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

Hydraulic??!! Sweet jesus, its an FE! Hydraulic anything in an FE should be a criminal offence! Cripes, that's like putting a hyd cam in a DZ Z-28!

And seriously, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over bottom end torque. Id be more concerned about getting my hands on some drag radials...

 

LOL ear plugs.

Hey you got mail and I got a cam question for ya.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with an earlier post, please don't put a straight axle under that beautiful Crown Vic! IMO, putting a straight axle under that car would be a mortal sin!!!!
As for Eagle cranks, I have a friend who builds engines, many for racing only, that builds almost all of them with an Eagle rotating assembly, and doesn't seem to have a problem with them, and many are on nitrous.
Really would like to hear more on that issue.

 

Yeah, it's a bit of heresy but adjusting the valves on a solid-lifter combo can get old quickly; I hated that on mine. Modern hydraulics give up very little in terms of performance these days, and should be cheaper than a solid roller setup....

You do lose that cacophony of valve noise that says 'let's race!' though...

 

Love your car...I was brought home from from the hospital after birth in the front seat of a '65 Comet. Seventeen years later I totaled it on my way to school...

Wow...a somewhat heavy truck, not using a 4-speed, not stroked and a modest gear ratio. This should work.

 

I am old and out of touch and I know it but I couldn't understand building a race motor and not wanting to adjust valves, of course I couldn't understand building a street motor with race heads either. I am so confused.

 

Actually it's a solid lifter block, but I'd likely convert it to hydraulic.
I'm just whacked enough to enjoy street freaks...I saw them when I was in 7th grade and very impressionable...but that's not happening with this one.

 

If you're familiar with the frame of the '55 it's incredibly unfriendly to header construction. If it were a race car and inner fenders weren't important I'd do fenderwell units in a heartbeat. The other alternative is a Thunderbolt-type multi-piece unit, but they would have to snake under the front suspension and frame...it's not consistent with the profile of the car.

I'd LOVE to see anyone who has a better exhaust solution for an FE in a '55.

 

All 427 (and 406) blocks were solid-lifter-only blocks up through '67. No way to convert them, the casting didn't have material in the right places to drill for them. In '68 (the last year the 427 was offered in any production car), Mercury installed a 390HP hydraulic-cammed version in the Cougar with a changed casting drilled to allow hydraulic lifters. This casting became the service replacement block for all 427 motors. You could still run solid lifters, but it should be already drilled for hydraulics.

 

Uh I raced a '55 in '69. I have owned a few and yes if you want to run an FE in a '55 you will need a bunch of snakes or you could kill it with street rod shit. Your choice it just seems a shame to take heads that are made to breath and breath deep and choke 'em.

 

Headers.... http://www.fordpowertrain.com/fpaindex/Fordpassenger1.htm

These are shorty headers, anything else will have to be custom-built.

 

Hell Steve you are old enough to remember '69 we had to build things like that back then as I recall and anyone running a tunnel port would have had custom headers built.

 

This is the only way to get an FE in and not have major issues with the exhaust. Beats the manifolds the 390 has been running, but not the ultimate solution. My friends with Kirkham Motorsports will build custom if I need it, but it will set me back $5k. It's a balance issue as you're all aware.

 

Does this help you know if it's a service block Steve?

 

I'm having its bore checked now, to be followed by sonic testing. Gotta get the foundation right first.

 

I saw a guy do a set of trophy truck headers down here in 2 .5 days from start to finish and they were super complicated... Turned out absolutely beautiful ,I think they were in the $2k range ... Not next door to you but 3k cheaper!

 

5K for headers is not friends price. LOL

I am not the Ford expert that say Steve is but I am pretty sure that they don't make manifolds for those heads. maybe there were some factory cast headers made to satisfy the NASCAR requirements to sell 500 to the public. I know that in '65 the 427 medium rise came with cast headers on the cars that they sold to the public.

I do hope you make it work it would be cool to know of someone who has. Well that and I haven't seen a hard chargin '55 in a long while.

