RE: street engine. I would agree, a street engine must work at a wide range of rpms and this is why I think mechanical and vacuum advance distributors were created.

RE: power through range. Again I agree. I was just trying to make a point that some of the advice on page one of this post might of been a little on a wild goose chase. If peak HP was what people were after on that dyno run, then muking about with various spring combos has no effect on peak...yet it would have effect on overall band and especially the lower band where street cars are driven.

RE: date of power secrets. copyright was 1983 and 1989. The book is getting a little old in the tooth but they do show a modern MSD box and distributor in the pages so it seems current with this technology.

:)

Andy

Clois: look at this a different way. Engine part builders have been claiming wild hp gains for years, as have motor builders. CompCams, a brand I use a lot, claims a 125hp increase in a 429/460 JUST BY CHANGING THE CAM SET! In reality, if you ask practically ANY of these guys to GUARANTEE their claims or give you your money back you'll see them evaporate as fast as their claim. I read all the posts about 600, 700 even 1000 hp---its bullsh**! I have a dyno in my shop and I have NEVER seen a true street car break 500, especially here in the south in the summer! I also have talked to a lot of guys who brought in their 500 hp Mustang only to drive out with a 300 hp one. Bottom line, were you happy with the car before you saddled up the dyno? Does it give you all the 'go' you want? If so, be happy! A final note: Horsepower sells motors TORQUE wins races (Ernie Elliott). I suggest you take the car out to the track--Hallett?--and run it. You will probably find you have one fast sum*****, and thats all that matters!

427sharpe

Do you mean flywheel or rear wheel?

Jeff: real world -- rear wheels!

427sharpe

Very believable. To make 500 hp at the rear wheels means at least 600 hp at the crank. Very difficult to do on pump gas, especialy whithout a solid roller cam (not streetable in my book).

Change that POS Edelbrock intake.
 

The key to power in these 428's is the intake with the cam and carb with
headers. Don't fall for Edelbrock intakes except the Streetmaster or Victor intake for 390-427-428. Ask Dove heads they'll tell you the same thing. I have a 412FE a 4.16x3.79 a destroked 428cj with 390 crank and rods. Very similiar set-up.
Holley 4150 650 with Percy Adjust a jet on primaries and secondaries.
Lunati Bracket master II 300/300adv. duration 224/224@50 514/514lift with 1.73's and my lift with 1.76's 523/523 with recommended springs,with dynomax headers with Edelbrock Peformer made 360HP with 428CJ edelbrock heads and torque was 370. Switch to the Performer RPM 370HP 379torque.
With port-o-sonic offy 385HP 386torque flat from 1900rpm's.Edelbrock Streetmaster 380HP 390 torque flat from 2050RPm's. Holley Strip Dominator-torque beast, 376HP 390 torque from 1600rpms flat to 5100. Dove High rise 396HP 376torque flat from 2300rpm's. Edelbrock Victor 398HP 380 Torque. Offy Super Sonic 406HP 381 Torque from 2200rpms. Dove Super High rise 410HP 385torque from 2400rpm's. These intakes are all as cast with no porting to any of them and depending on this set-up with intakes shown with stage 5 port job includes gasket match, plenum port,mild fuel carving distribution,walls smoothed,roof smoothed,floor smoothed. Will see 12HP-30HP 7-20 torque. And with no carb spacer and can ad a little bit as well 5-10HP 3-7 Torque. This is why circle track racers love these FE engines because they have big torque forever and make power down low as well and don't have to wind the crap out of to get to stick and go. I've proven the edelbrock ad in they're catalog BS and gave the dyno sheets to edelbrock in torrance myself and were not very pleased to be exposed, to have a over rated product to be almost beaten by a smaller camshaft with no porting or carb spacer any of these other factors would shatter edelbrocks claims. Edelbrock has good products for the FE fords in the past the victor and streetmasters and heads they're new performer,performer rpm intakes suck, like they're toker II intakes for sb chevy, however, they new dual quad intake does work once you get the grinder out and take care of the dual plane in the plenum it works much better. Pending on what application you'd like to be in a car or truck you don't have to worry about low end torque because the power range was all with any of the intakes was for HP 2100-5100rpm's very similiar to your 428cj and the torque lasts forever at low end to high end. I have Dove Super high rise combo in my 70 F100 towing a boat up 5% grade at 85 mph in the orginal 3 speed tranny and sounds like bracket car at idle and full intimidation at rev and best of all a secret to single plane intakes is you get great gas milage I get 20-22 MPG in the truck doing 80mph and 19 mpg doing 75 with the boat up the grade, why from the better air fuel ratio. With this combination in my truck 2001 Zo6 vette, 2003 GTO,69 Mustang 351w 450HP,70 Chevelle have all fell to this combo out of the gate and high endand still pulls hard past 140mph and had a confirmed speed of 165mph max all on pump gas 87 octane and 9:1 compression, it all came from years of experimentation with various setups and friends letting me barrow their intakes I can't find,get or are too expensive. if your budget is tighter get the Holley Strip Dominator, Streetmaster edelbrock or if your lucky an Offy Super sonic or port o sonic. Got cash get a dove. Another secret is the Volumetric Efficentcy formula look it up and will discover you don't a huge carb to go fast you don't want to starve or flood out. Best of Luck:eek::eek:

This is a very old thread and to be honest this was an engine I bought before I knew much about FE engines. There is a lot of good information posted by others but I can tell you my next engine about six months later was a 428 CJ bored .030 and built by Steve Carbone from pan to intake was by far one of my best and fastest engines including my present 427 C.O..

As Bubba said a lot of the HP in a 428 CJ comes from the top end and the grunt (torque) comes from the bottom. I used solid lifters, 600+ lift cam, a Sidewinder intake with a 850 Race Demon and made about 480 hp at the wheels and if I remember correctly a little over 550 at the flywheel. If I have to replace the 427 in my Cobra now I will definitely go back to a 428CJ.

