Sorry we have been racing and busy, Thanks for the emails, calls and comments here. The guys get the news from us and it is very nice,
Over on the old forum we explained about magazines, and how the FORD teams told people enough to,,,,insert joke,,,be dangerous, or enough to kind of get a glimpse, but in no way at all, how we built the engines inside, or what key parts helped the FE run better, None of it was for sale, or available unless FORD backed you and you had HM or HMS doing your work, under a deal with Detroit
Putting the methods in a magazine was against all rules, because it helped the competition out fox you
The build of the SOHC Daytona car is in no book, it is in our data base and FORD's, and of course, old Bobby S, Bruce, Art,Mike,Jr and a few others were there, and a small gang who re did the same builds for the following years, had the mentors guiding each piece, and we sold these builds, to later owners.
This engine was thoroughly blue printed by changing certain parts and specs. Cams were a big deal and we had 5 vendors, plus many selections from Detroit,,,,we call those X cams and we still have a big crate of FE X cams.
The early SOHCs got the heads ported, the intake matched, the pistons reworked, domes, oiling and often, lightening....rods got fussed with, the big end dimensions reduced often, more crush, lots of oil pump work, we ran more pressure than many, the blocks were relieved in a special way, trick for the era and all dyno tested, and Detroit, HM, and HMS moved the cam timing a lot to look for best power in a given RPM range. Yes, the cams did get strobed
Ford was so trick, we actually built a test cell, shared with SHELBY, that measure crank shaft deflection under high load.....
Primitive by todays standards but accurate in what it observed.
Very nice articles shared by C5. He has a nice archive and our original hope was to share our archives with more authors since few had access to get in to our place, and few were in that shop then due to FORDS secrecy agreements. Even when we had about 135 men, talking out of school was a major no no,,,,,like, your fired bad.
ISKY,CROWER,ENGLE,HOWARD,MOON and MADDEN ground hundreds of special SOHC cams for many classes out West,, and CRANE made awesome sticks, and even had a nice shop here for some time, Crane Cams West.
You have to remember this, well we respect it a lot. The great OHIO GEORGE had the ultimate A Gas Gasser. His Willys with a SOHC was a dominant car that killed the Dodge boys in droves. He set the standard for a well dressed, professional crew and rig too. He was the fastest of the Gassers, and won so much, using ISKY cams for his SOHC. Old ED has all of the specs still, and his boys still do a lot of SOHC cams, I send them crane billets to get re ground to a nostalgia lobe profile sometimes.
Many are still around and we hope the hard work from back when can get passed won for the future FE racers. That is kind of why we started posting, and to respect the old Ford guys
Must note, by 68,9, 70, general Kinetics had some awesome SOHC cams, as did others,,,,Lunati is awesome. DYNO DON won with General Kinetics cams in some of his engines, and with CRANES in others.
The chassis was all in house here, at Stroppe. This was before Holman merged with us.
The key chassis guys did it as I described before, Bruce and Bobby have a lot to share here, for later
This car is a 'tribute',,not a 100 point resto.
It has Art Chrismans finger prints on it too, he worked for us, running the famed AUTOLITE Dyno inside our complex. Art is a old friend of many of our guys and we all raced nostalgia for decades too. What a great guy. Sold his old race cars for millions a few years back. Told me he wanted to have some money for the grandkids futures to be better.
Art was our neighbor, so was Jack, in the 60's. North Long Beach had a lot of local Drag cars, a big Service center Speed Shop, LAKEWOOD industries, and Stroppes, reath, Venolia, Delta Crank, all the magneto guys, MickeyThompsons, and many others. He and Jack did it all.
And better than most. Art is getting better and a wonderful man. He was at a recent event, in a chair. He is improving and well cared for. Our Bobby Spears is a close friend, so we get the news. Art loves my kid brother, calls him,,,Beau..cool
Lots for later
OH,,,,Mr Bikini foto boy vanished,,,,must have jumped the shark or something....think the talent cooked his lens or something hahahahaa
We have a veterans charity we fund and provide offices for. The girls were at this event, maybe 20 helpers, and they were all so pretty too....if we get time, we will add the bikini gals,,,,too fun and funny, Nitro A Go-Go......ha ha
Thanks guys
Email me questions if it can help ya build a faster FE
Please give me, and my pals, a while to reply
Thanks JAY for running a very productive and thought provoking site here
The 57 SOHC Ranchero is running,,,,more on it as time allows.
This Stock Car,,,,has pulled up next to a lot of local sports cars tooling down Pacific Coast Highway...rattling their poor expensive windows a bit, poppin away on race gas. Then blowing their fancy pants doors off, old school. Boy that ruins Joe Porsche's Sunday,,,,
FORD tough......smokin 'em hard for Henry (Ford)
See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya' Have some SOHC smoke and all that....just hilarious...