Cast or Alloy
It’s only money…
20 years plus worth of money but we won’t talk about that..
WE WON’T TALK ABOUT THAT!!!
and this is what started this whole project. The cast iron 427 side oiler block. Hard enough to find as a regular block but add the holes towards the back of the deck that serve as oil drain back holes for the Single Overhead Camshaft heads and this piece just becomes a whole lot harder to find.
Many of these engines found their way into top fuel racing and though competitive, the main webs could not stand up to the abuse that a full pass on Nitro methane would exert on these blocks. From what I could find, it would take more than one block to get through a full weekend of racing.
The Cammer heads could bolt onto any FE block but of course the bores must be large enough to clear the valves. I haven’t seen what the clearance would be like with these heads on a 390. Maybe they’d work, I don’t know but physically the head will bolt onto an FE block.
I found out, years ago, that with the shortage of Cammer blocks, with a simple modification of a regular side oiler block, a 427 sohc engine can be built. All it requires are a couple of oil lines tapped into the back of the heads and into the back of the engine block to allow the engine to drain from the heads to the oil pan. Some people prefer this method as they say that the returning oil does not drain onto the spinning crankshaft which could affect the rotating assembly at higher rpms. apparently, this is something that can happen with the proper rear drain back blocks.
Don’t care. I’m keeping the proper block, hang the performance, I want to be visually appropriate.
I plan to get a little stupid with this engine in the Mustang. You don’t build an engine like this and not want to see how it performs but at the same time, that could be wrought with a big dose of Oh Shit! I’m very concerned about blowing this block up.
It could happen.
If I blow this block up, there is little chance of finding another FoMoCo Cammer block, not one that doesn’t require a sleeve or two that is.
I might have a solution to this quandary.
Break open the piggy bank and get an aluminum block from Robert Pond Motorsports..
If I blow this up, I’m really doing things wrong.
This block is rated at 2500 hp. I think the stock block is rated to 1500?
It’s about 80 pounds lighter but the best part is if I blow this one up, if it’s not too bad, it can be repaired and at the very worst, there are replacements..