Technical Tunnel Port 427...how streetable are they?

I just picked up a '67 sideoiler block with two crank shafts (stock and an Eagle stroker), a pair of reworked Tunnel Port heads and the dual 4V dual plane intake. Seems like a fitting setup to replace the 390 in the '55 Crown Victoria. Or is it...

Would love to hear from anyone who has run a Tunnel Port in a street car, especially if it was/is stroked.

I fear those ports will be lousy for torque, but the cool factor makes it tough to resist. What was your experience with a street car running a Tunnel Port?

 

4 speed with enough rear gear, it'll work great. Don't worry about it. Build it, have fun!

 

Currently has a 390 with a T-10...which would be replaced by a Toploader or TKO 600...and there's a 4.56 with a Detroit Locker on a shelf...

 

Throw that Eagle crank in the trash! Look around online at how many failures their cranks have, I have a friend that just lost a block because of an Eagle crank, be a shame to screw up a 427. Sounds like you have a nice combination of parts there.

 

I know a guy running one on the street right now. Lots of FUN!

 

Be sure to replace the sodium filled exhaust valves with heavier solid stemmed valves. Sodium filled exhaust valves will erode from the inside if they are not heated daily. There are horror stories of 427 Ford engines destroyed by sodium filled exhaust valves that broke when engine was started after a long period of sitting.

 

They like to rev and high rev cruising is a rush. From what I have read they didn't have good manners on the track. LOL

What will keep you from driving it on the street will be gasoline. Setting it up will be somewhat if a balancing act, you have to keep your compression high enough to run with the heads and low enough to run on whatever fuel you have available. keeping your quench tight is going to be a must do thing. I believe it can be done though.

 

Traction will be a problem. There just isn't enough room with stock wheel wells to get a tire that would handle that much torque. Cool factor is up there and you will be the only one at a car show.

 

I'd replace the valves too, all of them. I had a customer that wouldn't listen to us and he paid for it, dropped a valve and broke his shit, bad.

 

maybe, maybe not. I run a 7" slick on my Chevy II, and it will run ten flat in the quarter mile, with a blown 427 chevy engine. It does ok on the street with a L78 bias ply tire. The altered wheelbase helps a lot

 

I'm not a huge fan of Eagle either, I saw a thread on Club Cobra that scared me. Keith Craft was installing them into his all-aluminum 482 FE's, many were going into accurate Cobra replicas and they were run on road courses. Didn't last, massive destruction wiped out almost every part of it... $22k to replace. Ouch.

 

Besides, you want to build a 427, not some modern stroker motor.

 

How can I tell if these are sodium filled? There's a chance I can track down the builder...if so I'd guess it's the only tunnel port set he's done recently.

 

Several builders have suggested a stroker combination will assist in compensating for the oversized ports at high elevation. (I live at 4500 feet.) Anyone from Colorado running a tunnel port? Perhaps that's not so important...

 

What car is it in? I'd like to learn more about his combination of parts.

 

I used to have a Tunnel Port in a 67 Fairlane. It also had the 2X4 intake, but it was a single plane. It was not streetable in the least bit. But it had a really long duration cam, 13:1 compression. If you want to run 7000 rpm on the street, then have fun. The ports and valves are too large for street use in my opinion. You could drop an apple down those suckers.

 

I'm not a Ford guy but I think it would be Bad ass.

 

I used to think big ports were going to be a serious problem on the street, until I built a rectangular port 454 with a pretty mild cam and not a lot of compression, and put it in front of a relatively low rpm drivetrain..it was still a blast to drive, and I didn't have any issues with bogging, etc. Make all the parts work together, and the large ports and valves won't really be an issue. I think most of the horror stories come from seriously mismatched combinations.

I'm also not a ford guy, but I think it would be bad ass too. You never see this stuff on the street, and putting it on the street = fun!

 

hope that you get this sorted out, sounds like you can not take anything for granted. as you know, nothing like the torque of a big block. close ratio top loader with modest rear gears would be good for street driving - medium riser intake - genuine 427 factory exhaust manifolds: both will help give you clearance for install and plenty of performance.

 

Can anyone name a renowned FE builder who is likely to have dealt with a similar combination? Someone who has a shop full of FE's continually, not one a year.

 

You are not going to find much in the way of meaningful feedback here, you could try Jay Browns FE Power forum, and when you go there, post a pic of the face of the exhaust valves. I'm a member there, I find the format more user friendly than the other FE forum. Speedtalk may be worth a shot as well, but doesn't have as high a concentration of FE builders.

FWIW, if that stuff was built recently, it will almost certainly not have the sodium filled exhausts.

 

Larry Kalsch, Hillsboro Oregon

 

X2 on a trip to the FE Forum http://www.network54.com/Forum/74182
and or the FE Power Forum http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/

As far as builders, some heavy players are Barry Rabotnick at Survival Motorsports, Blair Patrick Racing, and Brent Lykins at Lykins Motorsports. I believe that Lykins has been working with a client to refine a tunnel port combo with a client over the last few years, so I'm sure he has some real work experience in what will and won't work.

 

The network54 forum is good, lots of feedback, I just find that format with every answer under another dropdown menu REALLY awkward to use. But yes, lots of good info there.
Lykins is on Jays forum pretty much daily...

 

Thanks guys, all of this is helpful. There's a lot of ways to go wrong and a narrow path to get it right. The more I think about it I'm leaning towards a true period build, using a Toploader, etc. Essentially the car any of you might have built or raced against in 1969. I seriously considered going straight axle on this prior because I couldn't imagine fitting headers any other way, but now that I know shorty units exist it will maintain this stance.

 

that car is stunning, PLEASE don't put a straight axle in it!! Toploader and tunnel wedge would be killer. I just have a ho-hum 428, so no first hand experience with sodium valves.

 

I have friend running two of them,both have been in constant use for 20+ years! One in a 54 F100 street truck,C-6,3.55 gear,runs great!!The other is in his 21 foot boat,uses a 428 crank for 440 inches,will idle all day long,pulls his grand kids around on tubes,etc.,pulls water skiers,runs great!! I agree with everyone,GET RID of the STOCK valves!!Your 55 Crown is BEAUTIFUL!! ROY.

 

If it's street manners you're after, run a stroker crank, that will make those ports more useful at lower RPM. That also appears to be a service replacement block, so should have the oil passages for hydraulic lifters. Use a mid-duration hydraulic roller cam and don't over-carb it. That will make more power than street tires will hold unless you tub the car.

I had a 'sleeper' OT Cougar with a 455" medium riser combo in the 70s that would light the tires when you mashed the throttle at 60 mph in 4th gear...

That's a very nice Crown; don't street freak it!

 

That Crown Vic is a beauty.
As to the subject of headers; the best money spent will be a set of custom headers, that TP will return the love. Won't be easy (or cheap) though.

 

You don't need shorties in your '55 and stock manifolds will perform better.

I guess I am all screwed up but I have driven tunnel port motors and other 427s and for all intents and purposes a 427 medium rise is way more motor then you will ever use. Granted you don't get the bragging rights but it is still way more engine than you will ever use. That is not to say that you should not build the tunnel I would if I had one.

Most of us would not have built or owned a tunnel port in '69 by the way, most of us just didn't have the credentials and damned few were sold to the public.