 

One disaster raises eyebrows, when a few others mention a similar problem suddenly it's an epidemic. With that said...
There's a friend of mine who has a Ram Air IV Pontiac pushing 575 hp on an Eagle assembly. He runs it hard, zero issues.
I have an Eagle that was pulled from an aluminum FE stroker with a crack in it. That engine was abused before I got it, so it's hard to blame Eagle.
The guy on the Cobra forum with major destruction had the journals photographed under high magnification. There are distinct machining lines in the corner, and it cracked along one of these. Other units under similar magnification were as rounded as they appear to the naked eye.
I've zero idea how big an issue it is, but I will be asking about their failure rates as I discuss this with FE builders.

 

To be fair I asked him to build them from stainless. I know the raw material alone is crazy expensive. The supports the exhaust passes through make it a miserable project.

 

I have a different take on that. To my way of thinking (this is gonna be HAMB heresy, so plug your ears) the idea that pulling the valve covers off a performance motor every couple of months is a bad thing is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard. I know its "all the rage" these days, and the magazines LOVE it, but its not for me. A hot rod is not a refrigerator.
While you are in there lashing the valves, you are (or should be at least) doing a visual inspection of the springs and retainers, looking at, smelling and rubbing the oil between your fingers, hopefully noticing if the lash on an exhaust valve has tightened (early warning for detonation), and inspecting the pushrods. Since 90% of catastrophic failures in high perf engines start in the valvetrain, its difficult to imagine why anyone would see this as an inconvenience.
An example. Just recently, a sbc powered car I own developed a squeak at the front of the engine, just when it starts or stops turning. I used a stethoscope, its coming from under the timing cover, so right away, I figure the top timing gear has started chewing up the cam thrust surface, its a common issue with big spring pressure on SBC's.
So I throw a timing light on it, timing is moving around when I wing the motor from 3500. Yup, cam is walking. I drain the oil, theres about a 1/4 teaspoon of cast iron at the bottom, and some on the drain plug. So the immediate question in my mind is "oh oh, how long has this been developing?" Well, I'd just lashed the valves a week before, and the oil was spotless then, so I can figure its just started. Shut it off and walk away, I'll be pulling the motor, and damage will probably be pretty minimal.
The point is, having the valve covers off regularly keeps you on an intimate basis with whats going on inside your motor, which means you catch things sooner rather than later, and in my mind, that's well worth a couple hours of time every month or so.

 

A neat old motor like that deserves mild steel headers, painted with white VHT

 

IMO, a hot rod without that cacophony just aint a hot rod. And it aint for anyone else, its for ME. When I am driving down the street with my window down, and that glorious sound is rebounding back at me off the door of the escalade in the next lane, well, that's IT BABY. Sometimes I just cant help it, I gotta reach over, pop it down a gear, and STAB IT, HARD! that's why none of my shit is pulling pussy 3.08 gears either.
I just spent several months, and a bunch of extra ching hunting up rockers for the rocket that going in the "family" hot rod. I honestly tried to convince myself to put a hyd. cam in it, I really truly did. But I JUST COULDN'T. Every car I own has mechanical lifters of some sort. The only car on the property with juice lifters is the wifes Toyota. I figure if I get so old I cant be bother to run the valves, its time to take up golf.

 

IF it is a hydraulic cam block, run a gear drive.

 

I love that idea on a set of fenderwell headers that are easily touched up from time to time, but I love stainless for inside the frame rails. Let 'em tarnish naturally with zero rust. This is craftsmanship...

 

That's a solids-only block; no oil galleys for hydraulics. In the first pic you posted that looked like a 'D7' which would be a service block.

This should make George happy.... you'll be running solids! LOL!

 

Assuming everyone has the skill set to know there's a problem as the early warning sign appears this is great advice. I'm not that good, and sadly I only know a handful who are.

 

You just confirmed my builder may not be an FE specialist but knows a solid lift block when he sees one. He said it can't be converted to hydraulic.

 

what?? gear drives don't sound ANTHING like solid lifters...

 

C'mon George, don't sugar coat it. Tell us what you really think

 

Have you got any pics from one of these FE powered cars?