Hello, welcome, very cool boat ! Congratulatiions!
Don't even THINK about changing to a side-oiler. There is NO performance boost possible from doing this. It's only an oiling feature Ford devised to allow them to continue on for another lap or two if the motor blew up, as it gives direct oil to the bearings, rather than have the oil pass through other parts of the motor first. The side-oiler was developed in anticipation of the SOHC "Cammer" motor too, which eventually was outlawed from NASCAR competition.
There were plenty of top oiler NASCAR motors on the tracks, just like your boat motor. These ran in solid lifter hi-po 390 form, then they ran in 406 form, and also in 427 form as well. When the side-oil feature was added, the motor just continued winning races.
Side oiling features generally cost more during a rebuild, they take special cam bearings, special cams, and quite frankly, the only advantage is when you're at the bar telling your friends. There is no horsepower advantage.
Don't even think about changing the motor to a side oiler. It's a total waste of money, and you run the risk of ruining the block. It can be done, but you don't want to know the price.
That motor can easily produce 350, 375, or 400-hp and run happily all day long. Higgins offered a 400-hp version of the 390 in one of their speedboats many years ago, and the 427 is a LOT more motor, becuase it has all the internal cast iron web reinforcing and the cross-bolted main bearings Ford earned on the race tracks of the world. My advice is to run the boat, find out what you have now, and if you want to get more performance, try a simple swap to a double-plane intake that provides peak power as low on the rpm band as possible. Edelbrock makes a good one.
The marine motors are NOT high rpm motors, they're torque monsters. You will find the 300-hp motor you have, will produce 438 footpounds of torque at 2900 rpm, and that's 50 more footpounds than the fastest Mercedes being marketed today. They use a torque cam (a "RV" type cam) to do this, and you can more easily change out to a higher prop pitch to get more speed, than you can running the motor faster. The boat you have sounds great, send us some photos, let us help you with that motor too.
I trust you've already found our MASTER INDEX FILE here on the forum. If not, take a look, and you will find the 427 section. Happy reading!
This is a fiberglass Commander web site, but since the Commander owners of the world almost unanimously appreciate CC history and CC boats in general, I always welcome a guy with a wood boat to join us here, especially one as cool as yours! After all, you share the same power as many of our boats do, and we have a lot in common. Many of us also have wood boats too, and some of us will probabbly buy one this season. (Dave, this means you!)
Regards, Paul
forum moderator
Present owner of four 427 marine motors, two in the boat, two spares in the shop (not for sale) !
