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Original Message
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| RE: Part-4 of the post......................... |
| By P - 12/28/2000 11:57:48 AM; IP 63.169.28.156 |
It is apparent that when Henry Ford, II wanted to win races, he did win. He practically “bought” the wins. The LeMans effort was essentially an ultimatum from Henry Ford, II. When one Ford employee asked “what about the budget for this program?”, he was directed to a sign posted in Ford Corporate Headquarters that read “We win LeMans in 1966”. There was no budget limitation, and the engine of choice was the venerable 427 FE side-oiler that had been refined during years of dueling on the NASCAR tracks.
Carroll Shelby is often quoted and misquoted, but said the 427 side-oiler was a “waste of good machinery” in anything other than an all-out racing machine. As a result, it is not very well known fact that the 427 Cobra actually received the less expensive 2-bolt 428 cubic inch FE engine for most of the production run, while the more expensive 427 was saved for the track (but all of then said “427” on the side of the car). The 428 “Cobra Jet” engine was another interesting variant of the FE theme, using the piston bore of the old racing 406 cubic inch engine (4.13”), but with a newer long stroke crankshaft of 3.98”. It looked almost identical to the 427 except for the lack of the 427 exposed cross bolts near the oil pan. For street or drag racing use, the 428 was a worthy but much less expensive competitor. Racers have long known that if you combine the 3.98” crankshaft with the big 4.23” bore of the 427 you can get enough power to burn tires like nothing else. The main problem with the 427 FE engines is short production run, and commensurate availability of parts. They are fine engines of the first caliber, but they were produced in relatively low production numbers. There is not a large following for this engine today due to the fact that parts cost more. Other alternatives are more common.
Lastly, there will always be Chevrolet fans commenting on the so-called “oiling deficiencies” of the FE engine series. This is odd coming from fans who watched the FE win 101 races to 9 Chevrolet wins during the 1963, 64 and 65 season. I guess it’s better to have a so-called “oiling problem” people talk about, rather than being stuck with an engine that wouldn’t win! The “oiling” issue arose when the big block became more and more powerful and people began running them harder and harder. The initial design did have a need for improvement, which was improved upon more than once, and finally slam dunked with the side-oiler design. As Shelby noted, this side-oiling feature simply is not needed for anything other than NASCAR or LeMans type racing activities.
Hey, that's my opinion, laced with some facts. Let me know if I'm off base anywhere.
(Time to crawl back under a rock)
P
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