Gota love driving the GT40 to work...

[Sean]

After fighting with moving my pedals in my CAV for weeks, I finally get everything right last night and drove it in to work today. I have it parked for 5 minutes and a long time customer of mine starts asking loads of questions about it. By the end of our 30min conversation I find out that his buddy has an old ski boat from the 60's with a real deal 427 side oiler in it. I has been sitting for decades and he told me the motor is intact but will need a rebuild. Question #1 what do I even offer for something like this? Question #2 would be it stupid to even think about dumping my 5L and loading this large cast iron chunk in the back of my car.

 

[David in Durango]

Well . . . .somebody wants that motor. Ahem.

 

[Tom]

Sean,
FWIW, I sold my 427 side oiler (stroker) Tunnel Port for $9000 in the late 90's. I sure hated to see that motor go. Mine put out an impressive torque number on the dyno so I doubt a stock ZF would hold up for long behind it. I think the motor weighed in just under 700 lbs, if memory serves me right....

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

The FE will not fit in a MK I as the deck is too low for the exhaust and I understand the engines in the CAV mount slightly higher than in an FAV/Superformance GT. So I doubt you would want to do this.

 

[Sean]

700LBS!!! OUCH. I guess that solves that.

 

[Earl Balzen]

I had an all aluminum 482ci Hilborn electronic fuel injected SOHC engine that only weighed 440 pounds full of oil-- no flywheel or pulleys on front. Thats when I got the idea of putting one in a GT40-- which is in progress with a Ricardo transaxle.

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

Side oilers are rare, you should buy it even if it isn't going in the GT40. Just grab it. If it is a marine engine the water passages may be rusted out. Was it used in fresh or salt water?

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Side oilers are rare, you should buy it even if it isn't going in the GT40. Just grab it. If it is a marine engine the water passages may be rusted out. Was it used in fresh or salt water?

Also remember that some marine engines are "reverse roatation" and you could end up with five speeds in reverse......

 

[Mike Drew]

Also remember that some marine engines are "reverse roatation" and you could end up with five speeds in reverse......

...which is fixed with a simple camshaft change, right? Or am I wrong about that?

 

[David in Durango]

...which is fixed with a simple camshaft change, right? Or am I wrong about that?

I believe that is correct. John Holman could tell you - they probably built the motor.

One might think about the cost vs. originality question - a new alum. FE block could be a better choice.

 

[Tom]

Also remember that some marine engines are "reverse roatation" and you could end up with five speeds in reverse......

That is correct. Camshaft and distributor gear change should get it going in the 'right' direction.

Tom

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

That is correct. Camshaft and distributor gear change should get it going in the 'right' direction.

Tom

And you will pump oil out the rear main seal as the rifling will be reversed! The crank must be ground and re-grooved at the seal surface. Oil pump also.

 

[Tom]

The crank must be ground and re-grooved at the seal surface. Oil pump also.

Good points! I forgot about the crank.

 

[Bob]

Not all marine engines are reverse rotation. In all but special aplications the engines rotate normally.
The only time I recall seeing a reversed engine was in my parents twin engined cruisers. Single engined boats run normally.
I'd grab that 427 and tear it down. The p/n on the cam will tell the story.

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

Exactly right on all counts. Most boats which had a reverse rotation engine had one of each; this is almost exclusively a gas engine thing, as diesels tended to have stronger gears which had equivalent clutch packs in forward and reverse, so you would have two standard-rotation diesels with one set up to run "Forward" and one set up to run "Reverse" With gas engines, which usually used Borg-Warner marine gears, one transmission was set up to reverse crankshaft rotation using an idler gear inside the transmission. To use a reverse-rotation engine in normal rotation, you need a crank, oil pump, cam and distributor from a normal-rotation setup.

A bigger concern on marine engines is corrosion in the water passages. At the time these engines were built, most of them were direct-cooled with seawater pumped through the block and heads, not heat-exchanger cooled like modern engines. So if the boat was run in fresh water, the block and heads may be fine. If it was used in brackish or salt water, the inside cooling passages may be corroded- hot sea water is very corrosive and the engine may be eaten up from inside, in which case you probably can't make a performance motor out of it.

 

[Al Jones]

For starters, make sure it's a real side oiler. a lot of the Ford 427's in boats were the low compression, small port units, as well as center oilers, similar to the Cleveland's system. And, as mentioned corrosion could be a factor as most ski boats of that era were raw water cooled. Still, if the price is right, and the owner had taken care of it - as in post-use fresh water flushing, it could have some value even if you don't use it.

 

[colin artus]

Back in the 80's I bought a 427 side oiler ( MR dual quad) from a breakers in Burnley (Lancashire) of all places; one of a pair from a boat and just my luck I picked the reverse rotation one. The galleries were full of sludge that had set like cement so it was quite a lot of work to get it into useable condition!