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Simply absolutely positively gorgeous mk!! You owned a copy of one of those MONSTERS!!?? Good grief, the very epicenter of Ford's glory days produced that mean machine. ;^)

Nooo, I regret to say that I never owned a 427 cammer, I DID own a 427 Side Oiler that resided between the fenders of my '63 Galaxie, the ironic thing is that I could have bought a cammer from a mechanic in Kensington Maryland that needed cash in a hurry and was willing to let it go for a mere $1000 and of course I was about 950 bucks short dammit, lol

Hey, Dem Guard! Surely you remember "Myron". The old man who worked late in the grain mill at Reinders' Bros sacking birdseed? He lived across the street from the grain mill and his boy (much older than us) HAD a Galaxy 427 twin can car. Black, I can still see it parked in Myron's driveway. Remember?

Guys FYI DG & I used to work at a grain mill in HS. Hustling rock salt, unloading rail cars full of seed etc. "Myron" was an ancient old goat who'd worked for the Reinders' family forrrrrrever.

We used to see him pull out a flask of whiskey, take a swig when he thought no one was looking? Well we was looking since we was hiding, having a smoke on the clock!! LOL

But you never ratted him out did ya? ;)

Say mk, the *lore* back in the day was cammer 427 was prone to snapping one or the other cams. To your knowledge was there ever any truth to that?

To the best of my knowledge, that was just a bad rumor with no basis to it HOWEVER, because the 427 Cammer engine was based on the standard 427 block design, it required a dummy shaft and cam gear to ride in the standard position where a camshaft would ordinarily reside in the block, I heard (don't know for sure) that those dummy shafts had some issues once you got up over 6000 rpm. (the 427 SOHC was conservatively rated at 616 horsepower at 7000 rpm with the dual 4-bbl Holley configuration). The Cammer was originally intended to challenge Chrysler's Hemi in NASCAR (it was said that Chrysler intended to introduce the Hemi into NASCAR competition, and the Cammer (being a true Hemi design as well) was the equivalent of the Soviet 'Doomsday Machine', i.e., "if you race your Hemi, we'll unleash this even more awesome and destructive SOHC Hemi", lol

Dem Guard can tell you about the kid who lived across the street from me. We called 'em "Boneass", if you saw this string bean you'd see why the name.

Anyway this goofball was a died-in-the-wool Ford guy, bought a '63 Ford Galaxy from an even odder kid by the name of Osmond.

Only Boneass' car had a 390, not the cammer and really not enough HP to move all that Detroit iron. Certainly not in the same league as the uber lightweight Dart 340, any way.

That's odd, the 390 traditionally had plenty of oats to move those big Fords around, I've had a few of them and except for the bore diameter, they're very similar to the 427. (427 = 4.23 bore x 3.78 stroke, 390 = 4.05 bore x 3.78 stroke, the difference, yea the BIG difference was in the heads and breathing)

Nonetheless he'd earned every penny he'd paid for that car, it was his first ride, had a sterling new deep blue paint job. He was sooooo proud.

Uh oh, I can almost see where this is going...

One night Boneass, who loved his beer, was CHASING some imbecile throughout the entire neighborhood. A rat race! Lots of hills, streets barely 1.5 lanes wide and because ol' Boneass was probably stewd, he loses control of his beloved Galaxy 500 390. ! LOL

I will lower my FoMoCo flag to half-mast in belated memory.

These days one pulled a stunt like that, drunk or not & it's go to jail, diectly to jail yayada. But not then, not in those days. Can't recall exactly WTH did happen to ol' Boneass, but, that broken car sat across the street for a longest time, front end slightly elevated. LOL

A true indignity to all Ford lovers.

An addendum to Boneass. Was idling away some time one day, googling names of people from the past, Dod Ol' Boness' name & it pops up on a legal recording. He was charged, and convicted on his 3rd DUI.
Now we couldn't see THAT coming all those years ago, eh? LOL!!

Didn't need a palm reader for that, LOL

"Nooo, I regret to say that I never owned a 427 cammer, I DID own a 427 Side Oiler that resided between the fenders of my '63 Galaxie..."

The side oiler's dry sump like my Zcar, right?
Same mill Carroll put in his ACs, too.
I wonder if the SO'ers weren't, if nothing else, more reliable than the cammer cars mk?
Not unlike the 440 vs. the 426 Hemi: Want to race get a Hemi, want to cruise get the 440.

"...the ironic thing is that I could have bought a cammer from a mechanic in Kensington Maryland that needed cash in a hurry and was willing to let it go for a mere $1000 and of course I was about 950 bucks short dammit..."

HA!!
I can remember when a $1,000 was all the money in the world, mk. Whatta codger I am.

"But you never ratted him out did ya?"

