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Survival Motorsports Shop Profile

By Doug Kaufman

When he first started Survival Motorsports, Barry Rabotnick hoped to sell parts, primarily for Ford FE motors.  “My goal was to become the single-point supplier for the FE Ford enthusiast.”

The FE, says Rabotnick, offers significant advantages to the right user. “The builds I’m doing on the FE might not be the same as people are doing with another engine family, because we’ve got a real tall deck and it lets me put pretty much as much stroke into it as the block can carry. And because of the way these motors are used, it becomes a bigger is better combination that works best.

For a 390-based build, where the horsepower is limited by the architecture of the block, you’re not so interested in horsepower as in torque. For the 427-based motors, the vast majority are built for Cobra kits, fairly high-end Mustangs or lightweight drag cars, including Fairlanes and other classics – and these guys are after big horsepower.

Rabotnick explains on his Web site that relatively minor changes can produce significant improvements. “A .030˝- over 390 with a 4.250˝ crank is about 445 cubic inches. With dish top pistons and 72cc Edelbrock heads you get 9.8:1 compression.  Flat-top pistons will net you 10.8:1 compression.  We make 500+HP with this.

“A .030˝ over 428 with 72cc heads and flat tops will get you about 465 cubes and 11.2:1 compression.  Going to the dish pistons takes the compression to a pump gas friendly 9.8:1.

“A 427 with a 4.250˝ bore and a 4.250˝ stroke ends up with 482 cubes. Flat tops are going to be at 12:1 for race gas, dish pistons will get 10.6:1.  We have made over 700HP with Blue Thunder heads on a 482 like this!” he explains.

“The only time I see a request for a shorter stroke are from guys in a road race environment,” Rabotnick says. “It’s primarily Cobra guys who figure they need a shorter stroke due to their higher RPMS. Because they run at high rpm for an extended period of time, they’ll go to a shorter stroke to keep the piston speed down. But frankly, those guys are in the minority of my customers.”

Rabotnick says most of his customers want bigger, and the 4.250˝ stroke assembles like a stock engine. “There’s darn near no grinding needed because these FE blocks have so much clearance already. They’re so much easier than building a 383 Chevy or 347 Ford.”

Who’s buying his motors? In a lot of cases, it’s guys trying to recapture their youth. Resto mod customers are buying these motors and putting a lot of them into old Ford F-Series pickups or Galaxies.

“In the past, the pickup guys have been pretty low budget, but they’ve decided they want more power. I never realized how big the truck market is – now, 30% of the market I see is in modified trucks from the ’60s and ’70s. If you were in the South, Southwest or farm states, instead of growing up with a Mustang or a Torino, you grew up with an F100. The dream when you get older and have a little extra money isn’t for the ’68 Mustang Fastback, it’s to have the coolest ’71 F150 in the neighborhood. And they’re restoring these trucks, the same way cars are done.”

Rabotnick says in today’s world, the end customers are still relying on the “do it for me” supplier. “Customers are a little older, they want people to do their dream cars (or trucks) the right way. The economy has a lot of people nervous, but we’re staying busy.”

FE stroker stuff still costs money, of course, but it’s not like it used to. Rabotnick says it’s important for people to realize that big block Ford stuff is available. It’s probably as cheap or cheaper to build a high horsepower 545 or even a 557. An 800 hp 557 Ford is probably comparable to or less expensive than building a big Chevy.

“Five or six years ago, you only heard about 383 Chevys. 302 Fords were just starting to get the 347 thing going. When everyone thought of strokers, they thought of big and small block Chevy and small block Fords. It’s good to remember that big block Ford stuff is available as well,” he says.

“Stroker stuff is cool – it’s good to see it happening in engines for which it hasn’t been popular.”

Rabotnick is quick to thank his supporters, who were there when he got started. “When I started out, I had been building the FEs for my own use. Tom Lieb from Scat, Bob Fox from Diamond Pistons and the guys at Probe Pistons were the first ones to sign on with what I was doing.”

Although what he planned on doing and what he ended up doing aren’t necessarily the same thing. “I started off just selling parts, then people started asking me to build them an engine. Now, parts sales accounts for about 55 percent of my business. I guess I became an engine builder without really realizing it!”

For information about Survival Motosports, including articles about Barry Rabotnick’s Engine Masters entries, visit www.survivalmotorsports.com.