Ford 427 SOHC engines

I'd love to see more of this. Seriously cool, when most of these engines seem to be the domain of race cars, seeing them in Hot Rods is way cool.

 

That tank engine is bad-ass.

 

Yes, the car belonged to Gordon Cooper. My family and his were friends back then and the first time we visited the Cooper family in Houston I saw the car. I was about 15 and a car nut so Gordon took me out to his two garage and showed me this gold 2 door hardtop Fairlane. I think it was about a 1966 year model. He showed me the V6 emblems on the bottom of the front fenders. Then Gordon asked me to take a look inside the back seat. The battery box was on the floor. Very strange I thought. I noticed the car also had black steel rims with Firestone Wide ovals and small hubcaps. Gordon then explained the reason for the battery in the back floorboard as he opened the hood and this SOHC engine was sitting there. Seems like he had a carb on it but also had a different intake system for it. Gordon stated the carbs was more streetable. I got to ride in it! Never knew what happened to the car. Gordon said that the Ford SOHC engine was outlawed and Ford dropped 7 of these into cars for each of the original 7 Mercury astronauts.

And yes, that is a Cobra Daytona coupe in the gag picture! I restored it back when they were not available in glass! As you can see Daytona was tough on the nose of the car!

 

There is an interview with Connie Kalitta in one of the last HOT Rod mags and he thought highly of the SOHC engine and not so much of the Boss 429. We had a hand in a SOHC Maverick drag car as well as a Boss 429 drag car and pull tractor and we favored the 429. Unbelievable flow rates on massaged heads. A 1956 Ford with the SOHC engine won the 2009 Ridler award--they are beautiful.

 

Great information and pictures, guys, thanks for posting.

 

back in the 20th Century

 

OK now that this is back from the dead I have a "few" to contribute LOL. As you can guess one of my Favorite engines. Sorry if any reposts but too many to pick and chose. you maybe be able to see more info on what they are by right clicking photo and select "view image info" then read the file name.





















continued below

 

Original Exhaust manifolds






Twisted intake









Fake modern injection

 

Experimental gear drive





Holman Moody Cammer

 

Les Ritchey cammer with webers






PRO STOCK cammer




Don the snake








FAKE??




shelby super snake





super snake again

 

Webbers

 

The image "fake modern fuel injection" is a Coyote Ford. Great looking engine though.

 

I was at Les Ritchey's Performance Associates shop in Covina in early '66 doing some sign work when Charlie Gray pulled into the driveway in that rust colored Galaxie. A friend of mine asked Charlie if he could open the hood and motioned me over...SOHC...a very impressive street driver.

 

Had a friend back in day purchased a new Mustang w/ that engine, KOOL looking to say the least, He was not a car guy that knew alot, just had a good factory job, Ford guy, bought it to compete w/ BBC Camaro, Nicky Camaro, Mopar Hemi, for Milwaukee Wisconsin street racing program. He was not very successful w/ it and it was back at the dealer as much as he had it, sold/traded it, took the big hit, bought another Ford Mustang, thinking 429 ? Mustang, much better car for him and it did not have go back to dealer constantly, have not seen him in years, but I'm sure he drives Fords, A Ford Man for sure !

 

.....................He must have had some serious connections.

 

That part I do not remember, I just remember red Mustang W/ cammer, and alot of problems. I was a Chevy guy, did not have any muscle cars, when I made enough money to buy one, had gotten into so much trouble street racing, could not get insurance, drove carefully w/o insurance. And always paid cash for cars, could not get insurance till I was 25/married, then I bought a new PU to tow midget car racer, as that was where my interest went after street racing, played 21 years dizzy track dirt, ending career w/ 410 wing sprint car. FUN ! FUN! FUN !

 

Wow Loudbang, I did that very thing after seeing that shot of the "Long Gone" Mustang.
It wasn't the car that caught my eye as much as the location, as that was taken at Oregons' Woodburn Dragstrip which is about 25 miles from where I live. I've spent a lot of time there over the last 45 years, including a short period of running a car of my own there.
I won't show the car as I owned it because of the HAMBs' cutoff year and the mods that the car went through but if no one minds, here is a shot of it in its original iteration.
I will gladly remove this photo if it offends anyones HAMB sensibilities.
It was campaigned by Portlands Bill Ireland as one of Fords factory backed 427 SOHC powered Pro Stockers.
I try to get the word out when I can about finding information or photos of it.



Loudbang
Not sure which site you found the Mustang on but this is a pretty good read for those who have not seen it.
http://blog.dearbornclassics.com/long-gone-1965-mustang-427-sohc-afx/

 

Had a neighbor in Keller tx, middle to late 70s that had a 1970 mustang with soch with single 4 barrel. Drag race only car with B/S marking on side. On a slant bed chevy 1 ton truck with spare parts. Begged me to buy at 6500 dollars for everything. Muscle cars were dime a dozen, couldn't give them away

 

I remember that hitting mid seventies, could buy BBC chevelles, camaros, Hemi cars $1500/2000+ tons of them in the Milwaukee area, brother in-law sold his split widow vette Knock off wheels, side pipes, 2X4 327 4 speed posi, for big $$$ 3000. ALL OF US say this, if I knew then what I know now, would have bought and stored, but then who had the money for that, married, kids, house and racing hobby by then. Should have bought Microsoft, when it was a penny stock. My signature covers it !

 

I recall a couple of HOT ROD Magazine articles from years ago; one was about a guy with an early Sixties Galaxy that ran a 427 SOHC on the street. Another one was a '33/'34 Ford 3-window that also had one with a supercharger on it and was also a regular street car...I can only imagine what that must have been like!

 

Great thread.Please keep the updates coming.
Leo.

 

I thought JIM GREEN cornered them all....

 

You now can piece a complete aluminum SOHC engine from after market parts . Ford produced approx 500 of them for after market racing applications only. These engines were every bit as powerful as Chyslers hemi in TF and produced power over a wider RPM range . The two biggest reasons these were abandon in drag racing was maintenance of the long chain between rounds and the low volume produced for a short time among other reasons.
Pete Robinson was the master of these contraptions and in his "Tinker Toy" He eliminated the Chain with a gear drive set up to drive the cams.
Some of the guys here that have been around longer than I could probably give some pretty bad assed accounts at the track of these engines...
If you are interested in collecting enough parts to build one of these you can contact Robert Pond Racing and I am sure Holbrook in Livonia Michigan could direct you in finding some bits and pieces...

 

That was two reasons, but the biggies were the difficulty of pulling a head (requiring re-timing the cams) and in TF, the blocks had a tendency to split in half in the lifter galley under high nitro loads. Ford supposedly was going to come out with some beefed-up FE blocks for the blown fuel cammers, but pulled the plug on them after developing the boss 429.

 

Good stuff. Can you believe I actually SAW this car in action a few times.

 

Between round maintenance on a Boss 429 would be a test for steady hands also.
Imagine trying to keep all them little o-rings in place hoping none fall off inside the engine when your bolting a head down.

 

A number of these SOHC engines have been modified to use external mounted cog belt drives for the camshafts.



The first one I saw using this drive system was custom built by Oregon drag racer Larry Kalsch. This was one of his SOHC powered drag cars, a 395 incher in a B/SR.
You can just make out one of the cam drive pulleys sticking through the hood side opening.

 

Pre-production prototype