[Anthony]

Racer X,

The FE could never be the king of big cube racing engines. The engine was designed in the '50's with too small of bore spacing, not allowing for better bore/stroke ratio's as with the BBC, BBF, Mopar, etc. I don't think the head design allowed for optimal breathing for 500" + engines either. Ford designed the 385 series engine to improve upon the FE, in maybe all aspects except for 1, the deep skirt and cross bolts which was probably superior to short skirt 4 bolt splayed chevy design. The FE had its glory days, although you can still get respectable HP out of it. I still think it is a great engine, not the best ever made, but it still can be a great engine.

Actually, I think the FE block, with its bore sizing, is optimal for a 400-427" size engine, but probably is not for over 500". In the 400" range, you can get a better bore/stroke ratio with a 428/427 block compared to a sbf, due to the latter's smaller bore spacing, limiting the maximum bore. The FE edelbrock heads can flow respectable numbers as well.

I believe prodution cost was the reason why ford did not go through with the cammer, as they wouild have to install it in production cars, to make it qualify for NASCAR, which would have a harder time selling with a much larger price tag. Chyrsler bit the bullet, and offered the 426 hemi in street cars for 1966 to qualify it for racing. Ford instead came out with the mediuim risers, and then tunnel port heads for the 427, for racing. They then designed the Boss 429, from the ground up, for racing. They also designed the engine so it could run non-hemi heads, stealing chevy's design for the canted valve cleveland heads for production cars.

Regarding the cleveland style small block heads, they have been experimenting with them for over 30 years. Chevy designed the canted valve layout for the new 396/427 engine in the early 60's. Chevy also developed a set of canted valve heads for the sbc at the same time. Smokey experimented extensively with them, and wrote about it in his book. From what I remember, he basically said that the canted valves didn't offer any advantage until very high rpm's, and the inline style was cheaper, so there was no reason the put the canted valve head into production. He said that even though the canted valve heads flowed better, the engine displacement was too small to take advantage of it, and you really needed a larger displacement engine, such as the 427, to see a worthwhile difference. But as we know now, NASCAR has adapted that head design again, both ford and chevy. I'm sure the ports are not identical to the way they were in the '60's, but I think the basic concept is the same.

Ford copied the chevy head design for their 335 (351C) and 385 (429/460) series engines. They used the canted valve head for the boss 302 as well. I read that because the heads flowed so well, the had too slow port velocity, and actually the inline tried and true chevy design used in the their 302 produced more mid range power without giving up any top end. I read that the Ford guys actually epoxied the ports in the boss 302 heads, making them smaller, to get higher port velocity to increase mid range power to be competetive with chevy in Trans Am racing.


All engines have pro's and con's, including cost and design parameters.

My '65 Olds 400 engine actually has some advantages. All oldsmobile engines at that time were cast with high nickel cast iron, allowing the block to be thinner than if they used "****" cast iron as in sbc's at that time. Supposidly, my engine actually has the weight of a sbc, even though it physically is much larger. It also came standard with forged crank, as all oldsmobile engines at that time.

whew!!!

I won't say anything more.