Art & Inspiration Show me some detailed FE Fords

My guess would be early cal customs.

 

Mine are MOON. Best looking new covers out there, IMO. Not cheap tho.....

https://www.mooneyesusa.com/product-p/mp651.htm

 

Oh Man! What did you use for the Gold?

 

I've been reading and following this post being I'm also a FE nut as well as a Detail geek. The Black 57 in my avatar is FE powered but as with everything else I own it's not finished.

I've been looking for inspiration and a better idea. A real pet peeve of mine is the Spark Plug Wires most often end up looking like Spaghetti laying Helter Skelter and eventually getting from the Dist to a Spark Plug. So far what I call most of this is Show and Tell. That's okay and I'm learning that so far total Stock as in Jeff Norwell's motor actually looks the best to me. I also like the Motorcraft battery.

I doubt I'll do stock plug wire routting and I won't go to anything billet but I do have an idea. Less is more most often for me so stay tuned and if I should actually get the 57 on the road look closer than the usual glance and noticing 3 carbs on top. The blue cap has already gone away. Yes, that's a very old photo of the project.

 

I also really like a black and gold Ford (Windsors look good done in the scheme also)....just haven't had anything they'd be appropriate in, mine are all from the Dark Corporate Blue era.

 

The good thing is I am getting ready to start a powder coating company, so everything will be super detailed.

 

This 427 was sent to Ak Miller for his the Devin he ran in '62 and '63. He was a tech advisor for Ford at the time. Ak and Ed Iskenderian did a dyno tune on the ****** and eeked out 495HP before it went into the racer. Ak won his cl*** that year at Pikes Peak, as he did in '62, running a 406... He road raced the critter a few times, and it was in the movie Viva Las Vegas, before being sold...Actually, his partner in the car, George Hanson, owned it. It was street driven a few times, and has sat in the same location ever since. I cried inside, as I was taking the pictures of it. I have a video of the PikesPeak race, and I gotta tellya, Ak Miller had balls !!!! I asked him one time why he liked to race on dirt.... 'cause I like to slide was his answer. So I then asked, which direction do you like to slide?? His answer, to the left, and to the right !!!

 

Mooneyes is currently making them, or you can search out a set of early Cal Customs. Look at eBay for deals...

These do have a downside. Ford found that the manifold oil fill/draft tube or PCV didn't ventilate the heads very well and promoted sludge build-up in them, particularly if you live somewhere with high humidity. That system was gone at Ford by '66 and by the end of the decade pretty much all of Detroit had followed suit.

 

On the part of discussion about valve covers, it's a toss up for me rather the Thunderbird units or the original 428 CJ fined alum units that came on mustangs and torinos. They aren't tall like the later cobra units that have the flat top.

 

So can a guy use the front oil breather for an intake on the PCV system and keep the non vented covers? Using a PCV valve tied in somewhere. I'm not familiar with the FE intakes.

 

Thank you, Jeff, that is so Nice!

 

Yeah, you can but you need the right parts. The main hang up will be the intake manifold. When Ford added PCV valves to the FE they cast a boss into the intake that accepted a small plate to take the valve. This pic of a Edelbrock air gap intake has one...

... located at the rear of the manifold (right side) but is a race piece only. You'll find this on all post-62 'vintage' FE aluminum intakes along with the oil fill which may or may not be machined for the filler tube depending on the year/carb(s). Note that this one is NOT machined for the oil fill, but could be. AFAIK, the only currently produced intakes with this boss and machined for the oil fill (if in stock) are the Dove reproductions (big $$$). All other current offerings lack both, and you can't machine for the oil fill because you'll hit a water p***age.

IMO the best street FE intake for a big-inch motor is the 428PI used in '66/67. They're rare as they rotted out the heat crossover in use, but you'll still find them if you look hard. Expect to pay $600+ if it's not rotted. If you're running aluminum heads, a rotted crossover isn't an issue as the heads don't have the heat ports. These may or may not have the oil fill tube but can be machined for one. Dove is reproducing this intake, but it's not cheap. A close second is a Edelbrock S-427 intake but it's even rarer. This was an exact copy of the PI intake and Ford forced it off the market over copyright issues. The current Edelbrock Performer RPM is basically a stripped-down copy of the PI minus the oil fill/PCV and a single vacuum port into one plenum. The PI had two ports, and both were drilled into both plenums for a stronger/more even vacuum signal. All the cheap FE intakes you see are offshore copies of the Edelbrock.

Again, Ford changed this because of sludge in the valve covers/rockers due to poor air circulation. If you live in a dry climate or have heated storage you probably won't have any issues. But it can rear its head if you're dealing with humidity.

If you're determined to use the round-top valve covers, I'd modify them to accept oil fill and PCV, probably by chopping up a set of later 'power by ford' covers. You might also consider a set of pent-roof covers like these... https://www.ebay.com/itm/3656653891.../wuA/DyxVxoCYa1t+Hs0wkXMVKE=|tkp:BFBMtpfgwvhm
... These are OEM, you can buy new reproductions in chrome but those lack the baffles which is why I won't use them. Without the baffles, they spew quite a bit of oil mist out of them. I saw several sets of 'Mercury' covers on eBay also, another choice.

Anyway, lots of food for thought....

 

Hope it comes back to life….not as a 100 concours show racer but how it was!

 

Best wishes with this endeavor!

 

These are an option I have


and then there are the early chrome Factory covers I picked up. I have no pic of them though.....

 

budget detail on a now sold 58 fairlane 500 332

 

Those are the 2nd-gen Cal Custom covers. Initially they had no holes, but when Ford quit using the manifold-fill intakes in '65 on all but the HiPo motors, they added the holes. IIRC, Cal custom did add cast-in mounting bosses inside these covers if you wanted to fabricate a baffle but didn't offer one, the only aftermarket ones that did at least offer the option AFAIK. Virtually all of the OEM Ford oil fill/PCV covers have baffles at the holes whether they are aluminum or steel. Most aftermarket covers don't have them with the exception of Scott Drake's repos. I will note that the lack of baffles is 'OK' in 'normal' use, but if you run the motor hard the lack of baffles can allow the PCV system to **** oil out of the motor at an alarming rate at certain RPMs. Expect at least some added oil consumption in any case.

One last thing bears mentioning. Ford installed a sheet metal baffle under the intake manifold in the lifter valley on virtually all FE engines. This performed two things; it kept hot oil off the bottom of the intake, and more importantly reduced the amount of oil mist. Less mist, less oil consumption. This baffle is critical if running an intake oil fill manifold, but also important with valve cover fill. I took my built FE powered '58 to the grudge drags 'back when' and blew two quarts of oil out of it after numerous runs, all because this baffle was missing from my manifold-fill intake. Don't leave this out!

 

Ya gotta love those Mercury valve covers!!!

 

OK, there's two vintage aluminum valve covers you can add baffles to...
They also seem to be the most common vintage aftermarket ones if looking for used covers.

 

I’m so glad he sees value in investing in a somewhat obsolete platform. It’s not everyone that will tool up and spend their money on something like that.