427 Ford powered boats

[Skoontz]

Does anyone remember a boat from the midwest, specifically, St. Charles, Illinois called "Time Bomb" driven by Deny Daniels? There was another one around the river called "The Last Hoorah" that had a port injected (Hillborn) big block Chevy as well. I was wondering what ever happened to them.

[mercmack]

I Know Where At Least Two (2) Of Them Are..there At The Bottom Of Lake Barressa, Napa Ca..the Last Big Race There Back In The Late E 60's It Was So Ruffff That A Lot Of Boats Sank..some Never Recovered:( :( :( :(

[John Howe]

I know there several of them in the GN class back in the latter 60`s thru the 70`s, and into the early 80`s. They used to line up 40 boats on the shoreline between turns 1 & 2 at the Miami Marine Stadium and have a Le Mans start! What a sight! They would run 100 laps on a 2.5 mile course. Later on they went to a pace boat start because to many were crashing right at the start using the Le Mans start.

Ya might wanna post the question on the vintage hydro site too.

[Jengle37]

I was part of a race team in the mid-late 70s that ran an 18ft Mandella that was 427 ford powered when I started. We switched to big block chevys later because of the rarity and expense of the Ford engines. They were tunnelport engines from Hollman-Moody. The boat still exists in storage but I believe it's stripped. There is a picture of it in the "Raceboat Photos" thread on this forum, post#104.
There is another Ford Powered Mandella on post #44 of the same thread, it's Louis Brummett's "Rawhide", the one featured in the Elvis Movie "Clambake"

[John Howe]

I do remember the "Raw Hide" and Lou Brummett! I can`t seem to find the pics though.

[Jengle37]

you should be able to find the rawhide pic on this page
http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155&page=5

The pic of Dr Cannan's mandella on this page
http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155&page=11

[Skoontz]

did not have the port size and dimensions to run with the LS-7's or the Hemi's. They were introduced in 1963, and cleaned house in NASCAR that year, but at the time, GM was not running well in NASCAR, and Chrysler had not launched the B-Block Hemi until late that year.

I had one in my Cobra, and as was mentioned, the cost of doing a tunnel port vs an LS-7 is 100% more...A race ready Holman Moody aluminum tunnel port side oiler dropped into your CSX-4000 Shelby American Cobra adds $32,000, builds heat through the floor, and will not handle with a 383 stroked small block.

I side tracked a bit....I often wodnered what happened to the 427 Ford boats, as when I was looking for a cast tunnel port those were the first thing that came to my mind...I just could not find any of them around....

Denny Daniels raced on the Fox in 1970 and 71 when Jimbo showed up in a class that had about 10 boats. There was alot of spins, as the river was pretty tight on 3 and 4.

[mercmack]

I Was At The Miami Marine Stadium At On Of Those Last Races And Sat Right Behind Old Karl/strang/and Mr Evinrude..they Seemed Like Old Buddies Watching The Races..and I Hated Cigar Smoke Too..:d :d

[lilabner]

I think 63 produced the High Riser intake and heads, then came the medium risers then the tunnel ports around 67-68. I worked for HM Marine 68-70..I can tell you that the GN car intakes were not the same as the one you bought from Ford Motorsports, or HM, unless you knew somebody..The biggest difference were the pushrod guide tubes that passed through the ports..The same for the conn rods..they were a thing of beauty, VERY expensive for the time, and very closely guarded..You couldn't buy new ones, only the ones that had been run in a GN car could we get for the Ocean Race and GN Boat engines.

[369]

heres a couple...

[369]

a friend's boat...marine 427 hi-riser with H/M stuff.

[lilabner]

That's a beautiful rig..I have been away from it for a while, but I remember the SK Boats could only have an engine 400 ci or less..We used a David Pearson qualifying engine, a 396, with LeMans headers off of John Holman's Honker, on a boat built by Ed Bradfield. Jack Wilcox was the driver, and won a fair share of the races. I worked for HM at the time. Our shop foreman Bill Sundman owned the boat.

[Skoontz]

Musta been a lot different than the car motors. Did the HM block/cranks have the oil ports drilled at 45° angles to the crank and rod journal faces like the car motors did? I know when machining that was one of the hugest cost factors, especially if the cranks needed welding and cutting again. Seemed like a good design at the time, but then the oil pumps got allot more efficient, so the angled drilling really did not provide what it cost.

Cool tidbit of history. Great pictures!

[lilabner]

HM used the same blocks/cranks in the cars and marine engines..The 396 came from a NASCAR rule back then (69-71) that said you could run a lighter car with a smaller motor. I think there were 3 different size engines back then. This particular rig with the 180 degree headers had no low end and was a bear to get on a plane. But when it did, it ran great, and made some different sounds too.