Nope, didn't know it at the time but I was destined to be a real diplomat. Was an "amicable", albeit unspoken, agreement between ol' Myron & I. We saw nuthin' said it all. LOL!!

>Say mk, the *lore* back in the day was cammer 427 was prone to snapping one or the other cams. To your knowledge was there ever any truth to that?
"To the best of my knowledge, that was just a bad rumor with no basis to it HOWEVER, because the 427 Cammer engine was based on the standard 427 block design, it required a dummy shaft and cam gear to ride in the standard position where a camshaft would ordinarily reside in the block, I heard (don't know for sure) that those dummy shafts had some issues once you got up over 6000 rpm."

I'd bet that explanation's at the root of that aged-old rumor. In fact, I'd give good odds on it. LOL

"...(the 427 SOHC was conservatively rated at 616 horsepower at 7000 rpm with the dual 4-bbl Holley configuration). The Cammer was originally intended to challenge Chrysler's Hemi in NASCAR (it was said that Chrysler intended to introduce the Hemi into NASCAR competition, and the Cammer (being a true Hemi design as well) was the equivalent of the Soviet 'Doomsday Machine', i.e., "if you race your Hemi, we'll unleash this even more awesome and destructive SOHC Hemi"..."

Lemme guess, NAZZZZZZCAR wouldn't allow it.
Geshhhhh.
So tell me, Ford's 429 was also a hemispherical head design, did compete in NASCAR and really gave MOPAR's --Plymouth or Dodge-- Hemis all they could handle. Of course by then GM had withdrawn from participation, IIRC.

>Only Boneass' car had a 390, not the cammer and really not enough HP to move all that Detroit iron. Certainly not in the same league as the uber lightweight Dart 340, any way.
"That's odd, the 390 traditionally had plenty of oats to move those big Fords around, I've had a few of them and except for the bore diameter, they're very similar to the 427. (427 = 4.23 bore x 3.78 stroke, 390 = 4.05 bore x 3.78 stroke, the difference, yea the BIG difference was in the heads and breathing)"

I'd have thought so, bore-wise.
But being a Ford guy whose actually built cars, I'd bet your take's spot on. As I said (didn't I?) Boneass bought the car already built from this Osmond character. Not to bash the kid, but he was different so who can say WTH he did to the motor besides the obligatory cam, lifter/spring package, over-sized carb & the obligatory Cherry Bombs.

Here's what I can remember...the thing could barely wind to 5K! Struggled, seemed --to ME-- like something was holding the whole shittin' caboodle back. Does *that* description sound familiar? Only thing I could say was I experienced something similar when the heat riser in my '80 Corvette was stuck, impeding exhaust evacuation.
Felt much just like that; though, time's distorted everything else so take it FWIW.

Now the other neighbor kid adjacent to our house, his folks bought a then new '69 Torino GT 390 with a 3 Hurst (IIRC) speed manual. "Gordy's" claim to fame was *speed shifting*, primarily because most of us had autos and wouldn't have gone far if it meant we had to work a clutch. LOL

But even his stock 390 4bbl, which I'll guess was the 325HP version, wasn't all that swift. But it did have a hood scoop, like the Mach 1s, *looked* awfully cool to teenagers like us. LOL

Obvious;y the people I ran with simply didn't know WTH they were doing, that is all 2 of 'em and one's car was his folk's. LOL

Like the 383 *or* 396 FTM, I'd always had a healthy respect if only because they had the cubic inches over my paltry small block 340, y'know?
That's why I was more than just surprised to blow the doors off these cars, badly. Came around to thinking the success was mainly due to the HP to Wt ratio so skewed in my favor.

>One night Boneass...was probably stewd, he loses control of his beloved Galaxy 500 390...
"I will lower my FoMoCo flag to half-mast in belated memory."

HA!!
Kidding aside and in spite of Boneass not being the sharpest knife in the drawer? He must've really hurt inside, bad. Trust me, that's one subject I never razzed 'em over even tho' I could, if need be, KHA.
Was sad then & still sad in memory. Y'know?

>...that broken car sat across the street for a longest time, front end slightly elevated.
"A true indignity to all Ford lovers."

Yea and then consider this, mk.
That 390 was all dressed up. Fancy valve covers, carb yadayadayada. Mags, tranny & shifter etc not to mention the trim, most body panels all straight. To the best of my memory he sold it for scrap, or hos old man did after getting sick of seeing it sitting. Ouch.

Great family photo, mk.
Thanks a million for sharing.
Your Pa, a BIG man indeed.
And you partner, a li'l shaver!!
Awfully cute kid, mk.

Explains your good bride buying you that model car, obviously was & remains the best tack for keeping ya around as long as possible. ;^)