Howdy
I need more info on what you have, is it a cherry never run 427? We raced them all the time for FORD at Holman Moody Stroppe and many of us kept stocks of old NOS stuff for a good reason, it is the genuine article.
Is it a long block? Why not give us the part number please?
We have done hundreds of restorations and I am a SHELBY Dealer, I knew Shelby and am still friends with many of my older HMS pals who worked at SHELBY, then Stroppe, then SHELBY, we rotated a lot of men. I kind of see this as an Old School, versus latest greatest school question in part? Plus you are cash limited?
You can just get a clean 428 crank, for 452 ish, great heads, two 4's and have a fiesta? The sombrero and tequila is the cheap part. The hard parts will cost ya some dinero. I'd suggest research, and at least SCAT rods. I do have sets of NOS LeMans rods, many do...they go in period correct builds. Are you a purist?
To many if us, a real 427 was made in Detroit, so, for me, I spend the time to find a ford crank, rods, and heads often. FORD intake, covers, you know. the old stuff kind of speaks to me,,,like, I was there in the glory days. All the new stuff is so bitchin but the old stuff is the genuine article, and it fetches bucks when you sell a resto, no doubt.
I assume this is a pump gas engine? Or not? We have a nice collection here, now 140 finished Hot Rods and classics, Drag Cars and so on. For many of them? We run VP race gas and don't care if someday, so how, somebody gives us a ticket. We have a concrete block building, for 3 grades of race gas, and run it blended, or straight, depending on the mission, goal
If you want it to sound like a real COBRA, from the 60s, I'd stick to the formula that won and went real fast then for this reason, the sound? And the power, torque curve, and attitude, is authentic for the era
Now granted, the new SHELBYS have my favorite new parts. FORD and many of us, were involved in the update. FORD, licensed Shelby to use the FORD numbers on the heads and so on
When you buy a new SHELBY COBRA, the engines come in power levels and get bigger and bigger. They start at 4250 bore, and then combos go from around 454, up to around 577 cubes
The key deal is, the heads have a 2 1/4 inch intake like a cammer. The stage 2 porting on the SHELBY heads hets you 320 CFM easy, and because the chamber is like the original FE heads, the sound, and performance, sounds nice, and runs great
The key deal on a new FE from Shelby is simple, the block only weighs 124 lbs.....the heads are aluminum, this takes a bunch of weight off of the nose of the car, makes the front rear weight percentages better, so the turn lower lap times in the vintage and club racing circles
We did a lot of hopped up FEs for COBRA owners, all through the 70s and 80s. If 2 guys had the original 427, they'd race, one would lose, come to us and say, I want to beat my pal bad, what do I need?
So, we'd do dual quad High Risers, stroked, no problem, We did 427, or 452 s with 8V tunnel port heads, we did several very stout SOHC's too
I'd set a clear target? If you have a FORD block,you can head plate hone is, out 003-4 thou, to 240 and stroke it and haul the mail, without fail
If you go 006 over, to 4.240, then you have 2 more easy rebuilds to 4245, then 4250
ARIAS made thousands of pistons for the new SHELBYS, he will make you any FE piston you wish, and they are tested well. Same deal with VENOLIA, JE, and others Probe
For me, if I have a stock 427 block, it just looks cool, blends, and seems real, with real FE heads
I just got a forged steel 427 SOHC crank today from a pal, magged it at VELASCO, they are out there
This crank is targeted at a lot more power, so I have the rod throws turned to 392 size. That is 062 under stock, and 1/8th inch wider per rod. Much stronger deal that we raced and won with a lot
The combined with of 2 rods is 2.0, rather than 1.875. This is for a blown FE
Have fun
# of the engine builders here, and many of us, can find you nice original Medium riser heads, High Risers, Tunnel P's
If you want to mix and match, lighter heads also take weight off of the nose a lot. If you can find the small chamber, fast burn, BT High Risers, they rip
Barrry make bitchin heads, made in the USA at Edelbrock
Ed has a good head
If you like the Korean Heads, which I have seen, used and my tight pal BLAIR is doing great things with, get BLAIR on your heads maybe. He is a FE genius with many records and trophies to show you. He, like many of us, was around race cars from birth and building in his teens. His decades of FE work have won and won at the drags. He flat knows how to win and is so smart, he builds a lot of winners.
You have 3 great builders here, and Brent is a real nice guy who works hard, does a lot and is a gentleman
Have fun
I do use the same porters that SHELBY uses out here, don't forget BPE racing Heads, in Anaheim. They did hundreds of high perf FE heads for all of the new COBRAS sold until about a year ago.
Have fun
There is no replacement for displacement, but you need great heads, the power is easy when you build an FE big. We did a 634 last year.
Your 600 target can be also viewed like this. FORD sold the first true race engines assembled, the 427 SOHC HEMI. They were famous for making 600 HP out of the box, but, with 12.5-1 slugs, 600 lift cams,2- 4's and an intake port that easily flowed around 400 CFM. And they could rev to around 9000 in race trim. So to get there with a wedge, requires just what you are pondering...more inches, better style wedge heads,,,or
Good luck
I'd set a budget, save, and keep asking the gang for input. I kind of feel that is it great to put heat back in to an old real 427 block, but try not to hurt it. Built it well, and run it wisely, and it can last a long time.
I echo what the others say too. 600 HP is fun if you are a good river, know how to throttle steer, slide, 3 pedal her in the corners and all that? Have fun
