Thread: My 67XR7GT Build

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I am finally getting some work done on a long neglected project, my 67 XR7 GT Mercury Cougar, car was park in 84 with a rod nock, I had picked up many years ago a 66 427 SO block to build to go in place of the 390, and I am finally getting around to doing it.

I pretty much want to stay away from chinese parts, so I picked up an early factory steel 427 crank for my build, it came with grooved mains which there is a little bearing issue, and this particular crank comes with 2 additional counterweights off the center main, I've had the crank sent to Performance Crankshaft (Adney Brown) to get worked over.





My side oiler block has been at Costa Mesa R&D Machine Shop for a while, for a cleaning and initial check up, The block is currently wore std bore with one sleve. While waiting for machine work I've sent the block out to get acid dipped, and have gotten it back, did some prep and painted it.



This build is going to take a while, so I have picked up a 390 short block project to R&R the rod nocking motor still in the car.

Here are the current eng & car spec's:

Rod Nocking 390
428 SCJ Heads
Offy Port a Sonic
Cam: Old Greg Foreman-Gus Davis Grind .612" lift, Dur 312*-258@.050
2 1/8" Hooker's
Built C-6, 3,500 Stall
Locker 4:57

The car was a blast and had less than 500 miles on the engine build before the rod went, probably a spun bearing ? The rod went during a pass at the drag strip @ 7,000 rpm 2nd gear, with only a 5 quart pan and no oil restrictors in the heads, so I think the all the oil was in the valve covers and the rods were starved for oil ? I left the headers un-corked and drove it home with the rod-nock.

Neat project!!! Got some pics of the entire car???? Us old Ford guys are drooling already!!!!

Ditto! Thanks for the teaser shots for now.

Welcome to CHR and yes there are TONS of Ford guys here as you will find out

Here are some pics of the car after 30 years in storage this Feb. I had bought the car in 83 for $100 and when I finally got it running, I didn't really get a lot of time to enjoy it:







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I'd like to make a suggestion that will save you thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of work......sell me the car for what you paid for it and move on to something less expensive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honest, just trying to help you out here!!!!!!

A/C too that's Cool

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I'll raise Daves Bid to $105

I want to thank everyone for looking out for my best interests, but since I am a glutton for punishment I will go ahead and finish the car...

To expedite machine work at the shop, a line hone, I was going to install & torque the caps and cross bolts and found that the main caps had considerable wear indentations from repeated torqueing down of the mains, and I am using ARP main cap studs which use washers for the nuts. I wanted flat surfaces for the washers to ensure a reliable torque, so seen in the pic I had the top of the mains machined to remove the indentations.





So I have torqued the mains, and test fitted the cross bolt spacers and found several were really loose and the rest were slightly, I have set up all the spacers with a +.001" interference fit, and are having new ones made at the EDM shop that I will be picking up this morning, after which I will go and install them so the machine shop can finally do the line hone.

Once the line hone is finished, I will install the main bearings then have the I.D. measured so that I can get the mains on the crank ground to spec for a specific clearance. Shooting for .0027" to .003", I know someone was going to ask. I mentioned earlier my crank is at Performance Crankshaft getting worked over, I am having the leading edges of the counterweights Bull nosed and the trailing edges Knife edged, with the rods & mains cut to size then sent out to be nitride.

A gentleman on another site was nice enough to post this blueprint of the bottom end of the 427, since you guys like pic's. And note the torque sequence for the cross bolts.

New bid--$110.00.

Back Off.. Back Off.. I'll go up to a grand! rofl....

$1001.00 It was my plan!!!!!!!!

This one is for sale locally put clutch in it last year owner never drives it. $15K

I picked up the main cap spacers, and did a test fit and everything has a nice tight fit. But there is a problem, the spacers were made from a heat treated chromoly material and when I went to engrave the spacer locations on the spacers with an electric engraving tool it would barely leave a mark. I'll go by my buddies shop tomorrow and use his electric welding engraver that I have used before to number rods instead of using a numbers punch.

The crank I went with, from what I was able to find out, (C4AE 6303 G) came in the 64 427 HR and in the TBolts and is listed in the over the counter 427 7000 RPM Kits and was used as a Nascar Crank, and that the extra counter weights were welded on only on this model crank for use in the SOHC 427 Nascar program, to help keep the center main webbing from cracking during high rpm use. The program was dropped after Nascar banned the SOHC 427 from Nascar.

I mentioned earlier about a main bearing issue with this crank, as you can see it has grooved mains and is currently .010" - .010" and the mains need to go to .020". Back in the day the main bearings were not grooved, some cranks were, currently most main bearings are fully grooved and I didn't want to run grooved mains with a grooved crank. Now Federal Mogul have 3/4 grooved mains, but the problem is there no longer available in .020" under, so what I found out is the 351 Cleveland main bearings are the same size as the Ford FE and come 1/2 grooved, except the bearing tangs are not in the same location as FE bearings, and that gives you two choices, one notch the block for the Cleveland bearings or two remove the tangs from the bearings, I bought the Cleveland bearings and removed the tangs. My crank guy has given me the option of welding up the main grooves should I choose, I haven't decided yet.

Awesome story here and amazing that you still have the car. I've always loved these cars as they are always over looked it seems. That engine is a rare piece on it's own. Is that a Cobra replica in the backround of your first pic?