[DeTomaso] 427 SOHC in a Pantera?

[Daniel C Jones]

> A few years ago Carroll Shelby was OEMing some aluminum... ah yes:
> http://www.carrollshelbyent.com/engine_aluminum_block.cfm

Shelby, Pond, Genesis, Kirkham and maybe even Dove offer aluminum
FE blocks.  The Kirkham block is carved from a billet.

> Those SOHC motors are worth a fortune, and deserve better than to be
> stuffed into a Pantera.

The 427 SOHC engines are also being reproduced in aluminum.
What's better to stuff a SOHC in than a Pantera?  I don't know
of any SOHC Panteras but tunnel port FE's have been installed:

 http://www.supermotors.net/registry/12357
 http://www.supermotors.net/registry/media/318453

427 SOHC's are Cool motor, Panteras are cool cars.  Sounds good to me.

> There's a guy in Detroit who has a fantastic collection of Ford-powered
> cars; one of my favorites is a '63 1/2 Ford Starliner with
> an SOHC 427.

That would be John Vermeersch, Ford's answer man back in the muscle
parts days" and it's a 1961 Starliner:

 http://www.motorcitygalaxieclub.com/members%27_cars_vermeerschs.htm

> A better choice is a 429 Boss.

Kaase has an improved Boss 429 out now.  Even cooler would be the
427 Calliope:

 http://www.supermotors.net/registry/17894

An offshoot of Can Am engine evelopment, the 427 3-valve "Calliope" was
intended to run at LeMans in 1968 but rules changes made 7 liter engine
illegal.  While displacing 427 cubic inches, the Calliope was not an FE
family engine.  Instead it shares bore spacing and bellhousing pattern
with 429/460 BBF's.  It used an aluminum block engine with cast iron
cylinder liners and had a bore and stroke of 4.34" x 3.608". The aluminum
cylinder heads have 3 valves per cylinder, two intakes and one exhaust,
in a pent-roof combustion chamber and the heads are sealed with copper
O-rings.  No intake manifold is used.  The sliding throttle plate
independent runner stacks were cast integrally with the cylinder head.
Twin water pumps, one on each bank, were used to shorten the engine.
Twin camshafts were also used, one for the intake valves and one for
the exhaust.  Both are in the block in an over-under arrangement. The
intake camshaft was 6" above the crankshaft centerline. Pushrods from
the intake cam run parallel to the cylinder bores.  The exhaust camshaft
is 4.5" above the intake cam.  Its pushrods lie in a horizontal plane.
The camshafts were driven by chains, along with the dry-sump pressure and
scavenge pumps.

Dan Jones