what's a "cammer"?

[RICH MUISE]

I have assummed a "cammer" engine was just one that had a modified cam in it. Reading a post on the HAMB about "what would be your ideal hot rod engine?", a few guys posted a response of "for looks...definetly a cammer", which of course thru out my thoughts on what a cammer was, so now I assuming it's an overhead cam motor, stock or otherwise?
LOL...that forumn needs a glossary of terms, I have no idea what ther're talking about half the time. Funny since they often talk about "preaching the gospel of traditional hotrodding", I guess they're content with preaching to the choir, cause unless you're one of them, you won't know what the heck they're talking about.

[wv 57s forever]

    many years ago ford built a 427 that had the cams on the heads.



         

[glen b henderson]

Rich, you must have been over on the dark side or perhaps driving around in a VW hippie van in the 60's! Cammer is the term used for the single overhead cam 427 ford engine. If I remember correctly Ford made 92 engines that were supplied to racers around the country and was the hottest thing going. The timing chain was several feet long. I was at a race and show Oct 10 and saw my first real cammer. Over the years some attempts have been made to reproduce some of the parts to clone the orginal engine. Now adays some of the younger generation is calling the roller cam small block a cammer, but they are wrong. The FE power forum has some information on the "Cammer".

[Ford Blue blood]

I believe all the stuff is now re-poped.  There are a couple of producers making the 427 block and one company that is doing the heads and the front cover.  There were several Galaxies produced with "cammers" to homugate into NASCAR prior to NASCAR outlawing hemies altogether.  Not sure the 92 is correct, seams like there were a bunch found/stashed at Holmun-Moody and I know a bunch were out there on the drag race circuit.

Funny thing, the long timing chain actually stretched at higher RPM helping top end performance....

[rmk57]

Mickey Thompson, Don Prudhomme, Connie Kallita, Gas Rhonda, were a few notables that drag raced them successfully in the mid to late 60's until the Boss 429 arrived.

[F570RD]

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=632.0       This is a Cammer engine.And this is how they run ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vackT77yrvM

[glen b henderson]

Bill, the guy that had the orginal engine at Medirian in oct is where I got the number of 92. He has a 65 Comet altered wheelbase that is beautiful. I know that some guys have repop'ed them, but he was firm on 92 being the ones orginally produced. I will do some more digging and see what I can come up with. I know that Ohio George Montgomery had one in a Mustang gasser back in the day.

[Zapato]

Northwest Drag Racing Legend and Ford factory ''privateer'' had a few given to him by Ford. They were torn down and completely gone thru as soon as they were received. Took me years to understand why they would tear down perfectly new in the crate motors. They were definitely as beautiful an engine as I've ever seen. Memory tells me there were 2 different versions one being a de-tuned version that went into street driven cars. Do remember seeing one in a Galaxy years ago. Would guess those were built as earlier mentioned to conform to NASCAR rules. Over the years there have been all kind of horsepower figures quoted so hard to verify what drag teams were getting then my guess easily 750plus.

Zap-

[Ford Blue blood]

Glen, can't dispute the 92 number, have no info to base the question on, just seamed like there were a butt load of them out there....one of the FE series I have always lusted after but will never be in a position to get.....unless I win the lottery....oh, got to play first to win....

[JPotter57]

They'd tear them down to get rid of the sodium filled lightweight exhaust valves.  Those valves had a nasty reputation for the heads popping off at high rpms and taking the rest if the engine with it.  That is the first thing I would do if I were to find a cammer, or high riser 427.

[glen b henderson]

OK, I did a little surfing today, one source said that Holman Moody received 500 Cammers from Ford most likely with the intent of installing them into something to make them legal for NASCAR, but before that happened they were outlawed. They were never raced in NASCAR and Holman Moody ended up selling them to drag racers. As the story goes they cost Ford over $14 grand each and the last ones were sold for $1000 bucks. They were uses into the 70's but a like of replacement parts meant that they would not survive. The 92 that I was told sounds like it maybe the surviving orginal engines. According to the story, there is only one Galaxy with a vin indicating that it was factory equiped with a Cammer. I am sure that others were retrofitted, if Holman Moody was selling them that cheap. This is one of those stories that most likely has several endings and who knows which is what actually happened.

[Ford Blue blood]

Another funny thing....when I was racing my Boss 302 in SCCA (72 & 73) I put the sodium filled exhaust valves and their light weight intakes in the 302 heads along with the 427 racing tripple springs and spun that bad boy to 8500 nearly every weekend for two seasons.  Never had a failure.  Don't know if they were the same valves used in the cammer but they were Ford parts, the dealer sold me all the stuff I needed at cost + 10 which is why it was all Ford.....

[shopratwoody]

Any 427 can be a Cammer. just bolt the parts on

[RICH MUISE]

interesting info. Thanks for all the input. 427 overhead cam..only conflicting views are which 427's...which is pretty much what one blogger on the hamb was saying.

[Ford Blue blood]

All 427s, I imagine any FE would work as shopratwoody said all the cammer stuff bolts on....valve to cylinder wall might be an issue as the 427 was 4.23" bore, 428 & 410 were 4.13 and the rest were 4.00....