[Dan Case]

427 Cobra "FE" engines. I won’t claim to be a 427 Cobra expert but I do help with research for a few original car owners and restorers. I play and study with 1963-65 Cobras but occasionally come up with 1966-67 427 Cobra information.

#1 There was not “an” engine for production 427 Cobras sold retail. I won’t begin to try and drop off into what was possible for Shelby team “company” racers CSX30xx chassis.

#2 The final Shelby American purchase order list itemizes three 427 c.i.d. engines and one 428 c.i.d. engine for 427 Cobra production. The purchase order list doesn’t cover race only stuff and the document given to buyers of racing 427 Cobras with a list of recommended spare parts doesn’t cover entire engines.

So what I have factory documentation on variants wise includes:

1965 Galaxie 8V engines most CSX31xx chassis (automatic transmission also used with 1965 Galaxie 8V manual transmission engine after appropriate parts swaps…at least the surviving original engine assembly tags say so) = black

1966 Fairlane 8V engines in some CSX30xx chassis (standard 427 S/C 2-4V engine) = blue

1966 428PI manual transmission (which must have been super rare even new) engines in most CSX32xx chassis = blue

1967? (I don’t have a picture of an engine assembly tag. The Shelby American original purchase order list doesn’t say what the model year was, it just gives the engine code and description “427 CID 4V Special”. ) 427 4V engines in CSX33xx chassis = blue


Ford “blue” engine paint. No it was not the same every year. Ford started with blue V8 engines for the 1966 model year as far as I have experienced.