I am thinking of picking up a smallblock 400 Chevy, 2-bolt.

Is there any place online which sells these blocks?

Does anyone sell custom, or pre-made shortblocks? I would be looking for about 10.0-11.0 compression with 64cc heads.

 

I'm building mine so I don't have to pay for labor, but it will be around $2k once I'm done. Here's what I'm doing:

400 block- $150
5140 Forged Crank - $300
4340 H beam 5.7" rods - $250
TRW forged pistons - $300
Speed Pro rings - $100
Bearings - $100
Fluidampr - $100
Flywheel - Free
Machine work (hot tank, mag, bore, hone, sq. deck, line hone) - ~$500
Balance assembly - ~$300

Total: $2100

Of course I'm going with high quality forged parts, a shortblock with a cast bottom end and hyper pistons can be built by a porfessional for way under $2k. With 64cc heads you will need dished pistons. I'm not sure of anyplace online that sells them. There was an article in CHP a few months ago about a buildup and they got their bottom end for $2k. I'll look it up and let you know where they got it from.

 

Where are you getting these RODS for that price. I have never seen them that low before.

 

Wow, that is a solid bottom end! Not too expensive either.

I know nothing about assembling an engine, so I would rather have that done for me at least the first time. An added espense, but I wouldn't think by too much.

Thanks for the reply. If you could mention where you found such good components for such a good price, that would be great too.

 

I think these are NOT Eagle Rods

 

The rods are from cnc-motorsports, but you can find them for around $250 new on ebay (with ARP capscrews). Eagle rods are a bit more exspensive, I think I remember seeing a set on ebay for $280. The crank came from Crankshaft Specialists in Missouri (IIRC). Pistons are going to be ordered from Summmit, but I'll probably get the CNC'd pistons, so those are $45 a piece. I could probably get away with running the non-CNC ones, but I'm running 11:1 compression so I don't want sharp corners. The Fluidampr I got from the classifieds section. If you'd like I can get you phone numbers and web addresses for where I got the parts from.

 

That works fine, you don't have to go thorugh all of that trouble, my build up is a while away, maybe as late as next spring. I just wanted an idea of where you found good components so cheap!

Thanks for the reply, and let me know how your build up goes! It sounds like it will be awesome.

Did you get steam holes drilled in the block? I heard it was important for both the block and heads to have them.

 

The block comes with steamholes already drilled, but the heads will need to be drilled. I got my AFR 190's that already had been drilled (and shaved to 64cc from 68cc, why you would do that for a 400, I don't know). I'll let you know how it goes, I'm hoping to start building this fall. If you have anymore questions, email or pm me, I've researched this a lot so I can probably help you out.