can somebody help me identify a 427 from the other FE engines. I am looking at a truck and supposedly it has a 427 in it and i was just wondering how to make sure it is a 427.

 

a 427 has cross bolted mains, look above the oil pain there should be bolts going into the block for the bross bolted mains.

 

thanks for the info.

 

Do all the 427 have a cross bolted main.

 

Most 427s are crossbolted, but not all. Ford produced an industrial/marine version of the 427 that was not crossbolted. There were bunches of them used as irrigation motors and other agricultural uses. The best way to tell is measure the bore or remove a freeze plug and look in the water jacket. A 1/8 bit will just barely fit between the cylinders on a 427. Either way, you will have to do some work to find out for sure. The stroke is the same as a 390 so the 'wire in the the spark plug hole' trick won't work. Good luck

 

Yes, the only FE that was a coin toss was the 406. Some had em and some didn't. Many standard FE blocks will have 66-427 on them. Many people on ebay will advertise that they have a 66-427 block. They aren't lying about the writing on the block but it is indeed could be a plain 352 or 390 block.

Just something to look out for.

 

wernt all car 427's cross bolted, i know the early 406's didnt have them but the later 406's did.

 

Even the 300HP 427 Chris Craft boat engines I have seen had cross bolts.

 

I think the 427's also had screw in freeze plugs.

 

Yes, starting in '65.

 

Maybe we can assemble the cues and let Rat put it in his FE FAQ!!

 

I'm not real up to snuff on my 427 history so if one of you would email it to me I would be more than happy to add it. The FE FAQ is going to get huge! That is a good thing. Maybe I'll end up breaking it up into different sections eventually to make it easier to find stuff.

 

I knew this would turn into a controversial discussion but here goes... I have in my possession 5- 427 industrial blocks. They are not crossbolted and have press in freeze plugs. They are 427s not overbored 390s or 428s. One is in my 66 Ranger. They have different markings but all were cast for sideoilers but not drilled. That casting is the only external clue that they are 427s. There was a discussion on fomoco.com fe forum regarding these blocks where I emailed some pictures to 'shoe'. He posted these pictures on that site. This took place about 2 years ago, so you will have to search deep. I agree with Ratsmoker in that not all fe blocks marked '66-427' are 427s..... just as all FEs marked 352 are not 352s either. One thing that I have learned about the FE motor is that you can not ever say they never did this.... or that..... Ford does, and did, do a lot to sell their products that may or may not fit into the car and truck business. They are in business to sell product at a profit where ever they can and they can make adjustments to an existing product to suit an intended use. The industrial engine business is interesting in that they seemed to use it to dispose of inventory. They made the 427, 428 and 460 industrial and I have some experieince with those. They also made other sizes that I have seen but haven't had any experience working on them. The 428s were all CJ block assemblies with FT heads, intakes, pans, bell housing-clutch assemblies. All the FE industrials that I dissassembled had the big nut rods. We used the 428 industrials for irrigation engines for several years, until we quit irrigating in 1984. I have several of these engines built up to go to work, although I have no plans to ever pump water again. I sure wouldn't use up any more 428s for this. They are not for sale. The 460s looked like marine engines, basic 460 block assembly with super-CJ intake. I haven't dismantled one of them, so I don't know what's inside. I've got a marine 460 in my 87 crewcab and it sure runs better than the original 460.

 

Thanks 66 Ranger, I knew I should have clarified that. Was talking about the car 427's, '65 and up sideoilers had screw in freeze plugs.

 

I think I can clear this pretty quick:

Is he asking about $6K more than comparable trucks? :-)

Sorry, always the wise guy!