On the Ultimatecarpage.com specifications for CSX2000 Wouter Melissen lists the Ford XHP-260 engine as having "alloy block and head". In the only engine compartment shot on their site the XHP-260-5 engine and intake are painted black. When I was at the Shelby Museum in Las Vegas they politely but firmly declined to open the hood of CSX2000 despite my asking very nicely! So I have never seen the engine in person. The 1967 Shelby T10 King Cobra is also listed on the same website as having an "aluminium" block and heads of 351.9 ci or 5766cc.
The following segment from the ultimatecarpage.com description of the Ford GT40 "AM lightweight"
"Bailey's chassis design closely followed that of the Lola Mk VI GT with the initially used aluminium replaced by steel for additional durability. Broadley was not very happy with the added weight, but Ford felt it was necessary to cope with the heavy and powerful engines proposed for the new car. The all aluminium, dry-sump Ford Fairlane engine was also carried over from the Lola. In good American tradition, this V8 featured a central camshaft with push-rod operated overhead valves. It was intended to be used as a stop-gap until a four-cam version would become available. In later years one of these Indy-racing derived engines was indeed fitted, but the racing and production cars all featured OHV engines. The Fairlane engine displaced just under 4.2 litres and produced a decent 350 bhp. It was mated to a Colotti four speed gearbox." Now I do not necessarily accept all of this as completely accurate but what I am trying to find out is whether there were in fact any XHP-260 aluminum engines or blocks - Cobra or Fairlane and which cars had the aluminum 289 fitted. I have heard for many years that some of the GT40s had aluminum blocks.
On the
Bill Lewis website it also mentions developing an aluminum 260 block which was used as the basis of the 1963 Ford pushrod engine for Indy. This is very specific and detailed about the development of the aluminum 260 and worth a read.
Indy Engines -- The Ford V-8 Engine Workshop
So my questions remain - did Ford build aluminum XHP-260 blocks and what cars were they installed in, Cobras and/or other cars such as racing Fairlanes? Similarly, which cars had aluminum 289 blocks?