reasons for a side oiler Vs a center oiler

[DanEC]

At the risk of coming out of hiding to further feed this fracus I respectively would have to disagree.

Most references, magazines, and books that I read about the 427 series Cobras just use generic "427" and "428" terminlogy. There are certainly articles that go into some detail on the motors but usually just to differentiate between the more pedestrian 428 and the race-heritage 427 motors. I see as many, if not more, references to cross-bolted 427 engines than I do to side-oiler 427 engines. I have a number of reproduced and original magazines with road tests on original Cobras and they just don't discuss the oiling systems. I had to really dig to find that the first cars were in fact, not side oiler 427s.

The old 427 LR/MR/HR/TP motors are great motors with a race pedigree that improved with every step in their development. They are all great. For that matter so are the 390 and 406 high performance motors of the early 60s, with their high compression, multiple carbs, hot mech cams, streamlined exhaust manifolds, and dual-point distributors. I would love to have a 61 Starliner with a 390/401 HP motor or 62 Galaxie with a 406/405 motor.