[Barry_R]

I don't really mind the commentary. It keeps the posting up top.

This engine is a lot more exotic than a "normal" Cammer - and the performance reflects that. It is supposed to be an obsolete design from a combustion chamber and induction perspective - yet it just delivered 1.65 horsepower per cubic inch and 1.37 pounds of torque per cubic inch at 11.5:1 compression. Those are very solid numbers by any standard and exceed the best results I have had from a much more modern and comparably developed wedge headed package. This is a very telling comparison that certainly should change some commonly held views, and backs up what the Mopar guys have been claiming - and proving in NHRA competition - for years.

Consider that the common parking lot comment is that overhead cam engines or true hemi headed engines don't make as much torque. Obviously very wrong - - 722 pounds wrong!

For comparison's sake a 330 inch 5.4L engine would need to make 545 horsepower naturally aspirated to meet that same standard. Since we are talking efficiency we can add in the fact that the physical footprint of both the Boss 429 and the Cammer is similar to the 4.6/5.4 family despite the displacement. We tore down Mark McKewen's 4.6 SOHC and this engine side by side at the University of Northwestern Ohio and the similarities and design inspiration were very clear. If anything, the intake tract of the old engine was superior - far straighter - but not held under the constraints of hood clearance. The induction package on this engine is dramatically better yet, but the ports are nearly the same cross section as the originals.

Comparisons to boosted applications are not very meaningful. It would be fairly easy to hang an F3 and engine management onto this to get power numbers in the twilight zone - probably 1500 and more. That was never the point.

Comparison from a dollars spent perspective are only marginally more valid. You could build one of these with a cast stroker crank, more "normal" heads, catalog pistons, inline carbs on a "normal" intake and save a ton of effort and money. It will still make very good power and be very cool. I suspect that most of the ones built for customers will be of that sort. But this excersize is about pushing the design envelope and getting the most power without compromising durability or comparable behavior. Lessons learned from this build will improve future engines.

I don't care whether the new owner for this engine puts it into a Cobra, a Galaxie, a Mustang, or whatever - as long as it gets used.

If you're simply chasing a power per dollar and power per pound target you'll build a blown junkyard LS1, stick it into a Solstice, and be done with it. Nothing in Ford's stable even comes close. But then again it also looks like a toaster in comparison....