quote:Originally posted by Throttle man:
I am going over there, I will post what I find or buy. So what I am looking for is a bulge on one side of the block for the side oiler part, and the mains have bolts also on the side of the block, and it should say 427 high performance, correct? Anything else? Thanks
If it was me, I would look at the casting number first. It has to have side bolts through the block above the pan rails. It has to have the horizontal hump along the left side of the block with the allen plugs in each gallery.
There are a bunch of non-427 FE blocks that say 66-427 on them including certain 390 truck and industrial blocks.
They are not 427 blocks and cannot be bored out to the 427 bore.
Some of the casting numbers you will be looking for are: C5AE-D, C5AE-E, C5AE-H, C6AE-B, C6AE-C, C6AE-D, C7AE-A, C8AE-A, C8AE-B, C8AE-H.
There is also a marine casting of C6JE-B, C7JE-A and irrigation engine castings of C5JE-D and C7JE-E.
These numbers are all located in the block where the starter mounts.
The center oiler blocks are all C3, C4 and some C5 casting numbers.
The 68 "hydraulic lifter blocks" are the best for high performance use since they are cast with a higher nickle content and the bore cylinders have reinforced walls (almost square) for NASCAR useage.
The earlier blocks are all drilled for solid lifter use only. The oiling passages for hydraulic lifters are not drilled.
The 68 hydraulic block needs to have the passages blocked with threaded in allen plugs for high performance useage. Hydraulic lifter cams were not considered to be high performance (racing) cams back in those days since these engines were designed to last a 500 mile 8,000 rpm race in NASCAR, which was the primary intended use of the engine then.
DON'T SHOOT ME FOR STATING THIS. I CAN'T REWRITE HISTORY TO SUIT EVERYONES DESIRES.