I have a 1966 Ford Galaxie with a 428 and I am getting ready to rebuild the engine. Can someone tell me what the difference between my 428 and a cobra jet are? I bought new heads for it a few years ago from Dove and they are cj heads. I am assuming there are more differences than that though. I don't have a lot of extra money to spend but while I have it apart, if there are any improvements I could do, I would like to do it. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Jason

A standard 428 will have a U1 crankshaft ballanced on the inside of the ballancer but weight added on crankshaft . This is an internally ballance assy . Most 428s in 7 liter cars will have heads with the smaller valves and a lesser highway friendly springs . Any 428 can be adinified by knocking out the second from back if I remember on drivers side bank freeze plug . Look inside with a flashlight . Ford stamped 428 inside the casting there . Most 428s have a weld A on the back of the block . They have the welbs as well on the inside of the block for cross bolts mains but not drilled yet . The intake most times have a stock intake .....Now a cj 428 is externally ballanced with a round weight behind the ballancer on the outside . That crank will have stamped on the crank UB . The heads on a cj will have bigger valves with double springs , bigger ports e smaller . Now the scj will to produce more rpms , better flow to produce more power . To addify a cj head between the middle spark plugs you will find a date code like most heads such as 69ae which translated is a 1968 model . Beside that on other side of spark plug you will find 6090-N . If you ever see that 6090-N that will be cj heads , bet the farm . A cj intake will have a bigger vain like a big S for the water passage as soon as you walk up to one you can see it in front of the carb . A 390 vain will be close to the cj only alittle more hp this motor will produce and came in R code cars , however I think cjs did as well produced in r codes . The scj crankshaft will have UA1 stamped on it and will be externally ballanced as like the cj only a bigger throw weight behind the ballancer on the front of the crankshaft . You can idenify the scj motors by this weight . It looks like it is out of place on the fe motor , some call it a cookie cutter shape .Each starting with the first will have less hp than the others . Price for a good 428 is around 2 to 3000 bucks , a 428cj running good can be 4 to 5000 and a scj can be a great deal higher depending on the date code which on any fe motor is located on the side of the block . I know there is alot more but this can give you a start as well look each motor up on the web to see the differ.