Heres to Tim Toth and Dunroin his 68 35' Commander Express!!
Bet you all wonder how I got this shot?
and a few more
Think this guy keeps his props clean?
Look at that bottom paint job.
Splash!
Think the motors are clean enough? Remember these are original No rebuilds.
Who else would polish the plumbing?
Coming down the channel to his dock. Look at those air horns on the cabin top
Kahlenbergs rated to 300 PSI he runs them at 150 and when he sounds those thing
you DO NOT want to be in front of the boat sounds like a freighter just came in.
PHOTO OF THE DAY AWARD (January 31, 2007)
Edit Comment: "The photo above was awarded the "Photo of the Day" on January 31, 2007 for reasons that should be obvious to any classic boat fan. This motor is maintained in pristine condition, and it deserves to be shown off every time it is docked in public view. Congratulations to Tim Toth, for setting the bar very high, indeed!
The photograph sparked additional comments about the development of this fine marine engine. The following comments were noted on January 31, 2007:
(ABOVE:) Here is one of Tim Toth’s beautifully maintained 427 marine motors, which you can see from the photo, looks like a work of art. Often called “the royalty of the big block muscle-car era”, the 427 Ford NASCAR motor made one of the best marine V8 applications of all time. This was the engine that satisfied Henry Ford II’s ego when he wanted to post wins in automobile racing. The “FE” motor series (stands for Ford/Edsel) was raced in 352 cubic inch displacement form originally, and Ford produced a 360-hp solid lifter 352 for the street. That motor evolved into the 390 solid lifter (with 401-hp in street form). Ford discovered the motors were experiencing more stress when asked to run at WOT on the race tracks, and failures were encountered. This lead to adding cross-bolted main bearing caps and other internal cast iron webbing when the motor evolved into the 406 solid lifter motor in 1962 (405-hp listed in street form). In mid year 1963, the motor grew to the 427 cubic inch size and produced 425-hp in street form. These solid lifter motors were all built for one purpose, “racing”. They existed in the public domain only to qualify for NASCAR racing, and of course, to show off Ford power on the streets too.
Here is a great photo of DUNROIN up on a comfortable cruise out on Lake Erie, as captured on film by Mark Weller late June of 2008
And a little closer look through the marvels of digital enlargement!
Many manufacturers were building powerful motors during this era, but few were as powerful and durable as the big Ford when put on the race tracks. Many were fast, but few could stay together long enough to finish the race. The entire FE engine series was “raced until it broke”, and the flaws were discovered, fixed, and then the engine was raced again. The design was able to run 500-miles at wide open throttle. In street form, the motor was rated at 6000-rpm, and that’s unheard of these days to spin a big block, in particular, that fast. Racing versions were reported to have gone much further.
In 1966 Ford put a set of aluminum heads on this motor, detuned it down from NASCAR levels, limited the drivers to 6,000 rpm, and the GT-40 cars finished in a 1, 2, 3 sweep of LeMans, with the winning car being 35 miles ahead of the next manufacturer. The GT-40 won again in 1967, at which time Enzo Ferrari complained and managed to get the 7-litre motors banned from further racing at LeMans. The following year a 5.0 litre GT-40 won again, much to Henry Ford II’s delight. The NASCAR wins for the FE series is staggering. In 1963-65 alone, the motor posted 101 wins, and to put things into perspective, GM and Chrysler combined posted about half that many, with GM winning only 9 (nine) races.
The FE series was used in many marine applications. Interceptor offered a 240-hp with the shorter 3.5” stroke 352, a 280-hp version of the 390, and a 300-hp version of the cross-bolted 427, the latter two sharing the same 3.78” stroke. Higgins even offered a 400-hp version of the 390 in one of their hot wood runabouts. Chris Craft never used any FE motor other than the cross-bolted 427, which they first introduced in their 1966 boats. The motor was in full production at the time, it was less expensive than the 430 Lincoln to build, and it had a great racing pedigree. For all practical purposes, it was over-engineered for the marine application, and this is one reason why so many are still in service today. It is not uncommon to see original honing marks on the inside cylinder walls when disassembling one of these motors for rebuilding. The Chris Craft version of this motor used a lower compression, a torque camshaft, generic intake manifolds and the fine FE wedge-type cylinder heads to produce a relaxed 300-hp and 438 footpounds of torque at 2900 rpm. For more information on this remarkable marine motor, check out the following thread.!!!
Here are a few videos that demonstrate what it is like to run a pair of big block Ford marine motors. These videos are not from DUNROIN, but are from a 38' boat. DUNROIN by comparison is the faster of the two.
Okay, this is what they sound like when they howl (turn up your speakers, it's just a few seconds of great sound!)
Now here is a 15 second video showing what a pair of 427 motors sound like at a reasonably fast cruise, but not at wide open throttle. Talk about pushing a LOT of water!!!
And last but not least, here is what they sound like when they're running comfortably and just over planing speed. They could run forever at this speed.
edit (photos resized)
edit (obsolete video clips updated and new photo added from Mark Weller)
This message has been edited by FEfinaticP on Jul 8, 2008 8:17 AM This message has been edited by FEfinaticP on Jan 31, 2007 7:38 AM This message has been edited by FEfinaticP on May 31, 2006 4:20 PM
