Comparison-60's 427so vs New 427so ?

[Keithc8]

There has been several design improvements made on all of the new parts. You take the week points of the old stuff and improve the part from there.
Take the blocks for example, the cylinders were thin in most cases with the caps and blocks only being able to handle about 750 HP before cracking the mains or caps. The cylinders are much thicker on the new blocks which keeps the bores straighter under high loads for better ring seal. You can run more compression without cracking the cylinders. The decks are much thicker as well to help hold the head gaskets better. The main caps are stronger with more material in the main area for more strength. You can bore the blocks bigger without fear of a weak cylinder. The water jackets have been redesigned for better cooling and water circalation through the block. The thicker cylinders also do not heat the water up as much as the thinner cylinders. The oiling system is pretty much the same with the passages being drilled out bigger and some better alignment in the main saddles.
The heads have thicker decks on them as well with improved port designs using what has been learned over the last 40 years. All of the other parts have been improved as well for better life and durability.
I quite building FE engines for a while in the 90s except for the all out race stuff because I was tired of using the old worn out parts that would not hold up. It was more trouble than it was worth and the parts were not very good for the most part. With what we learned from the race stuff we worked with vendors to improve blocks, heads, cranks and rocker arm systems. We now have some good parts to build FE engines with so that we do not have to use the old worn out stuff. I never thought we would be able to build a FE engine with all new parts top to bottom.
This is why we build about 80 to 100 FE engines a year and sell a lot of crank kits, heads and other parts that we would not have done 10 years ago.

Thanks, Keith Craft