ChiefDanGeorge pardon my being nosey but are the heads & rockers all that they stole?...............

The back steel wall of my friends Speed Shop was cut into with a Saw-zall . They used his inventory/boxes to build a tunnel across the warehouse to the power box and knocked out everything.  They very selectively stole stuff leaving high dollar parts beside parts they stole. Sadly he never found anything.

What I find amusing is, as Allan mentioned (American Cars) .. When the top dog FERRARI'$ come up to auction all bets are off. Ferrari nut$ sail past the dollar figures of the top-dog American Cars and keep going like the ENERGIZER RABBIT.  One Ferrari in particular went for $52 MILLION!
   Then you have dozens of FERRARI'$ going for $10s, 20s, 30s of million$ of dollars
                 So strange RICH FORD GUYS compared to RICH FERRARI GUYS?...............Let's not forget the FORD's shown and of course the FORD GTs were built with beating Enzo's cars as the goal




https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-10-02/ferrari-gto-becomes-most-expensive-car-at-52-million

http://www.bing.com/search?q=highest+ferrari+auction+price&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IENTSR&pc=EUPP_

I was looking at the Ram Air Flapper of a Hurst Olds, stamped steel flapper door, stamped lid, shaft and pneumatic valve actuator. I could not get over how these parts looked identical to those on a FORD Shaker lid or the breathe through the scoop lids.  The guy obviously catered to Hurst/Oldsmobile muscle. I asked him about the FORD Shaker/cold air parts resembling the Olds stuff he had displayed?,,,,, He said you are right Hurst/Oldsmobile and American Motors both utilized FORD parts in their through the hood breathing combos.

   So thinking back and "searching"  I'm guessing the "ram air" air cleaner components may have been unique to HURST/OLDS (not Olds) and if so perhaps the guys at HURST simply went down to the Ford/Mercury dealership and purchased SHAKER lids and cut them up to weld on to their own filter/ram air housings?...... Hurst I presume was modifying "stock" Old's like SHELBY, so they not feel guilty using parts/components from the FoMoCo dealer.   Pretty amusing that Hurst/Olds and AMC (perhaps AMC/HURST?) were putting a hurting on FORD Shaker/Ram Air components in the parts network.   If you see one in person you can notice how they amateurly rough cut up the FoMoCo covers and melded them on to their own covers.



http://www.fusickautomotiveproducts.com/prodinfo.asp?number=OASHO

http://www.fusickautomotiveproducts.com/prodinfo.asp?number=VM69H/O

Checking what things went for at Mecum, Dallas. About fell off my chair.... The horror's of having a no-reserve car on the line Sat (normally a good day) and two potential buyers are not there.   Estimated to sell for $20,000 - $30,000.

 ------------------ SOLD $12,000.---------------

Hope for the sellers sake it was not a factory 427 car, though it was said to be a former Dick Simon AHRA 1/4 mile C/SA record holder

https://www.mecum.com/lots/DA1116-256435/1967-ford-fairlane-race-car/

Drew the little things FE I really like to keep original FE--- the use of a factory chromed dip-stick is mandatory and the FoMoCo dip stick tube itself is near as mandatory to me... I have one original dip-stick tube that shows to be actually plated with copper or something.
 I don't mind swapping factory pent roof VCs for the chromed 390GT/428CJ Powered by Ford VCs ... but the chromed dipsticks were actually unique parts of the 390GT/428CJ's

Re: . Always a lot of mixed reviews on most all mini gear reduction type starters. Kinda like a crap shoot.


   Don't really understand your mixed reviews on mini-starters................ reason being I've got a 351W stock in my LIGHTNING.  You learn stuff -- the stock factory FORD starter on the FoMoCo 351W LIGHTNING is a Motorcraft mini-starter...I'd think across the board Ford was using mini's in the 90s and up  -- that says to me reliability

          Here's the crazy part ---- it's the same starter as used on the 2.3 Ltr I-4 motor that's been a junior stock favorite for decades.

The nice thing is in the old Chris Crafts which were truly toys of the wealthy, they likely almost all came with closed loop cooling - not raw water which would have harmed the FEs.  Even run hard in a big Chris Craft 3,000-4,000 all day was just like running down the interstate so they didn't really get beat as car 427 did.

  Mine had steel plugs in the lifter galley feeds and were factory run solid with nothing other than drip to lifters. I know they were steel - bitch to drill out. I threaded those plug points and will run mine as a hyd roller.