Substituting Shelby block for Iron SO

[Sizzler]

If you want a side-oiler, it's for 'originality's sake'.

If you're willing to go with a Shelby/Arias block, then you are no longer concerned with originality so much as with appearances...you can bolt on all the bits and pieces from an FE so that, at least from the top, the engine will LOOK like a sideoiler.

And what is a side-oiler but a version of an FE? So what you're really going for is the LOOK of an FE or a block that will allow you to paste (bolt) on FE manifolds, heads, pumps, whatever.

With the 427 side-oiler block, you can open your hood and truthfully state "it's a 427 side-oiler".

With the 429 Shelby block, you open the hood and start explaining.

With an FE block, you open the hood and can truthfully state "it's an FE" or "it's a bigblock Ford" or "it's a 427 bigblock Ford" if you have what is commonly known as a 428 (do the math - 2.065*2.065*3.14159*8*3.98=426.55).

What I'm getting at is that an NOS 427 side-oiler will set you back a pretty penny, and the ones that SA may provide may have one or more sleeves installed and these prices all make the Shelby block "reasonable". But, when you consider the cost of "lesser" FE blocks (390 and 428's), your overall cost could drop tremendously. If you don't get yourself caught up in the hype (heavy NASCAR rods, heavier steel cranks...) and choose your parts wisely, you'll end up with an engine that will cost you far less, look exactly the same, and outperform the ones built by experts from paper-thinwall-castings costing the earth. I've seen excellent 390 blocks for $300, long block 428's for $750. At those prices, a decent, "427" could be built for under $5K (including machining and billet this/that/and the next thing). I know this (personally) for a fact.

If you put a $800-$900 4.25" crank from SCAT in, you'll get plenty of displacement out of a cleaned up $150 390 block. If you're spending $25K on an FE, you're not getting something 'better' more than something 'flashy'. Think watches.

My opinion.