Ford 427 SOHC Hemi ?

[Greg Myers]

Oh My ! and a bundle of snakes, too.

[Greg Myers]

Hot, hot, hot

[Force]

Oh My ! and a bundle of snakes, too.

That's the 255 Indy engine from 1965, it's loosely based on the 221-260-289-302 cui 90-Degree engine family, not the FE.

This engine can be found in the old IMC and Testors Ford GT 40 kits.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Force

[1930fordpickup]

Hot, hot, hot

That poor dyno.

[Force]

That poor dyno.

The 427 SOHC produced 616 hp with a single 4bbl carburator and this could for sure have been just that pull.

[Dan Helferich]

I remember the first article I read about the SOHC 427 in 1964. The engine was in a '64 Galaxie and the article began something like this, " This engine will propel the car to Michigan's liberal 70 MPH speed limit, in first gear."

[Cato]

With today's cam profiles and new heads from Robert Pond and Bill Coon, 775+HP in the 7500 RPM range is easily achieved. They are usually displacing 482 cubic inches in the aftermarket blocks.

[Force]

The SOHC from 1964 pulled 616 hp - 515 ft/lbs with one 4 bbl carb on the dyno as I said, and 657 hp - 575 ft/lbs with dual 4 bbl carbs back then wich wasn't bad at all for an engine developed in 90 days and 425 cubic inches...yes the Ford 427 is really "only" 425 cui.

The aftermarket FE blocks today are a lot sturdier than the original blocks and can have over size bore and longer stroke wich you can't do much of in an original 427, the original 427's was a bit fragile and didn't like much "over" stroke even tho' it had cross bolted mains, high cylinder pressures wasn't that good for the original block either as the cylinders were quite thin (a friend of mine says it has cylinders strong as card board tubes...and he's not far from right ), the original stroke was 3.78" (same as 390) and the cylinder bore was 4.23" (the 390 has 4.05" and the 428 has 4.13") and you could only over bore it maximum .030" if a sonic check allows it, if the block needs an over bore and not pass the sonic your expensive rare 427 block is only good for a boat ancor.

The original SOHC engine blocks had an oil drain back holes from the heads in the lower back on each side wich is not present on regular FE's and the aftermarket blocks has provisions for those holes and can be drilled if you want to do a SOHC...the oil drain back from the heads can also be done with outside oil lines back to the oil pan if the drain back holes aren't there.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Force

[Cato]

the original 427's was a bit fragile and didn't like much "over" stroke even tho' it had cross bolted mains, high cylinder pressures wasn't that good for the original block either as the cylinders were quite thin (a friend of mine says it has cylinders strong as card board tubes...and he's not far from right ),

The original SOHC engine blocks had an oil drain back holes from the heads in the lower back on each side wich is not present on regular FE's and the aftermarket blocks has provisions for those holes and can be drilled if you want to do a SOHC...the oil drain back from the heads can also be done with outside oil lines back to the oil pan if the drain back holes aren't there.

My iron, standard bore, 427SO sonic-walled at .110" average on the thrust side and has lasted near 3 decades at 550HP.

Standard blocks can also easily be drilled for Cammer head oil drains.

[unclescott58]

What color was this engine painted from the factory in the day? Was it gold as shown in the one photo above? Or what?

Scott

Edited September 13, 2014 by unclescott58

[Force]

My iron, standard bore, 427SO sonic-walled at .110" average on the thrust side and has lasted near 3 decades at 550HP.

Standard blocks can also easily be drilled for Cammer head oil drains.

I don't say the 427 cylinders are weak, they are just not as strong as in many other engines, the for this engine block large bore made the casting of these blocks very demanding and expensive and that's why Ford decided to do the 428 with 4.13 bore instead of 4.23 and use 3.98 stroke instead of 3.78...cheaper and easier to manufacture.

What color was this engine painted from the factory in the day? Was it gold as shown in the one photo above? Or what?

Scott

Pre 66 the engine blocks and oil pans were black and 66 and forward blue, mostly everything else on the SOHC was aluminum or magnesium...but none of these were ever sold to the public as a complete engine...you could buy the parts for one over the counter if you had the right connections tho'.

Edited September 13, 2014 by Force

[Greg Myers]

What color was this engine painted from the factory in the day? Was it gold as shown in the one photo above? Or what?

Scott

Like any engine they were painted many colors by the factory and by the many different people putting them in one thing and another.

[Greg Myers]

also as pointed out, they are made of many different metals sometimes painted, sometimes not.

[Force]

Well Ford only had two engine colors from 1959 to way into the 1970's, so if the engines were painted at the factory it had to be either Black or Blue depending on what year it was from.

Ford painted all engines Black between 1959 up to and including the 1965 model year, and the SOHC engine was developed in 64 so the engine block and oil pan had to be Black 64 and 65, and from 1966 and forward all Ford engines were Ford Engine Blue.

But none of these engines were sold to the regular public as these were for racing only so the owners could for sure have painted them wich ever color they liked...so they could even have been unpainted raw cast iron from the factory.

Edited September 13, 2014 by Force

[Greg Myers]

I think that's what I just said.

[Force]

Yes nearly...you said the engines were painted many colors by the factory, but two different factory engine colors under the four years they were available isn't that many...so I wanted to clarify it some.

[Greg Myers]

the red and gold ones don't count ?

[Ace-Garageguy]

the red and gold ones don't count ?

Yeah, I have the Hot Rod mag that had the gold one on the cover. Pretty sure it was on Ford's dyno, factory test engine. I'll have to look it up.

[unclescott58]

the red and gold ones don't count ?

Two things I never go by in determining engine block colors from back then. Factory sales brochures and publicity photos. In the days before photographs in sales brochures, and even after, rarely were engines shown in their correct colors. Some pictures would show the engine one way on one page. And another way on the next. I'm sure a lot of engines like the gold one pictured was painted that way just for things like magazine publicity. After all a gold engine stands out better than a black one.

Scott

[Force]

Yes Ford engines for cars in any other color than black or blue between 1959 and well into the 70's are most likely just one offs for publicity shots as you say Scott, as far as I know Ford did not deliver any engines painted gold or red from the factory in any car under said years...the valve covers and air cleaners under the "black era" (59-65) were different colors (chrome, gold, silver, red, blue, white, yellow) to distinguish what specific engine version it was, but the block, heads, oil pan and intake manifold on these engines were painted black, with exceptions for aluminum, magnesium and chrome parts wich mostly were left unpainted.

Ford did have other colors for their engines in cars before 1959, red, green, bronze, dark blue, yellow, creme/ivory are some colors used, but not under the years the 427 SOHC was available...and as the SOHC wasn't on the option list for any cars from the factory and the only way to get one was "over the counter" as parts it could even had been unpainted.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Force