stroking a 427 so
 

Other than ego,why would you want to stroke a 427so?It seems one of the reasons it is so good is its short stroke a large bore,allowing good revs and long life.The 428 with its longer stroke was made to power Fords large passenger cars with lots of torque(hardly what we need in our cars)So why risk reliability on such a great motor? chuck

Like the saying goes: "There's nothing like cubic inches" !!

Mike D.

Chopper has one. He once told me that while already doing 60, he can nail it and spin the tires enough to get sideways. I guess you could call that fun...

;-)

Lets see:

Just as reliable, no more expensive, more torque, more hp, more fun. The question should be, "Why wouldn't you stroke a 427?"

Chuck,
You answered your own question. EGO is the only reason.

RD

Chuck:

Cranky doesn't know what a big block is. Next thing he will be telling you is to destroke a 6 cylinder. The more torque any engine makes at any given rpm, especially on the bottom end, the more fun it is to drive. If he tells you it is more fun to rev the snot out of a small bloock to make power on the street, he is truely full of $hit. Oh, thats right, he doesn't know what street driving is all about. :D:3DSMILE::D

Btsai has generously given me an opening, so...

I guess my stroker came as a result of a near terminal testosterone attack. I had spent 10 months trying to get a local builder to fix my nearly totaled motor, and also a pretty penny, and when I finally got the engine back into the car, it only lasted 1100 miles before going tango uniform. I took the engine to the goodly Mr. Parham at Southern Automotive and he replaced the block and built me a new engine. In the process of going through the build, he made the mistake of explaining the stroker options and I had an attack of cranial rectal inversion. "What, I can have another 100 hp for only that much???? What the heck, it's only money, go ahead!!!" To his credit, Bill tried to talk me out of it but it was too late; I had visions of Vipers and 67 big-block Vettes scurrying for cover when they heard the boom of the stainless steel exhausts. All the way up to the point where I floored the gas pedal at 65 mph while pulling out to pass an 18 wheeler and found myself going sideways at 60 mph on I-495 around Philadelphia. It looked like bumper cars - folks flying everywhere trying to get out of the way. Nobody got hit and nobody got hurt, but I did have to recycle my shorts when I got home. And let me tell you, when you screw up that badly in a small blue car with white stripes, meat balls and big shiny side exhausts in the middle of the Federal interstate highway system, there's no place to hide.

Seriously, I love the engine and it'll pull tree stumps out of the ground, but I have to admit that I might stick with a stock displacement if I ever had to do it again. For the track, it's great, but for the street, it's a bit much. My opinion, anyway, fwiw.

Chuck,
I had a BB SO in my Cobra before Jeff knew what a Cobra was. His insistance on stroking a BB shows that he has absolutly no high performance knowledge. Tow trucks need lots of torque 2400 lb Cobras need high rpms and quick reving small blocks to be fast. If you wanna see fast Cobras go to a race track event where the sb's outnumber the BB's 2 to 1. Now if you are talking Car show bragging rights then the BB will certainly impress the uninformed car show fan.

FYI The FE's just don't have good breathing exhaust ports and there ain't much that can be done about that. If you absolutley have to have a 454 go for the orange one from the General.

Any questions,

Cranky

Okay, it's time we got Hal Copple, Flyin Freddie, (many others) and Chopper together for a "Snakes' Tales" book. Seriously!

I understand horsepower(and the need for more)as well as anyone,however it just seems to me that stroking that particular motor makes little sense.I would think that Ford Racing division would have done that back in 65-66-ect if it had been advantagous to do so,obviously they chose to stick with large bore short stroke for a reason(stroking motors is not new science)Do not misunderstand me,if given the choice I may very well choose to stroke also but I would always wonder about the decision. chuck

Chuck. There is nothing wrong with stroking the 427. Especially if you are building the motor from parts. It's cheaper to use a good 428 crank than find a good 427 crank, and it's plenty tough if you want to street drive and the occasional drag strip pass. And the bigger displacement allows the same HP with a lower state of tune. Low rpm is easier on the valve train as well. Ego might be part of the equation, but it also makes economic sense.

McFEz

BTW, the 427 crank is forged, the 428 is cast

The largest engine at that time from was a 427 both by Ford and Chevy, there was no reason to go bigger. When it was time, the FE series was replaced by the 429. Guess what a 460 is, a stroked 429, and guess what a Chevy 454 is, a stroked 427.

Cranky is right for an engine on the race track, but there is no such think as too much torque on the street. This is what set you in the seat, this is what makes a car fun to drive. I'm sure you won't find one person that has a stroked a small or big block for the street that says he regrets it or has too much torque. The higher the rpm band for making hp, the less tractable the engine is on the bottom end. It makes it a pig with anything below 4,000 rpm. Guess where most of your driving on the street is done? 1,500 rpm to 4,000 rpm.

Cranky: I know you are more intelligent than to disagree with this post. If you don’t agree, don't hold your breath waiting for someone else to back you up. Talk to any reputable engine builder that specializes in street engines. The bigger and flatter the torque curve, the better, and the easiest way to get more torque is by using a longer stroke.

If you already have a 427 with a steel crank why trade it in for a cast crank to gain 30 cubic inches when 427 ci is already plenty of cubes for a street engine? Isn't that going backwards in the realm of building a high performance reliable engine? Install weaker parts to go faster?

I guess you have to be one of the guys who has thrown the rods thru the side of the block to understand.

Cranky

When prepped properly, a cast crank is good for 600 hp or so. Mine makes 585 hp @ 6,000 rpm. I beat the snot out of it and have never had a problem (and no, not with slippery radials, but with BFG drag radials that are very soft and hook up great). Sell the steel crank, buy a 428 crank, and the left over money will pay for the custom pistons that you will need for your stroker, which should be the only additional cost of building a stroker vs. a stocker.

Most engines spit rods out the side of the block when the rpm goes too high. You will never have that problem on a street stroker, mine never sees anything over 6,300. No reason to go any higher. It has bounced off the rev. limiter (7,000 rpm) a couple times on missed shifts (nobody is perfect) with no problems.

For a Cobra, I think this would make more sense than a stroker:

might want to go with steel rods though, or at least fresh ones...

Why be afraid of cubic inches? It can make your car assume a different peronsality on the street--like standing on it at 60 mph and burning the tires to the rims.

Another option is SCAT. They offer an FE crank that will take you to 483 cid.

Jeb:

Where in the hell did you find this $hit? I'm sure it came out of some type of drag car that competed in a specific displacement class. Why would anybody want this for the street. Maybe you should buy this for you original 289 with dents to prove it. Oh I forgot, its buried good under boxes in the old wellhouse with a six foot cattree in the passeger seat By the way, did you ever find the serial number yet?

cranky,

I had one in the "old days" from the general, but it was not orange it was grey - grey as in aluminium - with 496 cui ...

those were the days ;-)

dominik

Dominik:

Kind of rare wasn'y it? Bet you wish you had it now. What did you put it in?

jeff,

i came from a M8F and I used it in my RAM (GB) cobra replica with one 850 Holley and a tamer cam, but I sold it last year before moving from germany to cape town.

there is still one more block sitting in a friends garage in LA ... - tempting, but in this millenium there should be a FORD in a Cobra to keep its value. :-)
but for my very personal car ... - well, I need money first.

dominik, SPF059, CCX 3080