really long! That’s a vintage mid-Sixties shift ball – just another of the small details that will distinguish this car from the run-of-the-mill modified ‘57 Ford.

Check out the metal sprayed Sanderson prototype headers! The carefully, equal-length, tubes will help produce maximum torque and horsepower. We got these prototypes from Chris Nielsen who designed and assembled them to be used as the prototype for later production Sanderson headers, whereupon they were added to the catalog. There’s a special oval plaque tack-welded to the top of the header pipe to give provenance to these headers.

The generator and starter are both freshly rebuilt, with their cases media-blasted and painted black semi-gloss using Valspar acrylic enamel. Factory authentic decals for 1957 were applied over the cured black paint.