South Dakota’s G3 Rods Builds Ford Powered Chevy with help from SOHC Shop

No tour of shops across the country, whether physical or digital, would be complete without a stop at G3 Rods, one of the Midwest’s premiere custom shops. Located in Rapid City, South Dakota, G3 Rods is owned by Chuck Gruba and his two sons, Ryan an…

No tour of shops across the country, whether physical or digital, would be complete without a stop at G3 Rods, one of the Midwest’s premiere custom shops. Located in Rapid City, South Dakota, G3 Rods is owned by Chuck Gruba and his two sons, Ryan and Jay. What started as a small family business has grown over the years to include over 20,000 square feet of shop space and a dedicated staff that not only builds these amazing cars but also travels with them to shows all across the country.

Builders of the incredible 1969 “TREX” Camaro that went on to be a Finalist for the 2015 Goodguys Street Machine of the Year Award, G3 continues to produce amazing Chevys that enthusiasts could only dream of owning!

 

Read the full article here:

http://www.rodauthority.com/features/car-features/south-dakotas-g3-rods-builds-ford-powered-chevy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=south-dakotas-g3-rods-builds-ford-powered-chevy

 

Remembering Joe Eastman

Joe Eastman was one of the lead engineers on the Ford SOHC 427 project, and co-author of the SAE technical papers on the engine. Maybe the most famous image of Joe (left) is him standing with his co-engineers surrounding the Cammer on a dyno for Hot Rod. That same image was the basis of one of our 50th anniversary shirts produced last year for the Cammer Invasion on Woodward Ave. 

Almost a year later we received and order for some shirts, and a note from the buyer that she was the daughter of Joe Eastman. Her husband had found the shirts online and surprised her with one, and now she was going to do the same for the rest of her family. Jill was kind enough to send this picture of the family showing off their new shirts honoring their father and the other engineers at Ford.

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Greg Dale's SOHC Mustang

There is definitely something cool about old race cars. Too often they are scrapped for newer modern versions, or updated to where they are no longer recognizable as the old car. Fortunately this car is not that kind of car, and that is just how the widow of Bob Pott wanted it to stay. New owner Greg Dale plans to keep the car in as raced form, and even entered it in it's first show in the "barn find" catagory! 

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Cammers at the Coast

Here are a few pictures of the cars that made it out to the show.

 

Gas Ronda funny car

Gas Ronda funny car

John Vermeersch made the trip from Detroit with his Starliner

John Vermeersch made the trip from Detroit with his Starliner

George Scarpenti's Mustang

George Scarpenti's Mustang

Ron Wade's 1957 Thunderbird project. 

Ron Wade's 1957 Thunderbird project. 

Jack Hazelgren's AWB Thunderbolt recreation. 

Jack Hazelgren's AWB Thunderbolt recreation. 

Injected SOHC 427 in Jack's AWB Thunderbolt

Injected SOHC 427 in Jack's AWB Thunderbolt

Larry Knapp's pair of Mustang race cars.  

Larry Knapp's pair of Mustang race cars.  

Gary Young's 1969 Mustang

Gary Young's 1969 Mustang

Wayne Green's 1941 Ford Coupe

Wayne Green's 1941 Ford Coupe

The real "Pop's Toy" Mustang owned by George Boskovich

The real "Pop's Toy" Mustang owned by George Boskovich

Butch's 1932 Ford Roadster

Butch's 1932 Ford Roadster

A/FX Mustangs at Knott's

Fabulous Fords Forever regular Larry Knapp will be joining in on the fun April 17th with his pair of A/FX Mustangs. Larry has raced his "Stampede" Mustang competitively for years, and more recently built a flawless Les Ritchey tribute car that sees track time as well. Make sure you come out and see Larry's fantastic Cammer race cars. 

Scroll down for more info, or email us at info@sohc-shop.com

 

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Cammers at the Coast is just 1 month away!

Entries continue to come in and we are going to have a great group of 427 SOHC cars at Knott's. It has been confirmed that the Gas Ronda Funny Car will be at the show, and health permitting Mr. Ronda will be in attendance as well.

There is still room, so if you have a Cammer car and want to join in the fun be sure to scroll down for registration instructions.

B E Motorsports presents cammers at the coast

Coming April 17th, 2016. The west coast SOHC 427 reunion, "Cammers at the Coast". The show will be held in conjunction with Fabulous Fords Forever at Knott's Berry Farm. We will have our own designated parking area, and class for the show.

 

Here is a link to the Fab Fords website which has the registration form.  http://fabulousfordsforever.org/index.php/updates/611-2016-fff-registration-is-now-open

 

For participants, register in class 32C. The form shows class 32, but we will have the registration team log them in separately so we can keep track and park everyone together. Here is the form, it's also on the website http://fabulousfordsforever.org/files/2016_FFF_Flyer.pdf

 

Group hotel rates are available for participants at the Knott's Hotel using the discount code at the bottom of the page. The hotel has plenty of parking for trailers as well.

http://fabulousfordsforever.org/index.php/updates/610-2016-discount-rate-at-knott-s-hotel

 

If you have any questions you can email us at info@sohc-shop.com

Cammer–the real story of the legendary Ford 427 SOHC V8

In the 1960s, Ford’s overhead-cam 427 V8, popularly known as the Cammer, became the stuff of myth and legend. Here’s the story behind the story. 

