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

Forgot to answer the wide ratio question, and I might have misled you with that. I meant it will be the TKO 500 or 600 to deal with the power easily and provide an overdriven 5th gear so it can still cruise on the freeway. Still looking into what ring & pinion and tire will be used, and which TKO offers the best gearing options.

 

I understand.

I wonder if you should be talking to some low end builders, instead?

 

Well he don't want to talk to the 3 that I would be talking to. LOL I wonder if Utah has a felony speeding law.

 

Often at RPM we get what we pay for...

 

Glad it stayed together! What an ouch that could have been!

 

is it an optical illusion, or is the cheek radius undercut on that crank?

 

Optical illusion. But when I realized it was the same crank as the "forged" one that I was being sold the seller got it back along with the block. #garbage

 

As my engine builder in the Midwest said, "You're tap dancin' on landmines son!"

 

LOL high end can be just as bad we sent 5 cranks back to a major player in the crank shaft world before we got a good one on a blower motor I have been playing with for a while now. I am a low end builder by the way, I believe it doing it all myself and use what I have to work with. I win a lot when I have reason to win.

 

I understand...failure can happen to anyone. When asking opinions I want to hear about replies in volume...but I used a small, quality shop to rebuild the 482 this came out of. They can't answer how many of these cranks had issues, they hadn't seen many. But the large builder had seen more than a few, so it was replaced with another brand. My local builder is also small and reliable, probably much like yourself. But he doesn't get to see the patterns of issues repeated the way bigger guys do.

 

The thing you got to watch with any high performance part is that many of them are made off shore. But even the parts that you know are made here can be suspect. you have to check everything, more it seems now then say 20 or 30 years ago.

 

Thinking the question is, are we racing or cruising ? Ground pounding race motors make every car guys pulse rise, but not practical for cruising IMO, huge ports, big cam = high RPM, low speed cruising is not what that motor was made for. VERY NICE car by the way, Kool deal ! Again, my OPINON, by the time you back off the compression, cam and carbs to try to live w/ it, you will have a very good looking boat anchor under the hood. Just another old timer rambling on this am, good luck w/ whatever you decide and Enjoy !

 

I wonder if solid core plug wires will mess up pacemakers....

 

George, @ 77 , it takes me a bit longer than 30 min. to adjust my valve lash on my roadster, but WTH, it's a hot rod, not my daily driver, so it doesn't have to happen too often. IMO hydraulic lifters are OK for a cruiser, and I do have them in my '40 coupe.
The sbc in the roadster has alum. heads, and I had to learn that if you adjust them cold, they are actually going to open up lash as the engine warms up! When cruising 70 mph with no hood and open cockpit, with engine not accelerating, you could hear the the valve lash clatter pretty well.
After reading about aluminum head expansion being enough to actually open up valve lash, I tightened up cold lash to .005 tighter than specified for hot and all is well.
I believe an engine just has better throttle response with solid lifters.

 

I use the spiral wound wires on the roadster because I have MSD ignition with box concealed under the dash. Traditional only goes so far with me.

 

Its a fact.
The solid core wires comment was a little humour, another thing that is no longer acceptable in our post sesame street, PC world...

 

This will probably get me banned, but lets supplement this with some factual information instead of regurgitated magazine BS and old wifes tales. Here are two dyno sheets, one with a typical street rodder friendly hyd roller cam, weak sister 350 chevy...

and one for a rumblin', stumblin' "no bottom end torque", big hp tunnel port FE, you know, the one that will be a "boat anchor" at low rpm. lets compare the torque numbers at low rpm...

