Here's a follow-on question about building an SOHC...

[BH107]

So what kind of body would one fit into without tearing out the shock towers?

Galaxies, Starliners, pickups, and 55-57 Thunderbirds to name a few.  Any Mustang, Falcon, Fairlane, or Torino is going to require shock tower surgery to make the engine fit.

How many early birders do you think i'd tick off by ditching the 312 for a cammer? in my '57?

Thats been done plenty of times. In fact I sold one for a friend last year that he did in 1971 with a brand new crate engine when his twin Paxton supercharged 312 was getting tired. The car is currently under restoration by the new owner but he's leaving th Cammer in it.

[Ididntdoit]

the Cammer would appeal to the pre-48 hotrod crowd looking for something different to put in their fenderless 32 or some sort of street "altered" hooptie. The 60s Galaxie application is a given but I think there is a wider appeal to the Cammer than just Galaxies, Fairlanes and Mustangs and don't overlook the hotboat crowd.

Thats Me - when my plans fell apart on the project I was putting together I started on an altered (bantam body) It is a 96" wheelbase and will never be a competitive race car - I will run it only at nostalgia events and it will be a glorified "run stand" ....I must confess, I have an alky injected sbc at my disposal and actually offered my fresh 427/c6 here at a super cheap price with no takers.....right now its mocked up in the chassis and I'll prob run a sheet metal intake on jay's adapter.....but a SOHC conversion is just what this thing needs....Am I in at 10k for the parts? Hell ya

[66Bird]

Jay,
Your wife must be a saint to put up with you............ You have some mighty big ideas! LOL

I too love the look of the SOHC, but I can't justify the money for the look. My wife is already worried about me with a 445 over 500hp. The only good thing is that the SOHC would hold it's value more than my 445 if something happens to me and my wife needs to liquefy the engines or cars. The wife factor would shut me down. Dan

[sumfoo1]

I have a spare original 427 low riser  with 2 cracked heads and a crank missing one of the bolt ears for the flywheel.

that sounds like it would be my cammer in wait...

[WConley]

I think the real bugaboo for cammers has been the lack of a one-stop shop with quality parts, at an attainable price, that somebody will stand behind.  There are too many stories of non-existent or porous castings, or chain "A" that ends up not working with sprocket set "B", or everything's available except for one silly component everybody's waiting for.

Convenience is unfortunately a fact of modern life.  People want to be able to buy a complete kit that they know is well sorted.  It would be nice to have a knowledgeable person answer the phone if there is a question.  Many of us know that Dove tried to sell a bunch of $11K cammer conversion kits several years ago.  That did not go well for the above reasons!

The $10K price is great, but there's also a major commitment to getting it all right.  Jay might be in a unique position to pull it off!

JMO, of course,

Bill

[bigswede442]

Jay, If you had come up with this a little earlier I would have been very interested. I just put out 15 K usd into my 482 tunnel port build and will risk a divorce if I do another motor next year. That all being said, put me on the list if you do come up with a SOHC kit. could alway sell my tunnel port set up and covert my short block. Once again like so many others,sorry to hear how Drag week turned out for you, top shelf part failing has got to suck.

[RJP]

One thing that is very important to me is the "comfort level" of a engine,  meaning a cheap 390 that I can drive like a rented mule and not worry about is much more fun to me than a $20-30K engine that if something breaks its big bucks and an extended search for parts that are on the endangered species or unobtainium list. That was the reason I took the 427 S/O out of my Hondo flat as it would be much safer and well preserved in my 61 Starliner. The Hondo got a 460 t/t that I had no reservations about running it to 72-7300 rpm. I am a die-hard Ford freak and just about any Ford engine is fine with me irregardless of the family...I love 'em all from flatheads to Mod motors and everything in between but my main interests are FEs and 385 engines in that order.

