Ok, I've done searches on this forum about the 400 sbc, and I still am unclear about some things. I've got an 88 IROC 350, and am considering this swap. I'd like to get all the info I can about the oilpan/dipstick problem, and about the starter/flywheel/header problem and I'd like to know how to deal with both of them. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

--Craig

 

You didnt You will have to chage your flywheel for sure.You didn't say you have a TPI ,but I don't think that intake is going to fit without some modifying.I maybe wrong about the intake because of a TPI.400 usually like to overheat but not all of them.If you are going to ues TPI,that may choke a 400.but putting that motor in is no different than any other smallblock.

 

I mean the flexplate not the flywheel.

 

Yeah, I am switching to a carb, and I figured I'd need a new flexplate, but after doing some reading, some people say that they cannot fit a starter on the 400 with headers for 3rd gens. And there was also some other stuff about the dipstick being different or whatever. Whoever was trying to explain about it wasn't too clear!

--Craig

 

i dont really see how any 400 is that much different then any other older small block. The only differences that i can see are the larger bore and stroke. I dont know about the oil pan but i beleive it had the dipstick on the drivers side of the engine.. Its been a wile since we last had the second gen with a 400.

 

I don't know who you have been takling to, but I have not had any problems with trying to find parts for my 400. To start with buy a flexplate for a 400, not a 350. The 400's is ofset balanced. Go to autozone and get a starter for a 76 chevy truck with a 400. The only difference in starters is the 400 uses the angled bolt holes, even many 350's are drilled with the angled bolt pattern. Lastly as for header clearance I don't have much room but everything clears, Plus there is enough room to drop the starter or remove the header, you don't have to do both, for one or the other. Maybe the header problem is just a particuler companys????? Yes the dipstick is on the drivers side, but with headers, it won't matter which side its on. As for the oil pan I am using a summit special $29.95
Later
John

 

Thanks for clearing all that up for me! John, which Hooker headers are you using?

--Craig