[Wdmichels22]

Hello all, I’m a boat guy over a car guy and was looking for some more information. Our boat has twin 427 ford engines which according to my reading appear to be side oilers. I know the racing heritage if these motors and have always been fascinated to have 2 of them just as a talking point. We usually do all the work on the boat ourselves but recently we had a mechanic on board who geeked out over the motors since they are non bored, original side oilers claiming the blocks can be worth a good chunk of $, does anyone know the true value? According to my reading as well it depends on fresh vs salt water use because of corrosion which makes sense, for clarification these are fresh water only engines that have never been exposed to salt water. If anyone has any info please let me know!

 

[galaxiex]

Value might be hard to determine without a tear down and inspection.
Also it’s likely one of the engines is reverse rotation since its a twin setup in a boat.
You will likely get better answers over on the FE engine forum.
332-428 Ford FE Engine Forum

 

[Wdmichels22]

Value might be hard to determine without a tear down and inspection.
Also it’s likely one of the engines is reverse rotation since its a twin setup in a boat.
You will likely get better answers over on the FE engine forum.
332-428 Ford FE Engine Forum

Your right in that one is a reverse rotation, to correct it’s a cam swap so it can be done, thanks for the link

 

[Kenny nunez]

Your right in that one is a reverse rotation, to correct it’s a cam swap so it can be done, thanks for the link

The RH engine has the pistons on the rods opposite of the LH or ” standard rotation“. The cams are the same just gear driven. Also the oil retention grooves on the rear main may be opposite of a LH engine. Some marine 427s were not 4 bolt main blocks. Look closely if yours are 4 bolt main blocks. If your engines came from Holman/Moody you probably have some really good ones. The Navy used them in Viet Nam on some Seal Team boats.

 

[Wdmichels22]

The RH engine has the pistons on the rods opposite of the LH or ” standard rotation“. The cams are the same just gear driven. Also the oil retention grooves on the rear main may be opposite of a LH engine. Some marine 427s were not 4 bolt main blocks. Look closely if yours are 4 bolt main blocks. If your engines came from Holman/Moody you probably have some really good ones. The Navy used them in Viet Nam on some Seal Team boats.

 

[Wdmichels22]

The RH engine has the pistons on the rods opposite of the LH or ” standard rotation“. The cams are the same just gear driven. Also the oil retention grooves on the rear main may be opposite of a LH engine. Some marine 427s were not 4 bolt main blocks. Look closely if yours are 4 bolt main blocks. If your engines came from Holman/Moody you probably have some really good ones. The Navy used them in Viet Nam on some Seal Team boats.

They are 4 bolt mains

 

[Kenny nunez]

You have some really rare engines. Too bad most of them have long ago been beat to death and discarded.
There was a guy who raced them in the 60s in a Bertram. He had 2 of them in line driving on each end of a Casale V drive through 1 shaft and won some off shore races in Florida.

 

[PSIG]

The most common overlooked issue is that they are side-oiler blocks, but usually not machined for side-oiling. This was (presumably) done to spread the cost of the block casting operation across more blocks, and also effectively homologate the production for racing rules. A fresh build-up would be desired, as the marine version was rather low performance.

So, most marine blocks are actually top-oilers. Functionally not a big problem for most of us, but not true side-oilers. There are three different oiling versions in side-oiler blocks, so do your homework on how to identify which one you have. If selling, it can (and has) cause some sticky issues if advertised as a side-oiler, and it's not.

Background is always much deeper than we assume, but that is what I've seen or heard related to this. Good luck!

 

[bulletbirdman_1190]

crossbolt mains not 4 bolt mains