Mike,
Guess I missed that one. I only covered half the Buckeye building. Saw the same 427 short block that was at National Trail raceway swap meet with the #8 cylinder looking like it had exploded and then been welded back on. He was asking $750.00 for the short block including the Lemans rods and steel crank. That's why I stay away from Lemans rods and steel cranks.

Royce Peterson

I see these master parts volumes on ebay occasionally go for $500+. Thats a lot of money to pay for a reference. Does it have both engineering numbers AND casting/stamped numbers for parts? I heard that it just had useless engineering part numbers.

hey royce, i don't think a replacement tag came on a bare block. the tag is to identify the assembly (pistons/crank/rods/cam) as the number is used to identify replacement components. i think this tag is of a service longblock (i have had some shortblocks and they didn't have tags either). as far as the parts books go, there is no better source of info on the cars but they are not designed to identify loose parts in the junkyard. they are invaluable if you are restoring cars or selling parts and i have over 200 of them now (not all ford, but each year ford printed a new one for ford , ford truck, lincoln, lincoln mercury, and mercury). the ones usually available are the compilations and they are usefull but many obsolete parts were simply deleted so some sections have numbers and other sections don't list much (especially body and soft trim). mine go back to 1932 and i have so many i had to store some which is a pain but i wouldn't give them up for anything. my books have paid for themselves many times over and i recommend owning a set for the era you are interested in. the hard copies of the 65-72 are about 250.00 from helm publications but they don't come with binders (75.00 ea at ford and it takes two). many places are now selling CD sets cheap. i know that thunderbird ranch sells their shop manuals on CD with the 60-64 parts book for 50.00. it can be nice to print out specific pages, especially illustrations that show how stuff goes together. i like hard copies as i often open multiple books for comparison (to see if a part was used on some merc that is rare on a mustang for Eg. the best example of this came to me this week in trying to find some part numbers on some trunk detail parts for a 427 galaxie, did you know that the 64 galaxy jack and spare tire retainer is the same as 68/9 torino? i didn't, but it solved a problem but quick!). i also have some on microfiche but i hate those and don't recommend them unless you are really tight on space. the carb and distributor lists are especially helpfull and much more accurate than anything available. i also use the pulley numbers and the smog parts numbers a lot. (by the way, did you guys know that a 428 PI flywheel is different than a 428 CJ flywheel but they used the same flexplate?) hawkrod

Royce: I have no reason to doubt that the Mustangs used the hex nuts with star washers, as I've seen photos of at least one of Bob Perkins' cars and others. However, I've never seen any on an original Torino and the road test photos I have for both '70 and '71 all show the standard Ford wing nuts on these cars. I have the MPC with illustrations, so I know what you're referring to there, but as you know, they are not always 100% accurate. Believe me, I'm not trying to be difficult, I would just like to get more definite info from a Torino slant. As I mentioned, my '71 with shaker was very unmolested and had the wing nuts when I bought it. I know that it would have been very easy to install them over the years, but I also think it's possible that by '71, at least, Ford would have realized what a dumb idea it was to use the hex nuts and started using wing nuts instead. Anyhow, thanks for your input. I always enjoy your posts, especially regaring GT-E's. I'm actually a part owner of one. Well, to be precise, I own a part from one, front fender 7.0 Litre emblem my brother pulled out of junkyard here in Delaware probably 20 years ago :-)