[bn69stang]

I had brought up in an earlier thread about a cammer fitting in a 69 mustang with the shock tower s trimmed similar to the boss 429 , which is not a problem . A sohc top end in that price range that could be fitted to a 390 -428 block would certainly open up a lot of us to do it , I would do it in a heart beat Jay . My ultimate 69 mach would have an all aluminum  482-500 inch motor or a cammer , and in my opinion you are gonna spend  10,000 to 12,000 on most builds anyway . I have  4,000 in heads , roller cam , rockers and push rods now .. it adds up quick as we all know , but opening the hood and see ng a sohc   HELL YEAH .......... Bud

[ToddK]

If there was a one stop shop that sold a quality cammer kit for around $10k, I'd be in. I already have a 496 bottom end and 2 big engine bays that could handle it.

[jayb]

Jay,
Your wife must be a saint to put up with you............ You have some mighty big ideas! LOL

My wife does have a very high tolerance level for my "automotive adventures", but I haven't told her about this one LOL!

[427fordman]

That cost is much better, but I agree with what was said before, seems like you'd be really stretching to make a dime.  IF I could someday have some more play money for a street car instead of just race cars, I'd think more about it.  My one fairlane is a tube chassis so fitment is not an issue, and I have my 514 for sale on racing junk now that is in it.  The plan for that car is to put it back on the street with the 427 block I have.  If that 514 sells there will be an aluminum 427 in one of my other fairlanes next racing season.  If it doesn't it will be a 390 again.  The last one lasted 3 years before the block broke, thankfully no blowup, found on disassembly.  Right around 600hp.  I didn't run that car this year.  I like the 385 series motor, but I grew up around and love my FE's, time to get rid of that motor.

[bn69stang]

Sometimes it s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission   LOL   good luck Jay .. Bud

[482supersnake]

I think the real bugaboo for cammers has been the lack of a one-stop shop with quality parts, at an attainable price, that somebody will stand behind.  There are too many stories of non-existent or porous castings, or chain "A" that ends up not working with sprocket set "B", or everything's available except for one silly component everybody's waiting for.

Convenience is unfortunately a fact of modern life.  People want to be able to buy a complete kit that they know is well sorted.  It would be nice to have a knowledgeable person answer the phone if there is a question. Many of us know that Dove tried to sell a bunch of $11K cammer conversion kits several years ago.  That did not go well for the above reasons!

The $10K price is great, but there's also a major commitment to getting it all right.  Jay might be in a unique position to pull it off!

JMO, of course,

Bill

Kind of what I was thinking. If the Dove deal had went better I think we would see a lot more Cammers out there. I know I was trying to figure out how I could make it happen, but new that I would likely get burned if I had went forward with it because of Dove's reputation. Not to say that Dove hasn't on occasion put out useable parts, they just didn't have the consistency for me to offer up $10,000+.   

[Joe-JDC]

The drawback for me has always been the lack of finding all the parts in one place for a turn-key engine.  Gaskets, sparkplug boots, distributor, waterpumps, motorplates, timing chains, camshafts, etc, etc.  I still see folks asking for individual parts all along to complete a particular engine.  If, and that is a big IF all the parts were available, then I would be much more likely to consider the deal as feasible.  Most folks will find the money for anything they feel is worth the risk, and it is risky to start collecting parts for a SOHC when you don't know if you will be able to find ALL the parts to get the engine completed.  That is a lot of money to commit to without knowing if you can get all the parts available in one place to make it work.  In the end, if you were to sell 50 engines, what would be the profit margin?  Sounds risky at best, but that is your decision to make.  Joe-JDC

[jayb]

It would be risky, Joe, no doubt about it.  A lot would depend on how much I would have to pay for the tooling, if it included the machining tooling and machining programs along with the casting patterns, availability of a local supplier to me to make the gears, finding a good iron foundry for the rockers (my existing foundry only does aluminum), etc. etc. etc.  And of course it would be a somewhat slow process to put the whole package together, because I have limited time to work on it and my machines are pretty busy as is.  I don't think I'd want to add another CNC machine.  But the idea of doing all the parts for an SOHC, doing them right, pricing them fairly, and getting more of these engines out there is very attractive to me.  Its not a decision I have to make immediately, thankfully, so I'll be thinking about this for a while...