I am finally getting some work done on a long neglected project, my 67 XR7 GT Mercury Cougar, car was park in 84 with a rod nock, I had picked up many years ago a 67 427 SO block to build to go in place of the 390, and I am finally getting around to doing it.
I pretty much want to stay away from chinese parts, so I picked up an early factory steel 427 crank for my build, it came with grooved mains which there is a little bearing issue, this particular crank comes with 2 additional counterweights off the center main, and I had the crank sent to Performance Crankshaft (Adney Brown) to get worked over.
My side oiler block I just dropped off at Costa Mesa R&D Machine Shop, for a cleaning and initial check up, The block is currently std bore, and would prefer to stay as close as possible to that size.
This build is going to take a while, so I have decided to pull the 390 and throw a crank and a set of rods in to get it running, here are the current eng & car spec's:
390
428 SCJ Heads
Offy Port a Sonic
Cam: Old Greg Foreman-Gus Davis Grind .612" lift, Dur 312*-258@.050
2 1/8" Hooker's
Built C-6, 3,500 Stall
Locker 4:57
The car was a blast and had less than 500 miles on the engine build before the rod went, probably a spun bearing ? The rod went during a pass at the drag strip @ 7,000 rpm 2nd gear, with only a 5 quart pan and no oil restrictors in the heads, so I think the all the oil was in the valve covers and the rods were starved for oil ? I left the headers un-corked and drove it home with the rod-nock.