 

Here in 2014, overhead-cam, multi-valve engines are the industry standard. Anything less is considered retrograde. But on the American automotive scene of the 1960s, pushrod V8s were the state of the art. Into this simpler, more innocent world stepped Ford’s 427 CID SOHC V8, which soon became known as the Cammer. Even today, a powerful mystique surrounds the engine. Let’s dig in for a closer look.

 

 

The first public mention of the Cammer V8 appeared in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal on Feb. 23, 1964. 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. But as the Journal reports here, NASCAR boss Bill France turned thumbs down on Ford’s proposed engine. France regarded overhead cams and such to be European exotica, a poor fit with his down-home vision for Grand National stock car racing.

 

 

Even though France barred the SOHC V8 from NASCAR competition, Ford proceeded to develop the engine anyway, hoping to change Big Bill’s mind. 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. Here’s Ray Brock, publisher of Hot Rod magazine, eyeballing the setup. Note the spark plug location at the bottom edge of the valve cover on this early version of the SOHC V8.

 

 

Here’s another early photo of a Cammer with the original spark plug location. 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. 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.

 

 

Despite 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. 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.  To save time and money on the conversion, the heads were cast iron and the cam drive was a roller chain. 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. These features were then adopted on all 427 CID engines across the board.

 

 

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. By placing the camshafts atop the cylinder heads, the pushrods could be eliminated altogether, permitting larger, straighter intake ports.

 

 

One Cammer feature that continues to fascinate gearheads today is the timing chain—it was nearly seven feet long. Cheaper and quicker to develop than a proper gear drive but not nearly as effective, the chain introduced a number of issues. 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

 

 

This closeup illustrates the revised spark plug location and another issue created by the chain drive. 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 in turn necessitated a unique camshaft for each bank, one a mirror of the other, so the opening and closing ramps would be properly located.

 

 

Here’s a glamour shot of the complete Cammer from the Society of Automotive Engineers paper (SAE 650497) presented by Norm Faustyn and Joe Eastman, Ford’s two lead engineers on the project. All the published technical sources on the Cammer, including an in-depth feature in the January 1965 issue of Hot Rod Magazine, appear to be closely based on the SAE paper.

 

 

On October 19, 1964, NASCAR moved to ban all “special racing engines,” in its words, eliminating both the Cammer Ford and the Chrysler 426 Hemi from Grand National competition for 1965. Chrysler responded by temporarily withdrawing from NASCAR, while Ford continued on with its conventional 427 pushrod engine in NASCAR and took the SOHC engine to the drag strips.

Cammers were first employed in the handful of factory-backed ’65 Mustangs and ’65 Mercury Comets racing in the NHRA Factory Experimental classes and elsewhere. Shown here is the installation in Dyno Don Nicholson’s Comet. Over the ’65 season, Nicholson experimented with Weber carbs and Hilborn fuel injection setups, along with the dual Holley four-barrels pictured. On gasoline, the engine was said to be good for 600 hp.

 

 

Despite heavy lobbying from Ford, in December of 1965 NASCAR again banned the Cammer for 1966, with USAC piling on (Spartanburg Herald-Journal, December 18, 1965 above). However, in April of 1966 NASCAR finally relented. Sort of. Okay, not really. The Cammer was now allowed, technically, but only in the full-size Galaxie model, limited to one small four-barrel carb, and with an absurd, crippling weight handicap: nearly 4400 lbs, 430 lbs more than the Dodge and Plymouth hemis. At that point Ford said no thanks and dedicated the Cammer to drag racing. The engine never turned a lap in NASCAR competition.

 

 

Ford made the Cammer widely available in the drag world, providing engine deals to nitro racers Tom Hoover, Pete Robinson, Connie Kallita, and a host of others. Here, driver Tom McEwen and engine wizard Ed Pink sort out their Cammer-powered AA/Fuel Dragster at the 1967 U.S. Nationals. Among the most successful Cammer-equipped drag cars were the 1966-67 Comet flip-top funny cars (Don Nicholson, Eddie Schartman, et. al.) and Mickey Thompson’s dominating ’69 Mustang team starring Danny Ongais and Pat Foster.

 

 

Drag racers burned midnight oil tackling the Cammer’s issues, including the mile-long timing chain. Working with Harvey Crane of Crane Cams and P&S Machine, the always creative Pete Robinson produced this gear drive system. Note the additional gear on the left bank, allowing a right-hand camshaft to be used on both cylinder heads.

 

 

Cammer engines are very scarce these days, and when you can find one, very expensive. Reproduction heads are sometimes available, but they’re pricey, too. It’s difficult to fathom that in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Cammers were OE surplus. Gratiot Auto Supply, the famed Detroit speed shop, sold complete engines new in the crate for $2300. Connie Kalitta was a stalwart Ford Cammer racer back in the day, as shown in this 1967 photo, and he continues to operate a multi-car Top Fuel and Funny Car team in 2014. He’s told MCG that with modern upgrades, the basic Cammer design would make a great Top Fuel engine today.

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