Since the chain drives both cams in the same direction, on one bank the cam rotates toward the intake follower, and away from the follower on the opposite bank. This closeup illustrates the revised spark plug location and another issue created by the chain drive.
For example, racers in the field soon learned that it was necessary to stagger the cam timing four to eight degrees between banks to compensate for slack in the links. Cheaper and quicker to develop than a proper gear drive but not nearly as effective, the chain introduced a number of issues. One Cammer feature that continues to fascinate gearheads today is the timing chain-it was nearly seven feet long. By placing the camshafts atop the cylinder heads, the pushrods could be eliminated altogether, permitting larger, straighter intake ports. This is not a SOHC Ford V8 but a 331 CID early Chrysler Hemi, shown here to illustrate a major attraction of the SOHC layout among Ford engineers. These features were then adopted on all 427 CID engines across the board. The oiling system was revised and to manage the greater horizontal inertia loads generated by the increased rpm, cross-bolted main caps were incorporated into the block casting. To save time and money on the conversion, the heads were cast iron and the cam drive was a roller chain. Inside the company, the Cammer was known as the “90 day wonder,” a low-investment parallel project to the expensive DOHC Indy engine based on the Ford small-block V8. The plugs were then relocated at the top of the chamber for ease of access. This engine is set up for NASCAR use: Note the cowl induction airbox, the single carburetor, and the cast exhaust manifolds.ĭespite the Cammer’s exotic cachet, in reality the engine was simply a two-valve, single-overhead-cam conversion of Ford’s existing 427 FE V8, and a quick and cheap one at that. Ford engineers took great pains to design a perfectly symmetrical hemispherical combustion chamber with an optimized spark plug location, only to discover that the spark plug didn’t really care. Here’s another early photo of a Cammer with the original spark plug location. Note the spark plug location at the bottom edge of the valve cover on this early version of the SOHC V8. Here’s Ray Brock, publisher of Hot Rod magazine, eyeballing the setup. In May of 1964, a ’64 Galaxie hardtop with a Cammer V8 installed was parked behind Gasoline Alley at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the assembled press corps could get a good look at it. France regarded overhead cams and such to be European exotica, a poor fit with his down-home vision for Grand National stock car racing.Įven though France barred the SOHC V8 from NASCAR competition, Ford proceeded to develop the engine anyway, hoping to change Big Bill’s mind. But as the Journal reports here, NASCAR boss Bill France turned thumbs down on Ford’s proposed engine. Beaten up at Daytona all month by the new 426 Hemi engines from the Dodge/Plymouth camp, Ford officials asked NASCAR to approve an overhead-cam V8 the company had in the works. The first public mention of the Cammer V8 appeared in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal on Feb. Even today, a powerful mystique surrounds the engine. Into this simpler, more innocent world stepped Ford’s 427 CID SOHC V8, which soon became known as the Cammer. But on the American automotive scene of the 1960s, pushrod V8s were the state of the art. Here in 2014, overhead-cam, multi-valve engines are the industry standard. In the 1960s, Ford’s overhead-cam 427 V8, popularly known as the Cammer, became the stuff of myth and legend.
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