The top three pictures in order are 1) Ohio George Montgomery (I know George) 2) Sneaky Pete Robinson (Died in a Dragster Wreck) 3) Don The Snake Prudome (I have met Don and he signed one of my Cammer Valve Covers)

 

Just for the record, they have only started repopping valve covers out of Aluminum in the last 2 decades. All of these pictures posted are older than that, and ALL original valve covers are cast magnesium, even the polished ones. What you are seeing on the front of Don
Prudhomes dragster is the cast aluminum timing cover which has been polished. The heads and blocks on all of these engines would have been cast iron. Ford did make a few sets of aluminum heads for the Cammer, but this was very early in Aluminum head production. Aluminum has to be 40% thicker than iron to have the same strength, and Ford used the iron tooling to poor their Cammer heads and they were to thin and week as a result. On Bill Coons naturally aspirated Thunder Bird, he should have run 0.1 seconds faster because of the weight reduction, but his car actually went 0.1 second slower with the aluminum heads on, so he was actually going 0.2 seconds slower in the quarter mile. Bill feels the heads deck was not thick enough. In Top Fuel, the Fuelers were actually blowing / melting the roofs out of the exhaust ports in the aluminum heads.

My new Auminum Bill Coon heads are much thicker than factory castings, have raised intakes and exhausts and many improvements over stock.

My 427 Ford Shelby block was cast and machined by Arias and is based off of the Arias early 413 Hemi Block, but will bolt up all Ford FE parts.

Roger

 

Don Prudome recorded the first 6 second pass in history in his car, and Sneaky
Pete Robinson went as fast as a 6.50 in his car, but the writing was on the wall when Keith Black came out with an aftermarket Aluminum block and Ford pulled out their backing, but when they were still running factory blocks, these were at the top of the heap in Top Fuel.
Pete won the Winternationals, and so did Prudhome. The Blue Mickey Thompson 1969 Top Fuel 427 SOHC Funny Car was the winningest funny car in History.

Connie Kalita used to run a Cammer in Top Fuel and In took one of my valve covers to a National event for him to sign. Connie pulled me into his trailer and we talked for over 1/2 an hour. Kalita said that Ford was sending him a 427 SOHC a week for his drag racing effort.

John Forces first Top Fuel Funny Car was an old mustang bodied 427 SOHC side winder car. The sidewinders had the engine mounted sideways in the back of the car and had a chain drive to a solid rear axle.





Roger

 

Thanks for posting the pictures, and thanks for the memories

Roger

 

Kalitta was arguably one of three racers to claim to be the first to go over 200 MPH in the quarter mile and did it with a Ford 427 Cammer. A lot of different Ford 427 SOHC powered vehicles in the second video, including all of the older Mustang Funny Cars.

 

Don Prudhome and his Shelby Super Snake 427 SOHC Ford he won the Winter national's with.

 

At the 2 minute 6 second mark is a picture of Bill Coons 427 SOHC Ford Cammer with direct stack injection in his early Thunderbird, followed up by a video of Bill making a pass. Bill Coon is a very close personal friend of mine and make many new parts for these engines. At the 8 minute mark and the 8 minute 6 seconds mark are two pictures of Ohio George Montgomery's extremely dominant Blown injected 427 SOHC Ford Malco Gasser Mustang followed up by video of that car making a pass,

 

I know that new motors are so much better, but the old motors look soooooo much better. Just a lot more character.

 

You just need to build an old engine, with all of the upgrades that the factory "SHOULD" have included

If we go back in time and look at the Top Fuel Ranks, the 426 Hemi was never really that much of a factor. We have to remember that the 426 Race Hemi AND the 427 SOHC Ford were BOTH designed as NASCAR power plants and as such, weight savings was a major factor. With thin wall block castings, barreling of the cylinders under boosted loads of nitromethane and block destruction were "REAL" factors. The 392 Chrystler Hemi blocks were much thicker and heavier, and saw a lot more use and wins in Top Fuel, and the 426 Hemi and 427 SOHC were soon replaced by Keith Black and Donovan after market Blocks.

While the 6 bolt cross bolted mains, siamesed cylinder Carol Shelby Block I have is based on the Arias 413 Donovan block and is a major improvement over the Ford factory side oiler, it is still a cast aluminum block, where all fueler blocks have been billet Aluminum for a very long time.

My next engine, I want to have Bill Coon help design a completely new block out of Billet Aluminum for his friend Richard Maskins of Dart Machinery to whittle out for me I am hoping Bill will cast me some SOHC heads where we can increase the bore spacing and add a Chevy type head bolt pattern

Roger