What is the differences on a Marine 427? Not familiar with them at all.. reverse rotation?I heard some mutterings that the heads were different as in smaller chambers and or ports.
I have a 1965 marine 427 out of a Chris Craft . It was cast as a side oiler but machined as a center oiler. It was rated at 300 hp and has mostly garden variety 390 internals except the pistons which are of course sized for the 427 bore . The heads are nothing special. Some were reverse rotation but mine is a standard rotation . The difference there would be camshaft , distributor and here’s the big one the striating in the crank for the rear main seal is designed to work with reverse rotation . This means that in reverse rotation they pull the oil away from the seal but use it in standard rotation they will push oil towards the seal ( spell that big leak ). If you can find one the block is a perfect candidate for a build .
The reverse rotation came in with paired power units on the big Chris Crafts etc, prop drives would cancel each other out. One has to be careful in checking out a marine block- usually OK if it had a closed cooling system, but raw water units need to be checked carefully. Raw fresh water is bad enough, but if it's seen salt, might be a mess inside
While this looks a bit Frankenstein-ish (possibly even a good thing), properly done brazing is actually very strong. I would very carefully check that the main caps are correct, with the right size spacers for the side bolts as well. And of course the finish "machining" or filing of the repairs could be improved on this block.
The reason I asked about the lack of cross bolted mains is back in the mid 60's my buddy and I looked at any 427 galaxies sitting on the used car lot. We found 2 427 4v galaxies without cross bolted mains. All 2x4 engine had the 4 bolted mains.
Mildly interesting FE boat mount on C-list today $1500 Nicson front mount with starter cap and vertical bolt Holman Moody wet manifolds .
I dated a girl 40 years ago whose Dad had an early 1963 Galaxie box top that he ordered in 1963. It came as a Q code single 4bbl. He had the dealer get him the proper parts to make it a dual quad car. It sure sounded good!
Speaking of '63 Boxtops, I loved this add which pontificated about the attributes of the 406 Ford. You can tell that Ak is loving the opportunity to let it all hang out!! Side note...That's the same Devin as in my avatar. It has been residing in the same building for many years, just rotting away... The 427 still on board....
If we're talking about 427 Gt500, the photo (on page 4) of the 427 with crossbolted mains came from this GT500, one of the original 3 Ford factory race cars, it was sent back to Holman-Moody who took the car back down and rebuilt it for the street. People can do some really dumb things. It was done back in the 80's, they must not have known how valuable it was in the original race form, it was not a 'street friendly' car, but it was the real deal.
Also to add, all of the marine blocks that I have run across have had brass screw-in freeze (or core if you prefer) plugs vs the more common steel ones. Good blocks to start with because they usually were not abused too badly if they had closed cooling systems
I also know of a guy that traded his 427 out of his 64 galaxies for a 390 from his friends Fairlane. Wanted better gas mileage!!!!
The Jalopy Journal
