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What ol' Fortyshooter has been up to.....

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2025 5:40 pm
by fortyshooter
Well for 15 years ever since I built my Ford 427 Windsor engine I have wanted a dual 4 bbl. setup on it. Found one guy 10 years ago that made the only one available for a pair of Holley carbs and it was like the Ford FE 427 low riser. It ran okay but lacked some top end power. What I really wanted was a copy of the Ford factory race piece the 427 Tunnel Wedge intake that was available over the counter back in 1969. It is a unique piece that was a copy of their 1967 Tunnel Port intake for race use with the matching tunnel port heads. The tunnel wedge was for the standard 427 heads.
So for 15 years I had been contacting the big aftermarket manifold makers to build one for the Ford small block Windsor engines the 351W and nothing but crickets ! Finally back in May this year I was on a F'book Ford engine forum and happened to mention my idea for this intake to a guy that makes intakes for the Boss 302/351 guys. He thought about it and said that is a damn great idea and within 3 days he had CAD prints made up using some info and measurements I gave to him. July 30 I had two of those manifolds delivered out of the 5 he had cast and machined....one for GO and one for SHOW ! Thing is a piece of automotive art and I am setting it up with my pair of Holley 770 cfm carbs for my engine.

A lifetime dream fulfilled having your own design intake manifold made! Yesterday one of the other guys who bought one had a dyno test run comparing it to an Edlebrock Victor Jr. race intake with a single 830 Holley and my Tunnel Wedge intake beat it by 30 HP by 6400 RPM!!
Needless to say I am VERY HAPPY and in process of finishing the tune on my 427W !

Re: What ol' Fortyshooter has been up to.....

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2025 6:10 pm
by Vaquero
NICE!!
Where did those valve covers come from? they bound to be another specialty item.
Seeing how all original 427s were of the Big block design. ;)

RP

Re: What ol' Fortyshooter has been up to.....

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2025 6:20 pm
by fortyshooter
Vaquero wrote:
Wed Aug 13, 2025 6:10 pm
NICE!!
Where did those valve covers come from? they bound to be another specialty item.
Seeing how all original 427s were of the Big block design. ;)

RP
Ford had them in their parts catalog several years ago for their 427 Windsor crate engines built on their heavy duty race block. I built mine using the large bore Windsor race block from Dart Machinery products....built like an anvil! The 351 Windsor has been very popular for 10 years to bore and stroke to larger cubic inches and be lighter than the 390-428 Ford big block FE engines. Cylinder head technology in the aftermarket has reached levels of flow that allow big horsepower.

Re: What ol' Fortyshooter has been up to.....

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2025 9:49 pm
by Vaquero
Well, that's neat, and is a nice touch.
Will be interesting to see what kind of gains your's make.

RP

Re: What ol' Fortyshooter has been up to.....

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 7:33 am
by Sir Henry
Nice!

Re: What ol' Fortyshooter has been up to.....

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 8:44 am
by BrokenolMarine
Forty, those who have followed my progress may remember that my remembery is broken. Too many surgeries that went way long. What ride is the 427 going in? Mach 1, Shelby Cobra Mustang, Cool Custom Short Bed Pickup? 32 Deuce Coupe?
Love to see a good pick of the vehicle as well...

Re: What ol' Fortyshooter has been up to.....

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 9:05 am
by fortyshooter
BrokenolMarine wrote:
Thu Aug 14, 2025 8:44 am
Forty, those who have followed my progress may remember that my remembery is broken. Too many surgeries that went way long. What ride is the 427 going in? Mach 1, Shelby Cobra Mustang, Cool Custom Short Bed Pickup? 32 Deuce Coupe?
Love to see a good pick of the vehicle as well...
Installed that into my 1985 Mustang 5.0 LX back in 2010 and been running it hard ever since. Last engine I wanted to build and built it to last!
Mustang has a heavy duty Tremec TKO-600 5 spd rated at 600 ft. lbs torque with a 3.50 gear in the race duty 9 inch Ford rear with Detroit Locker. Car weight with me and tank of gas is 2950. A go kart! :D

Re: What ol' Fortyshooter has been up to.....

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 12:07 pm
by BrokenolMarine
Sweet. Always loved mustangs. One of my buddys in high school had a really nice Mach One and restored and sold a Shelby GT350 Mustang.

I had a 64-1/2 mustang. It looked good, but was a 200 6 banger 3 speed. Fun to drive, very responsive, but no real power. 😊😊

Later I acquired a 67 firebird. 326 2 speed auto. Same deal. Looked good, no power. By the time I could afford a real performance car, trucks were more my thing. Basically been trucks ever since. Though I did buy an RX7 new in 1980... It was a rocket.

Re: What ol' Fortyshooter has been up to.....

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 6:47 pm
by fortyshooter
Thanks BM! These projects help keep my mind off of the dementia my wife and I are going thru. If one or the other have it...both suffer the same.