High twelves!!! YAAAAAA BAAAAABBBBBEEEEE!
Rob
Just the WOW factor when a Cheby guy looked under the hood 427
The original post asked two questions: the first being more subjective: Namely, if you were buying a GTE new during the months where both were available, which would you choose (for whatever reason)? The second being which one was faster 0-60 or 1/4 mile?
Easy. The 428 version. You have the best of the best! Just as I thought you asked in the original question. I live in Bremerton (360 377-5164).
Rob
There never was a period where they were both available. To get the 427 you had to order the GT-E. There never was a time when you had a chance to pick one or the other. There were GT-E orders that were filled with the 428CJ when it replaced the 427. Given all that the 428 was much less expensive and a proven winner at the Winternationals.
What was the reasoning behind only offering the 427 with the C6? Hadn’t it been available with a manual transmission on other models in previous years?
My (mis)understanding is it did not meet emissions with the manual transmission. Maybe Royce knows the truth.
So far as I know they (Ford / Mercury) never even built any mules with standard transmissions. There were prototype / test mule Mustangs and Fairlanes built with the proposed '68 427, and they were all automatics too. We have VIN records of those cars (they had '67 VIN’s) and none are known to exist. I think they knew it was going to be a limited run of engines given the extraordinary cost of building a 427.
Wasn’t the 427 discontinued because it was more expensive to build.
There is also “something” to being a part of the connection to the 427 racing history of Ford. Having the similar DNA as a Ford GT, a Thunderbolt and other Medium- and High-Riser cousins is part of the thrill for me.
It was discontinued because it was superseded by the even more expensive Boss 429. It was thought at that time (1967 - 68) that automobiles were headed towards 8 liter engine sizes. The architecture of a 427 was optimized around 7 liters. Ford was competing with the 426 Hemi and luxury barges like the Chrysler Imperial with 440 cubic inches and Cadillac with its 472 (soon to be 500) cubic inch engines. The FE series had no room to grow.
Royce is exactly right. The bore spacing on the FE would not allow for more displacement.
Well if that is the case, how are people making 482 CI with a 427 block ?, I know “how” they do it, Ford could have also.
This may be why the FE was all but abandoned as the top performance engine, but not specifically the 427.
The stroke was too long. The lever angle on the crank is too shallow.
Sorry dudes. How about a 482 Cubic Inch FE!! Or up to 520 cubic Inches!!
Just as I said, guys are building monster motors from a 427, and they are bullet proof, SO why didn’t Ford do it???
Simple answer cost.
Honestly I doubt cost had anything to do with it. The FE continued to be used in millions of Ford trucks through 1978, and in U - Haul special order chassis through 1982. The fact is that luxury barges needed more cubic inches, and there was not a way to get the size needed in the FE. If cost was truly a factor, Ford would have used something else in all those millions of trucks. The fact is, the FE was still perfectly suited to the job, and the tooling was paid for many times over the long lifespan of that engine family.
Tooling up for the 429 / 460 engine family was very costly, and it was not used on anywhere near as many cars or trucks before it was obsolete.
The FE was produced for about 20 years. The 460 for about 30 years. Don’t have the numbers but assume a lot more FE engine were produced in the shorter production run than the 460 as it was available in more vehicles.