lifters in a mechanical lifter block. The 390-6V was a flash in the pan because this engine was never as powerful again.
The Ford FE Series big-block was introduced in 1958 looking a lot like this custom-built 428-6V with Mallory ignition. This 428 demonstrates what you can do with the FE Series big-block given budget and imagination. In its most basic form the FE Series big-block was available with 2-barrel carburetion as a 332, 352, 360, and 390 ci.
There were many variations of the 390 produced in this engine’s 15-year production life, including the Police Interceptor, Thunderbird Special, and the 390 Special. There were also industrial, stationary, and marine versions, each being distinctive in its application. Some ran on natural gas while others were fired by propane instead of gasoline.
The 410 was a Mercury-only displacement available in 1966–1967, which was little more than the 428’s long-arm 3.980-inch-stroke crank in the 4.050-inch-bore 390 block. A soul mate to the 390 is the shorter stroke 360 truck engine, which is little more than a 390 4.050-inch-bore block destroked with the 352’s 3.500-inch crank.
406/427
The 406 and 427 are grouped together because they were purpose-built high-performance V-8s with many of the same nuances. The 406 sported the 390’s 3.780-inch stroke with a larger 4.130-inch bore, thicker main bearing webs, and larger oil galleys for improved oil volume to the main journals. Toward the end of the 1962 model year, Ford revisited the 406 block’s architecture and gave it cross-bolted main caps for bottom-end strength. You may never have heard of a cross-bolted 406 block but they were produced in low numbers toward the end of production in 1962–1963.
In its quest for power, Ford developed a new big-bore block casting with a 4.230-inch bore and the 406’s cross-bolted main caps to get 427 ci. The 427 was a big-bore FE like never before with a new approach to stress relief during the casting process, which came via a slower cool-down process at the Dearborn foundry.
Ford introduced the big-bore 427-ci FE in the Galaxie and Marauder as a midyear sales booster in the spring of 1963. The 427 arrived with Ford’s new Total Performance program ushering in a new era of excitement. Ford was back in racing and the 427 proved this out. This 1966 427 Side Oiler is fitted with pent-roof steel valvecovers.
When the casting process was complete, 427 blocks were machined and assembled on a 427-specific line at the Dearborn Engine Plant. Each 427 engine was hand-assembled with close attention to detail. The 427 block has a thicker deck to handle extreme compression ratios. Down under, much thicker main webs were employed to handle the power.
Despite the 427’s cross-bolted main caps and stress-relieving efforts, these engines still came apart at high RPM, scattering parts all over racetracks across the country. This was when Ford engineers discovered these engines had a serious oil starvation problem at high RPM. The 427 Side Oiler was a major engineering and manufacturing commitment to durability with a redesigned block equipped with a single oil galley down the driver’s side of the block. The Side Oiler supplied the crank, rods, and cam with improved lubrication and failures stopped.
Here’s the 427 FE on the dyno at JGM Performance Engineering. What makes this 427 unique is its Side Oiler block and rare factory aluminum heads from the mid-1960s. This is a Le Mans–bowl Holley on top of a 427 High Riser manifold.
The 427’s vastly improved oiling system made this engine a world-beater against Ferrari at Le Mans. In fact, the Side Oiler became the gold standard for big-block power. The Side Oiler was teamed with Medium Riser heads and Carroll Shelby’s 427 Cobra in 1965. The 427 Side Oiler was a culmination of nice refinements learned from experience in racing. The FE dominated NASCAR in the 1960s, winning five manufacturers championships and five Daytona 500s.
By 1965–1967, the 427 was the best it had ever been and guaranteed to finish the race. The challenge today is finding an undamaged Side Oiler with standard bores you can build. An alternative is to purchase an aftermarket Robert Pond 427 block, which will hold even more power than the original.
The 427’s handicap is bore size limitations. Because bore size reaches the limits of this block at 4.230 inches you can only bore it .030-inch oversize unless you intend to re-sleeve, which averages more than $100 per bore. Unique to the 427 is a forged-steel crankshaft, although nodular cast-iron cranks were installed in some for non-performance applications.
Here is Ford’s 390 FE big-block swapped into a 1960 Thunderbird, replacing the 352. The 390 was introduced in 1961 in 2V, 4V, and High Performance configurations (4V and 6V). The 1961–1962 390 High Performance V-8 was factory fitted with an aggressive mechanical lifter camshaft and cast-iron headers.
The FE big-block enjoys great interchangeability. Although there are a lot of head casting numbers, there isn’t much difference across the board in terms of port and valve sizing. One exception to this rule is 427 heads. They can vary a lot across Low, Medium, and High Rise types. Heads and manifold must match.
This 1963 Galaxie Lightweight was spotted at a car show with a 427 topped with rare Mickey Thompson hemispherical combustion chamber “hemi” cylinder heads. It makes you wonder why Ford didn’t do a 427 with a hemi cylinder head. Note the use of a magneto. Also noteworthy is the special Mickey Thompson induction.
The 427 SOHC Cammer was conceived as a specialty off-road engine for NASCAR-sanctioned stock car racing. Ford built approximately 1,000 427 Cammer engines for stock car racers. When NASCAR said no to the SOHC, Ford was stuck with at least a thousand engines. Ford ended up selling these engines in the aftermarket just to unload them. It is unknown exactly how many 427 Cammers were built. However, their value remains extremely high on the rare occasion they come up for sale.
The defining feature of the 406 and 427 standalone FE engines was this bulletproof cross-bolted main cap design that made the skirted block indestructible. No other FE big-block had a cross-bolted main block except late-1962 406s and all 427s through the end of production in 1969.
The 427 SOHC block is unique to the SOHC heads. This means that you can run a Cammer block with wedge heads. However, Cammer heads will not work on a standard 427 block due to lubrication drainback differences, unless an external oil drainback line is used.
The 428
Because the 427 was an expensive engine to produce, Ford had to look at what it would take to get a cost-effective FE to the luxury car market. Ford introduced the FE Series 428 in 1966 as a low-revving alternative to the 427. Although the 428 was 1 ci larger than the 427, its architecture was different. It used a nodular-iron crank along with a 3.980-inch stroke and a 4.130-inch bore. So close in size (427/428), yet so different in how they made power. The 427 likes to rev high, making its greatest horsepower and torque at 6,000 rpm. The 428, with a smaller bore and longer stroke, likes to make torque at lower RPM ranges to smoothly motivate heavy cars around town and onto
