The 428 was Ford's effort to get big cubic inches in a street motor. It was a lot cheaper to make than a 427, and was never intended for pure racing purposes. Basically, a 428 is just a stroked 390, and tuned for massive torque over horsepower. The Cobra Jet 428 motors in Mustangs used heads from the 427, plus other enhancements to really put some hair on their chest. But, from the factory it was never as powerful as the (solid lifter) 427.
....................................................................................................................................................
427 - Essentially the rarest of the FE family of motor - built principally for factory "race cars" (and certian marine applications I believe) larger bore - shorter stroke - premium factory parts. Cross bolted bottom ends, modified oiling on some production runs (you have probably heard about "side-oilers") etc. NOS parts are very rare today and prices reflect it - IMO true 427's are not worth building unless you are restoring a car that was built with one.
428 - Also FE family. More common than the 427 but much less common than the 390/360/352 variants. Makes cubic inches with more stroke and less bore. Still generally a "performance" motor but not built with the same level of parts/care as the 427. Generally cheaper than 427 stuff but still not (IMO) cost effective to build (per HP given what you can get out of a 390 with aftermarket parts) unless you are restoring a 428 car or building a clone and want reasonable accuracy. That said - you can pretty easily replicate a 428 using quality late service blocks and aftermarket rotating assemblies.
429 - NOT an FE - this is a 385 series motor (same family as te 460). For pure HP/dollar you can probably get the most out of this engine at most price points if all you consider is the longblock build - the 385 series stuff is quite a bit more common than the FEs (although the FE crowd seems to be growing today and the aftermarket is attempting to get in gear). That said - you lose the cool factor of having an FE and if you have to modify mounts etc it might not be worth doing.
....................................................................................................................................................
In 1968, only the Cougar came with the 427
in 1969, only the T Bird had the 429
and if this info is wrong, tell me about it, but, you don't have to, I'm not going to memorize it and treat it as gospel. I'm sure other sources will say something else, but, again, I'm not trying to write the authoritative encyclopedia of everything automotive. Just sharing interesting stuff. In my spare time
Bringatrailer had some interesting articles on April 27 - 30 about the 427, 428, 429 and 430 (Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln) engines. I don't know a lot about the different Ford engines, and there is some interesting information about the differences between them.
ReplyDeletehttps://bringatrailer.com/2024/04/27/celebrating-4-27-cammer-time/
https://bringatrailer.com/2024/04/28/celebrating-4-28-the-135-series-cobra-jet-mustangs/
https://bringatrailer.com/2024/04/29/429-whats-one-more-cubic-inch/
https://bringatrailer.com/2024/04/30/4-30-video-inspiration-the-mighty-mel-is-the-first-daytona-500-winner-with-a-big-fat-asterisk/
thanks! Now I have to find time to glean what I want to know from these... damn, that's like homework. Takes time.
DeleteI owned, at the same time, a 66 Thunderbird with the 428 and a 69 Thunderbird with the 429, the 429 was the more powerful engine, cant believe my parents allowed a 16 yr old to buy a care with a 429 in it, but it was a screamer, it would lay rubber for days. and I had a free supply of used tires, from the forest service where my father worked, when they would replace all four tires on one of their trucks, there would always be at least one tire that still had plenty of tread left. so we'd save the good tires.
ReplyDeleteand i did some many burnouts that I friend the bearings in the nine inch rear axle, twice in 6 months, apparently doing extended burnouts slings all the oil away from the bearings or something.
the boys in my town had a standing contest for whose car could leave the longest black marks on the road, but to be official, it had to be done on the road in front of the sheriffs house. My 69 four door Thunderbird with the 429 was the black mark king, no other car could even come close , I once got expelled from High School and when I drove away, I left a black mark 410 feet long, a couple of kids had a scanner, and theyd listen and wait till the sheriff called in and gave his location that was miles away, then we;d go lay down some rubber in front of his house, it was easy to keep up woth the location of the sheriff and the deputy, since the sheriffs department consisted of the sheriff and THE deputy, literally like Andy and Barney, a rural Appalachian county of 7000 people that didnt have a traffic light in the county, didnt require a large department.