In 1964, Ford's overhead-cam 427 V8, popularly known as the Cammer, was born -- and it soon became the stuff of myth and legend. Here's the story behind the story, told with rare facts and photos.... Cammer--the real story of the legendary Ford 427 SOHC V8 | Mac's Motor City Garage.com
Don't know if you've seen it or not, Bill, but there's a thread on here somewhere that I posted back in 2012 with lots of entries from members with some interesting photos and stories about these killer engines. If you can find it and link it here all of the info could be viewed in one place............Don.
Did the cammer come with different styles of heads to choose from? Just noticed the pic above has the sparkplugs entering at the bottom of the valve covers as opposed to the top, which is common.
Disregard, I just read the first bit of the article and found out that the early motors had the plugs on the bottom side. Never knew that before!!
Great read!!! Thanks for sharing. As far as the head I understood that they experimented with the spark plug location.
I was a car crazy 10 year old when the cammer appeared on the cover of hot rod... after that there was no redemption.
In 1966 I was working as parts manager for a Ford dealer. One day I got some literature from Ford regarding SOHC engines that were available. The dealer price was around 3 grand which was about the same price as a new car. Don't know if they were off loading all the leftovers or what. Wish I could have bought a couple dozen and rat holed them for 50 years.
Great article as usual, I always look forward to your threads. They are always very informative with great pictures.
I found that part of the story fascinating -- they spent untold hours perfecting the combustion chamber shape, only to learn it didn't much matter.
The September 1994 issue of Super Ford magazine has a definitive article on the development of the Ford 427 SOHC Cammer engine. The article goes into great detail of the changes made from the first series, which had the spark plugs on the lower side of the valve covers and canted valves to the second and current series which have the spark plug tubes on top of the valve covers and opposed valves (Hemi) which increased the horsepower output over 100 more than the previous series.
Here are some stroboscope videos of valve testing showing the spring oscillations and valve float on a SOHC.
I found this very interesting Bill. It is proof at least one was sold to the public. Wonder where it is today.
More threads on the cammer on the HAMB. Several more using cammer in search box. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/ford-427-sohc-engines.761572/ http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/okay-let-see-some-cammers.499248/
Damn they are one sexy looking engine. What were the production numbers?? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
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