427 FE S/O prospective buyer tips...?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Flygirl

Checking out an ERA Cobra with a '65 427 FE side ... professionally done by a well known builder. ... Very low mileage, but not driven much in that time.

If an ERA is built by ERA, or a truly "professional builder" who had built at least one ERA before, it will still be just fine after low mileage unless it was wrecked. That part is pretty easy. Even if there are some things wrong, they can be corrected for not "too much money."

Assessing the SO is not so easy. A couple of small oil drips over the weekend are acceptable; puddles are not. Likewise, antifreeze in the oil is not acceptable. You will not be able to judge the motor with a couple of quick parking lot views and short drives (unless there's something really bad with it). If the engine seems to run well on those quickie drives (runs strong, revs clean, no overheating) then basically all you really want to do is eliminate the possibility of something big time bad going on inside the engine. That's where you will need to have it looked at and listened to by someone who has dealt with FEs before. If you name the town, someone on here will provide you with a name of someone who you can help you. In order to properly assess an FE in a Cobra, the car needs to be put up on a lift, eyeballed from underneath, and listened to with a trained ear (maybe with a stethoscope). The pipes on these cars can often mask engine noise, but you get used to that if you've dealt with them for a while. Puddles under the Jag rear (or even a "wet rear") are not something you want to see either. All of that will be obvious to someone who knows what to look for and has the car up on a lift and is given the time to look for it. All of this is really no different than a "pre-insurance physical." The doctor is mostly just looking to make sure you're not going to drop dead of cancer or AIDS in the next two years -- but even if you get a clean bill of health from him that doesn't mean you won't have a coronary next week.