Brett, the 460 is a different engine, much larger in size and of low power. It would not fit in the Frua engine bay without major surgery. It is of the "385" family which include the 429 and boss 429. The "385" engine family replaced the FE family in 1971. My car has an engine number stamped on the chassis plate, but it does not correspond to anything, it's not a Ford number as well so I don't know maybe AC stamped their own number somewhere, it could be that some countries required it, so it explains why some cars have a number on the chassis plate and some don't. There is no such a thing as a matching number Frua or Cobra for that matter since Ford did not have engine numbers at that time. However, they had engine date codes, which are well known to Ford collectors. However, AC I suspect used whatever engine they could find (possibly at the best possible price). Jeffrey's car if I remember correctly has a 67 police interceptor block, (he will correct me if I have the wrong date) while his car is a 69. Mine is a 71 and the block was a service block which makes sense since the 428 was phased out in 1970. The engine I use now is a 67 Ford Fairlane 427 Side Oiler with a custom made steel crankshaft which has the same stroke as the 428 resulting in a 454 cubic inch capacity or 7.5 liters. The crank was machined with rod journals slightly smaller to accommodate Chevrolet big block rods which are longer and give a better rod angle. I used Oliver Nascar steel rods which are probably overkill for my 550 hp.I bought the block from a drag racer who had it in reserve for 30 years. The 427 block has much bigger bores than the 428 and in side oiler form, has another oil gallery which goes directly from the oil pump to the main bearings giving priority oiling to the rotating assembly, it's also a high nickel block making it stronger. In racing, in the early 60's the early Ford FE s engine, 390, 408 and 427 experienced rod bearing failures under extreme conditions and Ford developed the Side Oiler as a result and solved the problem. AC built a few early Fruas with 427 and then used 428 engines. I understand the 427 could be ordered with a premium. Another advantage of the late 427 blocks is that they also had oil passages to the litters to accommodate hydraulic litters for those who so desire, early ones were solid lifters only. I wanted my car to be able to withstand spirited driving with a manual box for extended amounts of time. A little anecdote, the FE powered GT40 s that won Le Mans in the late sixties did so with completely stock 427 engines using a single Holley carburetor. Amazing!
CFX37 was restored by a well known shop here in Orange County. I don't know who did the interior.
Emmanuel [
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