I actually like an engine that revs which is why I want to limit the stroke to 3.98" which is standard 428. People are building FEs' with huge 4.2" stroke and more, but they won't rev past 5,000 rpm. Of course the torque will be huge. With a 4 speed car, one wants to be able to rev past 6,000 rpm safely. As far as originality, the 428 was never fully developed, if one wants to make it fun to drive, one has to address a few problem. It's like for the cobra, if you make it better, no problem!
Most 427 which came with a 428 motor are now running 427s' and most small block cars I see for sale here have 302s' installed. As long as the mods are done tastefully with quality parts no problem!
I will not install anything on the car that could not have been found in the 60's or early 70's. With the exception of the radio maybe. Even the high quality speakers I found go back to that era. This is one of the reasons I like ACs', nobody is too picky with originality. For some cars, even things like heater hoses, battery cables have to be with the right markings, this is insane! Or the matching numbers scheme, another crazy and silly thing, how many of these high price matching numbers cars are genuine. I know a few vehicles that became matching number cars, when they became valuable, [
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] Of course my mouth is sealed! The good thing with Ford is that in most cases there was no such thing as an engine number, just a date code (with the exception of some K-code cars) which had their chassis number stamped on the engine.
Emmanuel