Total Performance was what Ford called its motorsport campaign in the early 60s. Those were the days when winning on Sunday really did sell more cars on Monday, and Ford went all-out to make sure that a Blue Oval badge was first across the finish line. After practically dominating NASCAR racing in the early part of the decade, Fomoco wasn’t too happy when Chrysler’s new 426 Hemi kicked everyone’s butt in 1964. Henry Ford II was especially miffed, and he instructed the company engineers to come up with a motor that would put the Hemi back in its box.

First published in Street Machine Ford Legends 2, May 2009

The Blue Oval backroom boys came up with the 427ci ‘Cammer’, so called because its valves were actuated by a camshaft in each cylinder head instead of via pushrods from a single cam in the vee of the block. Overhead camshaft engines certainly weren’t new – they’d been used in racing engines and exotic European sports cars for decades – but it was a radical move for one of the ‘big three’ US car makers.

Just as Chrysler’s engineers had based the Hemi on their existing 426 wedge-head, the Ford engineers based the Cammer on their own successful FE-Series 427 wedge side-oiler. In both cases it saved the companies time and money by not having to start from scratch. And as Ford’s 427 wedge had cross-bolted main bearings and a forged crank, it made a pretty good platform for creating a Hemi-killer.

With a pedigree that included howling down the five-kilometre Mulsanne Straight (now slowed with chicanes) at Le Mans with the tacho jammed on 7400, the side-oiler was a known quantity for consistent high-speed running around NASCAR superspeedways.

But it wasn’t simply a matter of bolting new heads onto the old FE-Series block. Several key changes were made to the block casting to ensure that the top end would hang together under race conditions. For starters, the oil pump was modified to provide 20.5 US gallons (75.6 litres) per hour at 70psi to keep the overhead cams spinning freely. A boss was bolted on the rear of each cylinder bank, with holes to drain the oil back to the sump. The pan held a massive 7.5 quarts (7.1litres) to feed the high-volume oil pump.

Since the camshaft in the block was no longer used, it was replaced by a stub-shaft that drove the distributor and oil pump, as originally featured on the 427 wedge. The number one and two bearings were retained to support the stub-shaft, with numbers three, four and five sealed with steel bushings.

No Ford ever rolled off the Dearborn production line with a Cammer under its bonnet

The rest of the block was the same as a 427 wedge, including the bolt holes and attachment points. So if you happen to find a Cammer lying around (yeah, right!) it should fit straight into, say, a ’67 Galaxie – right, Seddo? The pistons were fully floating with high domes that gave a claimed compression ratio of 12:1, although some engine rebuilders reckon it’s actually closer to 10:1.

Where the boffins put in a lot of effort was to the head design. And Chrysler didn’t have exclusive knowledge of hemispherical combustion chambers. Every engine designer and his dog knew the applied benefits. So it’s no surprise that Ford’s SOHC motor also featured hemi heads, but with the added bonus of a camshaft in each one. The obvious advantage of overhead cam design is that it allows higher revs than with pushrods. Fewer moving parts also means less need for adjustment, less weight and better reliability.

The Ford Cammer big-block could easily pass 7000rpm, and would run to 8000rpm. Now that would be something to hear!

The heads had roller-bearing rockers and massive hollow-stem valves – 2.25in inlet and 1.90in sodium-filled exhaust – with double springs to make sure the valves were closed when they were supposed to be.

The timing chain was something else again. There was still the normal chain between the crank sprocket and the original camshaft sprocket to drive the distributor and oil pump, but a second chain ran from another sprocket on the stub-shaft up to each camshaft and back again. The heads on a big-block are a fair way apart, resulting in a six-foot timing chain – almost two metres! This was hidden away under a steel plate with a gasket, and then a huge cast-alloy timing cover. Cut-outs in the front allowed quick cam-timing adjustments to be made.

Ford’s new weapon was no weakling. How does 616bhp at 7000rpm sound? And that’s just with a four-barrel. Bolt on a set of dual-quads and you’d be looking at more than 650!

But if the Cammer was such a great engine, why are they so rare today? Alas, Ford overlooked one minor detail in its plan to knock Chrysler’s Hemi off its NASCAR perch. The rulemakers banned the Cammer before it even got on the track. They didn’t like the way that car makers were putting hotted-up engines in just enough cars to be eligible for ‘stock’ car racing, and a SOHC 427 was going too far. Consequently, no Ford ever rolled off the Dearborn production line with a Cammer under its bonnet.

But US drag racing authorities had no problem with the engine. Many of the 60s’ most famous drag racers – Mickey Thompson, Don Prudhomme, Tom McEwan, Connie Kalitta, Don Nicholson and Jack Chrisman, ran Cammers. Kalitta’s Bounty Hunter was arguably the most famous car to run a Cammer, winning the 1967 Winternationals with 7.17@218mph. That same year, Prudhomme took the first six-second pass in his Cammer-powered Top Fueller.

But A/FX, precursor to today’s Funny Cars, was where the SOHC Ford really made its mark. After running stock-bodied cars with altered wheelbases, the class really went crazy in 1966. The Logge Stamping Company supplied four chrome-moly tube chassis which were fitted with one-piece flip-up Mercury Comet bodies. Running Cammers fitted with Hilborn mechanical fuel injection, Crane cams and 70-80 percent nitromethane, these engines pumped out 1000hp@8000rpm. They propelled the new cars to low eight-second ETs at over 180mph!

The Cammer took many wins on the drag strip, scoring its last NHRA National title in 1971 in Don Nicholson’s Pro Stock Maverick.

But because the Cammer was a low-volume race engine that was never offered in a production Ford model, there aren’t that many of them around. So if you spot a genuine Cammer take a good look while you can. You mightn’t get another chance.

Put a SOHC in it

It’s no surprise that Cammers are pretty thin on the ground in Australia, but there is someone who has been running one in his car here for over 20 years.

Castlemaine-based John Lynch (he of 301mph belly tank fame) has one of the legendary SOHC 427 engines between the chassis rails of his ’34 Ford roadster. We asked him where he got the motor, and what he thought of it.

How long have you been running the SOHC?

Since 1985.

Where did you get it?

From Jim Broadley (Legends, SM March ’06). The engine was in a Galaxie that was brought in from the States, but for some reason the bloke had pulled the motor out. Don’t know why he’d want to do that!

Was it a runner?

No, the engine was in pieces. I got it in a big box of bits, but everything was there and seemed in pretty good condition.

How’s it go?

It likes to be revved. It really gets going above six grand, but I don’t take it there very often. It’s too hard to get parts – you don’t want to blow one up!

Is the performance adequate?

It gives a good ride, shall we say. [laughs]

Bowden’s Cammer

The gorgeous Cammer gracing page 74 belongs to that avid collector of automotive coolness, David Bowden. When David was looking for a Cammer he put the word out to Lee Holman – yep, the Holman in Holman Moody – but even he had trouble finding a good one for his mate Down Under.

The engine David finally bought was the third that Lee had checked out, the first two having done a lot of drag-racing miles. Once the deal was done, Jimmy Tucker and the HM boys got stuck into the Cammer and restored it to bog-stock spec. Jimmy has been at HM since the 60s, and he’s still screwing together killer engines.

David’s Cammer is fitted with the dual-quad intake, and is complete from air cleaner to oil filter. Apart from being filled with special oil to keep it lubed, it’s ready to rock ‘n’ roll — if David can find a suitable car to put the sucker into, that is. A lightweight ’63 Galaxie would be perfect, but they’re hard to find these days. So this Cammer will be a conversation piece for the time being.