Clois Harlan

Those are unbelievable mpg figures!

Clois

Steve Carbone drove my dragster while he was reigning world champ both NHRA and AHRA

Jerry

MPG trick
 

To get more mpg using the volumetric efficentcy formula in for example say you have 427 FE standard bore with solid lifters,my preference ship the standard solid lifter and get solid rollers and solid roller cam it gets you another 20HP using the identical lift and duration as a standard solid cam that is the same except its a roller cam because of less friction and don't have to adjust lash as often as long as you son't go in the upper 580's with fat duration. And pick up mpg as long as you don't go too big of a cam but why not go bigger if you can in racing, for the street I can understand a Street beast with great power and torque that can kick ass and won't break your wallet from the gas pump and higher octane. Back to the volumetric efficentcy formula same 427 FE with solid lifters running say 6500 rpm's multiply your DISPLACEMENT X MAX RPM DIVIDE IT ALL BY 3456. In this case you'll get a recommended Carb CFM with 100% VE it would be 803 cfm to able to achieve 100 VE it would be an all out race engine asuuming that this motor is a modified street engine multiply 803CFM by 90% and will get 722CFM. And the secret is what do you round you cfm rating up or down? If have the cash to spend on fuel on the 722cfm get a 750carb 4150HP or equivalent because the choke tower all it does is restrict power and won't get a better air fuel ratio mixture. Put a percy block on the primaries and secondaries and jet the primary a little lean and the secondaries 15%-25% more. say you have a size 70 jet in the primary and the secondary would be 87.5 with 25% more jet in the pecry blocks all you have to do is make turns and not jet changes which is the best carb invention since the 4500 Carb was made. And if you want a great gas milage like my 412FE the 722cfm figure round down to a 700cfm carb again use a 4150HP with a Percy blocks on primaries and secondaries but set it up as a spreadbore make the primaries lean but not too lean where it's going to screw up the air fuel mixture and make the secondaries 30-35 % more the reason why I say for a street engine mpg to go down in cfm so you won't flood out in the big end and readjust the mechanical secondary linkage on the carb so at 70-75 percent throttle you get all of the secondaries
and not partial at 50% percent throttle and be wasting gas and you'll see the difference in mpg and still get great power with your foot in. Another good aspect of the 4150HP you'll get more and mpg changing to it out of the box usually it's 10-15HP and 2-3mpg. My truck was a street engine that is a destroked 428 and a destroker motor interestingly enough will act like a small engine reving quicker and higher and has great torque and in a destroker it be a like a larger displacement engine, like a 377sbc that is almost unstreetable to be able to use it properly but in a FE a destroker is great because you'll have an extended lifetime on the engine more HP and hold torque forever. And in a single plane intake you'll get more power and mpg crusing than a dual plane intake as well ad a 1inch spacer and will see more power and better on fuel. It will take some time to get your combo right it took me 30 plus years playing with these FE motors and found what they like and hate. They love single plane intakes especially high rise air gaps with carb spacers if desired,headers is a must collector pipe size is a must don't use reducers for you'll lose power gain torque but not enought to make it worth it when you can get it back in the air fuel department they like large intake ports big valves is a must and use a slightly smaller exhaust valve for more torque and another secret use a Chevy 454 rod conversion for more torque and engine life-H-beams rods. Got cash only get the Dove or DSC motorsports heads or port the edelbrock heads heavy. On a budget get the C8AE-H heads and have the runners gasket matched to Edelbrock Gasket 7129 for power and especially sealing quality. The C8AE-H are cheap heads that have the small kidney chambers for more compression. Best of Luck:D

Remove the choke blade on the Holley
 

By getting the choke blade out of the way on that Holley and getting the secondaries to open and getting the timing right, I picked up 50 hp.

Welcome to the club BUT
 

bubbaf100 Bubba welcome to the CC club. Most of what you have told on the forum I agree with. I do run into a bench racing problem with your MPG with a Brick of a truck and pulling a rig at 75-80 mph. If you have an aero kit on this, or your boat is a 12" row boat maybe. Full size, I would like to have a COMPLTETE spec on this motor, and what rear end ratio is in it?? I am sending it to FORD. I have built torque motors for my friends and myself. Torque is king. Some of the best builders are on this forum and are not pulling the VE you say you can Low 90's. Running an FI system with a dry intake manifold I get to just 90% on the engine dyno with a 1,200 cfm throttle body. Tryed a 1,400 cfm and got no change in numbers to make it worth the time. 2hp and 3 ft of torque. Responce was slower. Too much air. Vacuum was lower on opening. Where is the sweet spot of your torque and HP. 2,700 rpm's- to 3,200 rpm. Even running real lean. 20 is a maybe at best. CD on that truck is about 60-70. A brick. Rick L.

140 mph in a 70 ford truck, 165 mph? 20+ mpg? bubba, you da man.

He's missing a decimal point somewhere in his formulas or calculations

Clois that statement would seem to suggest that a 428 built with identical components would make more power than a 427? If they were built identically the only variable would the bore/stroke relationship. 428 long stroke, 427 short stroke.

I would put my money on the 427 for making more horse power because of the big bore/short stroke recipe.

Or, would you go back to a 428 for some other reason rather than max h.p. per cube (whether up or down in h.p. per cube may not be the issue is what I'm saying)? 428 certainly cheaper, but "better" is a relative term...

427ci sbf
 

I'll just share what my 427ci (Dart sbf) got...... engine dyno's at 560ft lbs @ 4400rpm and 563hp at 6500 rpm.... here's the link for more info and dyno sheet.

http://www.uniquecobra.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8223

Mark