Note that the 350 street rod motor makes peak torque at roughly the same rpm as the tunnel port.
Note that at 3000 rpm, the big, BAAAD, unruly, "no low end torque" dual 4bbl, tunnel port racer type motor is making 135 ft lbs more torque than the typical street rod motor. I realize this will actually damage my credibility on the HAMB more than it will help it, but I have actually built and dyno tested some unruly 750/800hp street racer type motors, and I have seen similar (well, actually, bigger, but they were also bigger motors) low rpm dyno readings myself.
Some may also note that the big bad tunnel port in question is only 10.5/1 compression. Now THIS is going to be REAL heresy, but if I built this motor, and was going to run it on pump gas, I would have gone a full point higher. THEN watch the bottom end torque numbers REALLY soar.

Some wag is going to say, well yea, but the dyno sheet for the TP starts at 3000 rpm. Trust me on this, I have been there, both torque curves peak at roughly the same rpm, and are going to continue to drop as the rpm goes down, and the happy face street rod motor will NEVER at ANY RPM, come anywhere NEAR closing up that 135lb deficit.

Sorry for letting the bitter cold sharp shock of reality interfere with the "bliss" that usually prevails on here.

 

The guys I've spoken with agree with your anchor comment IF the engine isn't stroked (no matter what block I use) but they've built drivable big inch Tunnel Ports prior. I run stuff into the rpm band they're built to, but it's not a drag car. If I don't mind stopping A LOT for fuel I've been known to take a road trip, not just cruise-ins. The 482 powered roadster went on 4-day trips to Jackson and to California, I expect similar with this.

 

the example I posted above has a run of the mill 3.98 428 crank in it, just for reference...

 

Awesome charts Falcongeorge...thanks! Enough people have made this combo work to give me faith I'll enjoy the end result, whatever components comprise the whole.

 

The more I think about it warming up the 390 into a 400-ish hp engine and just driving the Crown Victoria is the most sensible direction for that car. Putting the tunnel port in it is an act of laziness, doing so just because it's ready to receive it.

Instead it should go into this...I was set on a supercharger for it but the tunnel port would be plenty cool too.

 

I've never run a Tunnel port setup but did install several 427's in 56 Fords back in the 1970's. They were all straight axle so headers were never an issue. Now all of my FE's are the LR heads since my intakes are 3X2, 6X2 or 427 2X4 LR or a few single 4v and the interchange is easy.
To me with a limited budget I'd buy a BBM or Side oiler garage block with the new style MR heads (BBM, Survival or Edel. ported) and sell the TP stuff and still be near break even.
As stated previously talk to Barry R at Survival or Brent at Brent Lykens Motorsports about the RPM crank. Both advise using Scat from what I've read. I'm using a 428 Crank in my 427 and a 4.25 Scat stroker in my cross bolted 390 that's at a 4.13 bore. (both are close to 454 cubes).
Great looking Crown BTW, wish I'd kept my 56 Fairlane and my 56 Crown but sold them when I moved to Oregon.

Oh well ---- Movin/on

 

I hate golf....LOL

 

I am getting a set of CNC Felony heads, but they are not "limited budget" by ANY stretch of the imagination...

 

my friend joey, ran a 427 TP in his model A in the 70's never had any problems, ran great. rip, joey

 

If any of you trip across a pair of the Keystone Rebel wheels the Falcon could use wider rears, 15 x 8 or larger. I'd let these go as partial trade as well, I believe they are 15 x 7.

 

Many moons ago (mid-90's) when I worked at Arrow Speed there was a loud horrible sound one day from the warehouse. The shelf that held our Cola Crankshafts failed and all that inventory crashed to the floor. The powers that be said they sent the cranks out to be checked for cracks and other damage before selling those pieces. But, they still got sold. -Dave

 

Stunning...maybe there's no insurance claim possible, but I sure as hell wouldn't want one of them! If a claim were possible I'd rather protect my name and sell them with a description.

 

As much as I appreciate the suggestions and comments here on making a Tunnel Port 427 streetable I took the advice of a friend instead. His suggestion of a supercharger had one flaw...no one made a blower intake. Had to do it the hard way, but it's moving along fine. I'll post up the build at a later date.

 

That's just stupid cool!