Cammer

One of the nicknames for the Ford 427 SOHC. My unicorn since 1983 when I first read about it as an actual living engine and not just some blurb in a book or magazine.

I grew up with Chevy’s. I was fascinated with the 327, 302, and Grumpy Jenkins’s 331’s. As I got older my focus shifted onto the Big Block Chevy. The 427 being my fave. I was introduced to a guy while in high school who had a 1969 Roadrunner and that was the start of my education in the Pentastar. Of course the 426 Hemi was high on the list.

Fords were always a little confusing to me. 427, 428, 429. Really? One cubic inch difference? What was Ford thinking?

In 2010 my Ford education was about to begin when I found an ebay auction for a 427 SOHC engine block and a set of heads, all from the same seller and they’re in Simi California! Perfect. I’m in California too.

I gave it a shot and won. A couple of months later there’s an induction system on ebay. Dual quad manifold with carburetors and linkage. Dive back into the whacky world of ebay and try my luck once again and, Tah-DAh!! I win again!!

This is getting stupid expensive and that’s exactly the ongoing theme with the Cammer. There’s no such thing as a budget build 427 SOHC. Obsessions suck.

I get a little surprise when the seller for the intake and carbs gets ahold of me. He wants to make certain that I know what I bought and that it isn’t for a conventional Ford FE. I assure him that I know what I bid on. I tell him about the block and heads I won and that satisfies him. He had been watching that auction and was curious who took them home. The guy’s name is Les and from him I find out who I can tap for some of the other parts I need. Very helpful. I didn’t find out till a couple of years later that Les is the US distributor for a guy in Australia named Paul Munroe who sold kits for the Cammer engine. When I picked up the block and heads from Simi Valley, the seller showed me a copy of Hot Rod magazine with an article about the SOHC build, This issue named a few sources for parts. This combined with information from Les, I was able to start piecing this engine together.

I heard about a guy named Barry Rabotnick who has an engine building shop called Survival Motorsports. I called Barry and he helped me figure out the large chunks I needed. He set me up with a crank, pistons and few other parts.

The 427 SOHC was built for NASCAR in 1965 but was banned by them before it even made one lap. It was a high winding engine designed to redline around 8000 rpm. It eventually found its way into Drag Racing.

The engine was never an option in a production line vehicle but a few cars did roll out of Dearborn with this engine for a few select clients. There’s a magazine article from the day talking about how the engine was a dog below 4 grand but above that, it was a rocket. Basically, this engine wasn’t very good on the street.

Just about every story I read concerning a build of this engine today uses a 4.25 stroker crank to give the builder a 482. I didn’t want to do that. I did want a little more stroke to help the alleged soggy bottom end though.

In 2011, the only crank with a 3.98 stroke was for a 428, cast and externally balanced. I wanted a forged crank that was internally balanced. Another thing outside of the ordinary was my choice of connecting rod. From the people I talked to, people with experience working on the SOHC, I learned that one common issue with the high winding Fords was that the connecting rod bearings were too narrow and had a tendency to spin at high speeds. One trick back in the day was to machine the crank to accept 426 Hemi rods. These used a much wider bearing and went a long way in keeping the bearings where they belong. Today, the con rod of choice is the Big Block Chevy.

In the end, I had to special order a billet crankshaft with a 3.98 stroke, internally balanced using standard Ford main bearings and BBC connecting rods.

10 years later, a crank like this is an off the shelf item. SMH.

I have continued to buy pieces and parts for this engine but in the meantime, this rare block is being used as a mock-up in the car.

Like everything else to this point, not even something as simple as dropping an engine block into this car was simple.

It took a little more than expected.