Ford engines in NASCAR

[Ghoste]

Clearly the Ford engine was competitive back in the day.  At the risk of sounding demeaning, wasn't the FE a bit of an antique compared to the Hemi?  And yes, I know the Boss was a big advance as was the SOHC had it been allowed to run, but the 427 wedge was a more than worthy opponent.  Another thread mentioned something about Ford NASCAR pistons, what makes them different?

[pettybird]

look up ford 'tunnel port.'

and keep in mind the architecture for the bottom end of BOTH motors debuted in 1958!

[Aero426]

Two Lemans wins and the '68 and '69 Grand National championships are no fluke.    At the very least, in NASCAR the Tunnel Port heads allowed the 427 to remain in the same ball park as the Hemi until the Boss 429 was legal to run part way into the '69 season.    When the restrictor plates came in 1971, the 427 (and 426 wedge) got a new lease on life with the larger plate opening than the Hemi engines.  

[Ghoste]

What would be special about the pistons? 

[Aero426]

What would be special about the pistons? 

Paging C5HM to the courtesy phone.

[C5HM]

I am not aware of any significant difference in the configuration of Boss 429 pistons from other slugs. Race engines had more dome for a higher C.R. of course.  The domes werre also larger because race Boss engines were true Hemis while street Boss heads were shrouded on either side of the valves...making them more of a semi-hemi deal.
The Ford Boss 429 race engine was slightly superior to the Chryco Hemi in peak HP in race tune. That said, the Boss was at a mid range disadvantage in power/torgue to the 426. This is one reason for the greater sucess that Charger 500s and Daytonas enjoyed in short track settings in 1969 over the Boss 429 powered cars. The 426 had more power down low and could more effectively put torgue to the ground than the high rpm loving Boss engines. That spelled success in getting off of the corners in short track competition. Ford engineers seemed always to make the intake ports of their creations too large back during the Total Performance era. While good for maximum breathing, monster intake ports were hard to keep "fed" at lower rpms. As a result, fuel mixtures fell out of suspension and low to mid range power was handicapped. Then there was the equal penchant that Fomoco engineers had for mismatching intake and exhaust port sizes. Exhaust port sizes for Ford HP engines back in the day were significantly smaller than those on the other side off the head castings...especially for Boss 429 and Tunnel Port 427 engines. You can have the biggest and best flowing intake ports in the world and still not go anywhere if you can't get rid of spent combustibles with equal efficiency. 426 I & E ports worked much more harmoniously together in this regard. Another problem the Boss engines had was battleship class connecting rods. Race Boss rods were heavy enough to anchor a John Boat in a hurricane and took lots of energy to spool up. Once at 7,000 rpm, they would live a good long time, though. But it took time to get there. There is no doubt that Boss 429 was a good high speed, superspeedway engine. Which is one reason that Boss 429 race cars won so very many more (almost 2 to 1, btw) superspeedway (mile or more tracks) races than 426 hemi powered cars did total during the 1969 and 1970 seasons...even though little Lido Iacocca cut Ford's racing budge by a full 75% just before the 1970 season.

The Tunnel Port  427 engines were no slouches...especially when fitted with "Ford 1040" (later called Dominator) carbs.   That's one reason that the 427 SOHC was never campaigned in Grand National competition even though the official NASCAR rules books specifically permitted it to be run from 1966 onward. The common myth...propogated by know-nothings like Jerry Heasley and other scribblers...that the Cammer was outlawed is wrong. By 1969 the weight handicap that Big Bill France had saddled the engine with (in '66) was gone. Even so, Ford and Mercury teams still chose to run 427 TPs. After restrictor plates (followed by flow rings followed by restrictor plates) showed up during the 1970 season, many Fomoco teams...to include Holman & Moody itself, quickly reverted to TPs because the rules of the day allowed wedge headed motors to run larger restrictions than Hemis (with 366 and 358 cid engines being the least restricted of all). Bobby Allison went on a superspeedway tear in 1971 with his 427 TP powered 1969 H&M #12 Coke Cyclone for example (which, btw, was Ralph Moody's personal favorite competition car of all time...and that's saying something). Hope this helps out. JAC

[Ghoste]

Anything unusual about 427 pistons?

[C5HM]

Anything unusual about 427 pistons?

More dome that street motors. Race engines had a C.R. between 12:1 and 14: 1 depending on the builder. Things got iffy after 13:1 with the gasket technology available in the day. Early 427 pistons actually featured raised "norbs" that were designed to slap errant valves back into the heads on over-revving...valve  spring technology was not all that sophisticated in the early 60s either.


This is a shot of Ned Jarrett's championship winning 1965 Galaxie and its 427 Medium Riser race engine.

[Ghoste]

That of course I would expect.  Hmm.  This is being driven by something I read in another thread where it was mentioned that Harry Hyde had put Ford NASCAR pistons into a Chrysler engine. 

[C5HM]

That of course I would expect.  Hmm.  This is being driven by something I read in another thread where it was mentioned that Harry Hyde had put Ford NASCAR pistons into a Chrysler engine. 

Not sure how that would/could have worked since Boss 429's were "twisted" Hemis in that the valves were not situated one directly opposite the other and perpendicular to the crank as the 426 engines where. 

[Ghoste]

I wasn't taking it to mean the Boss though, I took it to mean the wedge.  Thats why I have been more curious about what was special about the FE for NASCAR.

[tan top]

 

intresting thread on the enemy's hardware