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427 Heads

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:15 pm
by 3ngin33r1
Anyone know of any sources for Ford 427 C5, C6, C7 or C8JE heads?

Any alternatives to them are welcome as well.

All the heads I've been finding are aluminum auto heads.

Heads

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:38 pm
by evansjw44
Looks like you researched Big Block Ford heads pretty thoroughly. I think the answer is Swap Meets and E-bay and wherever the "Hot Rod" Ford guys hang.

I have an old contact card in my file that lists John Vermeish at "Big Block Ford". Try 586.468.3673. The area code might be 734. That's in MI

Then I tell folks about Earl Stilson at Marine Sales and Repair in Clinton TWP MI or Harrison TWP. Earl has a lot of stuff. He's not cheap.

The bad news is that the boat motors are being stripped to build hot rods. A friend at my winter marina bought a whole boat to get the 427s. They were probably run out too.

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 4:50 pm
by 3ngin33r1
Yeah, that's what I'm finding out, it kind of looks like crap right now during the restoration but the one good motor has car guys in my area that I know ready to kill for it.

I've had one guy offer me twice what I bought the boat for just for the motor.

Rebuilding the other one isn't going to be cheap or easy but it's a little sad that the powerplants are worth more than all this lumber.

FE Block Heads

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:07 am
by evansjw44
It occurred to me that there might be a different place to look for heads. I have a book "Rebuilding Your Big Block Ford", John Christ I think, and it lists the heads used on the FE family. There wee a bunch. It is likely that the heads you looking for were used on engines other than the 427. You might look at the 390s which were much more plentiful (1958 - 19740 , 391s (truck version of the 390) the 360 (also truck and Edsel) and the 352. There are Merc versions in the 410s. I have a 390 in my Mustang and I searched a bit for heads. But you don't really want small chamber heads to get the compression up, you're looking for big chamber heads, right.

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:34 pm
by ed laning
I think I read somewhere that the 390 heads are the same as the 427 heads. Ed

Cylinder Head lIsting

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:09 am
by evansjw44
I scanned the cylinder head listings out the Big Bloc Ford book, There are a lot of choices and they are interchangeable. Note the different chamber volumes could be an importan factor. But 390's were in cars and trucks and they're still plentiful in the scrap yards.
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Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:56 am
by 3ngin33r1
Thanks for the info!

Turns out I've got a '67 F100 that I completely forgot about... I left it back in the woods many years ago. One of those, your parents always hated that car and where you ended up leaving it broken down things, it's parked right next to my brothers Falcon that he set on fire back in the late 70s...

Anyway, it has a 427 in it. The only thing that was ever wrong with that truck is that it was held together with rust that had rusted to itself, the motor was always solid so I'm going to take a trip back in the woods and see what I can find out. It's sat for about 5 years without being run though.

Intewresting TRuck

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:06 pm
by evansjw44
How did you end up with a truck with a 427 in it? 428s were seen in trucks but the 427 is a very different engine. The 428 is a stroked 390. The 427 is over bored and stroked. Its got cross bolted main bearing caps and the oil galleries (2) are on the side of the block and not down the center. That's why they call them "side oilers" and that's why they are so prized the people will buy whole boats to get just the side oiler blocks. The side oiler can't have hydraulic lifters but it can have the overhead cam heads. "Camers" thy're called and make a lot 0f HP. NASCAR banned the "cammer" before they could race it. They hit the drag strip hard.

Let me know what's in your truck. My guess is that its a 428. CC did use the 428 in the later 60s. It was a pretty subtle shift but the 427s were getting to expensive to build. The key is the oil galleries on the side of the block.

427 Heads

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:11 pm
by Paul P
The 427 marine motor is a parts bin engineering job by Ford and Chris Craft. They used the royal 427 cross bolted block of racing fame, a fine cast iron crankshaft, low compression pistons, a low rise torque-prone intake from the 352 and 390 series, a RV truck cam, and generic 352 and 390 cylinder heads. The C7JE head is very little different than most common FE heads found on the 390 motors, and they should be quite plentiful. Here is a very detailed photo documentation of the marine 427 head.

Beware, this is hard core motor-head stuff.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/424840/m ... 1121461942

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Naturally there are some low volume (high compression) parts out there, but the vast majority of FE motors (352, 390 and 428 series) all use essentially the same generic heads.

Regarding the truck with the 427, I can assure you Ford never built a truck with a 427 but Chevrolet did. If one exists, it's a custom job. 8)

Regards,

Paul

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 10:23 pm
by mali49t
ive got a set of 390 heads i need to sell and a block and everythign else to but i can check on the head numbers if wanted.

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:33 am
by 3ngin33r1
msg sent.