That's seems to be a rare optioned '68 Fairlane Curtis. It's a Fairlane fastback? Not a loaded Torino GT car? It just seems odd that it has all those power accessories with a Fairlane model and not the upscale Torino.
Whatever, as I said, the 429/correct trans will fit in but it's really not a simple bolt in unless you have all the correct parts at hand.
Good luck.

The June 1967 car mag "Speed & Supercar" has a feature on page 43 of Motion Performance's King Cobra that shows the engine with similar chrome covers and the stick-on 427 emblems. Not all Cobras came with finned aluminum valve covers and those that did had s couple variations of sand cast covers that I know of, the "Cobra LeMans" and the "Cobra 427".

I agree with you Allen, that these are repro's. The Cobra's came with a closed valve cover (no vent caps), that was the tall pentroof style. I was fortunate enough to be in the car that was in the movie "The Gumball Rally" and that is what was on that car, plus many others that I saw. That car had a Med riser with a sidewinder on it. In reference to an "R" ( I think he means SC) car remember that the induction was a full ram air with an air box surrounding the carb. In an earlier post I saw the question of differences in a 428 vs 427 car. From memory a 427 was used with top oiler and low riser quads with box/log manifolds. If you opted for the SC then you got the side oiler with a single four barrel, headers and other goodies. The 428 P.I. was used with a set of C-3-J head castings and a medium riser intake, and put out 390 horespower with the 306 cam that was stock in a P.I. Twenty five years ago I had a friend with a towing service, and he had brought in a destroyed 65 Cobra that had sat in a creek bed for ten years. I pulled it apart and was suprised to find the same cast crank that was in my Hi-Risers. Being all original with that in a side oiler block to boot, I never figured that one out. They did some mighty strange things back then.

I'm very interested in learning more about C4 applications behind an FE, and there was a really cool thread on it about a month or two ago (I can't find it right now).

This thread got me to realizing the C4 is powering a lot of nitrous injected 5.0 and 5.7 blocks which put out up to 1000 horsepower. It's obviously been looked at very closely by some tranny shops. Apparently there is one tranny shop that is selling one which has been adapted to fit the FE. Quoting from a magazine article, that thread mentioned the shop has a 700HP version and a 1000 HP version of the FE-compatible C4.

I suspect there may be some streetability issues with this expensive and hevily modified C4 transmission, but the thread did make it sound (perhaps incorrectly) as though the C4 could be run on the street.

I will be looking further into this to try to determine whether the C4 can have a competitive advantage behind an FE in certain racing (or street) applications. Presently, I believe the potential advantage is oriented only toward small, lightweight vehicles.

As for the Boss Martians, they're a current group out of the Seattle/Tacoma area. THe Boss Martians have written the finest hot rod tunes of the past decade. Evan is certainly a car nut, but his writing is so technically oriented that he's gotta have some hard core racing friends who give him guidance on the lyrics.

Several years ago Evan wrote a song about plopping a 427 into a '53 coupe (the Boss Martian's "My Ford Sedan") and it put a big smile on my face. More recently, his album, "Move!" has written about how he sold some Fords to buy a '54 Ford wagon and convert it into a rolling beer keg, How his 429 powered '52 shoebox Merc was trounced twice at the stoplight by a "chick" in a 427 powered '39 coupe. Another tune is a great song about his 383 SuperBee. Other tracks tend to be surf oriented (not Beach Boys surf, real surf). They also have strong "garage rock" influences and several years ago wrote a fun album dedicated to Boeing. Man, if you ever wanna hear a hot rod album about Boeing aircraft, this is it. The Boss Martians always make me smile. While much of their music is in the surf-instro genre, their forte is writing the most technically enjoyable hot rod tunes I've ever heard. I apologize for ranting excessively about music that many people will not be interested in, but, heck, it's just in fun.

Shoe.

If it's not JW, I think I read that JPT is making that bellhousing, it's definitely been done before. As for the strength of the c4, a local guy runs a 557ci 385 series in front of a c4, running 10.0s on motor and 9.89 on small shot. This is in a 3800# Galaxie so it's definitely a stout tranny. Another guy with a 10.30 '65 Galaxie and 514 runs the same tranny. I am local to the Booze Bros shop, they suggest c4s for all cars. Performance Automatic builds the trannies, they are full roller 6 planetary, hardened output shaft racing trannies. No, not really stock but they've been going two full seasons in these heavy low 10et cars, both see plenty of street use so other than the full manual valvebody they're no different.

My car was built 1-18-68 and it sounds we have the same valve covers, so they must be factory orginals.

Thats what I use. I leave a little slack, 1/8 inch or a bit less unless I'm going to the track, so it engine isn't locked down.

n/m

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Just tell us it's a '65 T-bird with a 390 and steering problems and it'll fit in here just fine.

I also agree that I suspect you don't likely have any steering gearbox problems. Have the front end linkage looked at (or check it over carefully yourself) and find the problematic parts. Balljoints can sometimes feel good in your hand but fail under load, so beware of this.

Shoe.