> If it is to good to be true???? you know what they say---
Usually but not Always. About a year and half ago, I came up with two 427
side-oiler strokers for $1200. The engines were built by a local Ford
engine guru for his personal puller truck. The big one was the primary
engine and had a custom 4.25" stroke crank (for 486 cubes) with LeMans
rods and the small one (a 454 FE using a 428 SCJ crank and rods) was the
backup motor. The builder/owner was only 32 years old and unmarried when
he died suddenly. His mother inherited his possesions and gave the engines
to a friend of my dad's who told me about them. I took my books up so we
could identify them and found that he had them sitting outside by the side
of his shop with a tarp over top. He had pulled the heads and intake off
one and filled it with ATF but the other actually had water in it. Since
it was forecast to drop below freezing that night, I told Dean we had to
get them inside. He replied to me that he wasn't going to do anything with
them and that I should make him an offer and take them home. I told him
they were worth a fair bit of money and pointed out that each of the intakes
was worth $300 and the Dove rockershaft system was worth $600. His response
was "Sold!". I had them in my dad's garage that night. One actually had
ice in its 10 quart flat bottom
oil pan but both turned out to look like
new inside. I haven't had either magnafluxed yet but the bores (0.030"
over but no sleeves or damage) were perfect and the roller timing chains
looked new. Plus, not a bit of
oil sludge, carbon, or fuel deposits were
anywhere to be found. It appears the engines were recently rebuilt. Both
have domed pistons, so I'll need to buy custom pistons to get the compression
down to something that will run on pump gas but I think there's room in the
budget for that.
Dan Jones