The Value of a 1964 High-Rise 427?

[Excaliber]

C3, 1963, stick a fork in it, your done!
C4, 1964, see above.

"F" is the high rise head, not "K". Besides, high riser wasn't out in 1963 (I'm pretty sure). The INTAKE may in fact be a High Riser, but it won't match the port sizing on the heads, kind of a waste without matching ports.

High riser HEADS had the largest ports/valves of the basic 3 head styles, low, medium, high. High rise does not interchange well with other parts (block, intake, etc). The cylinder hole has a 'notch' for valve clearance which is a MUST if your running high rise heads. Tunnel port and beyond are even more rare.

[RodKnock]

You know, he's one of those guys who's been building FE's since he was a kid. I thought my Ford Interchange parts book said that a "K" head was a '63 high rise head and that a '64 high rise head was an "F". I could be wrong, since I don't have the book in front of me.

[Woodz428]

I show C3AE-K as the hi-riser and C3AE-H as the low riser. It shows C3AE-J as the '64 lo-riser and C4AE-K as the 64 hi-riser.

[RodKnock]

Wood, thank you very much.

So although the seller claims it's a '64 HR and it appears it can't be, is the '64 a better performing and/or more valuable engine to have? I've read a past post that stated the '64 C4 head was improved over the '63 C3 head.

Out of curiosity, could the early CSX 3xxx comp cars have had a '63 HR 427 installed or were they (possibly) only the '64 HR 427? Thanks again.

[cobrajam]

According to Steve Christ's How to Rebuild Big Block Ford "Getting back to production history, High-Riser heads, casting C3AE-6090-K, appeared on the race circuit late in '63. This head is used on early production '64 engines. The modified head casting, C4AE-6090-F, is used on late -'64 and early -'65 engines". The C3AE crank is most likely a cast crank, but still more than strong enough, plus the lighter weight vs steel crank, approx 10lbs, allows it to rev quicker and are actually preferred by some. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with a top oiler, but the numbers for the "Block : C3AE 6016-H" are not listed, are you sure that is correct? I ran a .645 roller Comp Cam in a early '63 block w/ no problems. To answer your question is it worth $6000, yes or no. If everything is there, usable and/or new and it hasn't been 'over bored', it would be an ok deal, but if anything is questionable, you might want to rethink it.

[Excaliber]

Well that may answer a question I've been wondering about for some time. 'Rumor has it' there were TWO different high riser heads. That could be the late '63 referenced here, OR there appears to be both an F and a K high riser in '64? Two, possibly three different configurations for the high risers?

As far as I know Shelby never delivered a Cobra with high riser heads to any customers. As for the competition cars they very well could have run some, more likely they would have used the alloy heads which were rare but available to Shelby from Ford back then. You can bet some independants would have run the high riser heads. My heads came off a "T-Bolt" in Texas.

As for notching the cylinder bore at the top for valve clearance. Were ALL 427's notched or was that distinctive to a high riser block?