Depends on the deal, you can get them pretty cheap if you keep an eye out, my guess is he's probably looking at a full rebuild. Good luck man.

 

new top end gaskets with the new heads and done...

 

To much trouble to re-wire the car IMO for a LT1 or LS1.

 

Alrighty then.

 

I worked as a engine tester at a Chevy engine plant while those where being built.The number as you found out was used for both 4 and 2 bolt mains.

FYI-I am going to "try" to take a day off from surfing on the net.

I wanted to wish you,your family,and all the members and staff a happy thanksgiving.

 

Thank you for your information once again, Gary. You have been very helpful in helping us out. I really appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Jim (The Dad)

 

Actually my friend this is a blessing in disguise, because the 4-bolt main 400 blocks are actually weaker within the main cap webbing because of the extra holes to support the main caps, my advise to you is to just add some ARP bolts/studs which ever you choose if you feel uneasy, but it's my understanding there is no intent to rev beyond 5,500 rpms, so I would'nt worry about it at all, but on a second note about the gearing, you need anywhere between 3.42 and 3.08 with the torque multiplication of the 6 speed tranny you are using, it will have more than enough accelaration from a stop and cruise effortlessly on the highway in 5th an 6th gear getting decent gas mileage as well, but that is just my opinion...

 

Got the new heads on. We drilled the steam holes ourselfs, Aluminum heads only need the bottom 3 and not all 6 apparently.

Any tips on adusting the roller rockers?

Starting from the front of the engine. Is it Exhaust, Intake, Intake, Exhaust, Exhaust, Intake, Intake, Exhaust?

 

easiest way is to spin the engine till the intake lifter starts to rise, then adjust that cylinders exhaust rocker down till you get some resistance on the pushrod, then a 1/4 turn more. then spin it till the exhaust lifter starts to rise and do the same on the intake rocker. just do that for each cylinder and youll be fine.

 

oas far as i know, it doesn't matter what heads you have, u need all of the steam holes so steam can vent up into the heads

 

the intake rocker will line up with an intake port, and exhaust rocker will line up with an exhaust port. its EIIEEIIE down both sides.

 

Apparently on aluminum heads you dont need the top 3 holes because you cant drill them out anyway, no matter how far you drill you wont hit the water jacket. Thats what a machinist told me. and the instructions for my heads.

 

The way I did my rockers is. I put the #1 cylinder at TDC, then adjusted the intake valve on #2 and #7 and the exhaust valve on #4 and #8.

Then I rotated crank 180'degrees (clockwise) then i adjusted the intake valve on #1 and #8, exhaust valve on #3 and #6.

Rotated the crank again 180'degrees, adjusted the intake valve on #3 and #4 and exhaust valve on #5 and #7.

Rotated crank 180'degree again and adjusted the intake valve on #5 and #6 and exhaust valve on #1 and #2.

I did this by pushing the push rod up and down instead of twisting it and when I could not EASILY push it up and down anymore I tightened the rocker 3/4 more of a turn. by (EASILY) I mean the only way I could move it up and down is if i pushed it hard enough to where it pushed the lifter down a little. Should I just move it up and down lightly? or hard to where its tight and I cant move it up and down even with the plunger on the lifter moving.

 

No different than non-roller rockers.

Per Comp Cams:

Turn the engine in the normal direction of rotation. Start with cylinder number one (1). When the exhaust valve begins to move, adjust the intake valve to the correct preload. To reach zero, take the pushrod between your finger tips and move it up and down while you tighten the rocker arm. Once you feel the pushrod has no more vertical slack, you are at zero preload. Make sure the pushrod is in the lifter and the rocker arm seat when making valve adjustments. As stated before the best setting is .030” to .040”, or ½ to ¾ a turn of the wrench past zero. Now, you can move on to the exhaust valve on the same cylinder. Begin by rotating the engine over again until the intake valve reaches maximum lift and is almost all the way back down. Then set the exhaust valve using the same method as the intake (.030” to .040”, or ½ to ¾ a turn of the wrench past zero). Continue adjusting the valves on each cylinder in this manner until all valves are adjusted.

From:
http://www.compcams.com/Technical/In.../COMP4-116.pdf

 

Should i just gently move it up and down? Because if I gently move it up and down as i tighten it there is no more movement up and down. But it if i push down a little harder the pushrod goes into the lifter a little bit? Should I do that or just gently.

Just making sure so I get it right the first time.

 

im not arguing with you and have heard the same thing ,but why did chevy cast a special shorter rod for the 400 if the 350 rod works so well?

 

I prefer to adjust valves on each cylinder at TDC, rotating the engine through its firing order, starting with #1. The amount of preload on the lifter depends on the application. A high revving race motor gets 1/4 turn past zero while a stock motor gets 1 turn.

Rod to stroke ratio affects an engine's torque and power curve. In race motors, it old wisdom that 2:1 R/S ratio is ideal. A shorter rod will produce more low end torque by increasing the ratio of piston velocity to degrees of crank rotation. This same increase in piston velocity will also cap top end power and decrease stability. Cylinder side loading another side affect of high rod angles created by the short rod.

As far as what Chevy did with rod length in the 400 small block, keep in mind that the 400SBC was never developed as a high performance engine at the factory level but rather as a high torque small block option for trucks and larger sedans. It was only developed as a high performance engine in the aftermarket.

 

Originally Posted by Chevy8588
connecting rod = rods that connect pistons. and hes right, our short rods suck. moving to a 5.7 in rod takes some stress off of cylinder walls and makes for a safer high rev

im not arguing with you and have heard the same thing ,but why did chevy cast a special shorter rod for the 400 if the 350 rod works so well?

The short rod keeps the wrist pins out of the ring groves.

I went with the 5.7 rods and new pistons it worked well for me. I used vortec heads(completely redone). I also converted the block to roller cam setup. I have no trouble with rpm, I shift at 7200. As for the starter if the block is not taped for stright hole (as mine was) there is a templet kit you can buy for $100 and do it yourself.With the engine out it is easy. The flywheel problem is what kept me from installing a t56. I went with a gforce setup t5. I endedup using a 350 flywheel with bolton weight plate to balance the setup. Worked great. The real weak spot is the rear if you going to race the car.

 

Its not really a race car. And we drilled the hole ourselves for the starter. Was not hard at all

 

That's a nice looking engine. For a few hundred dollars more you could convert it to a roller cam. It really is worth every penny.

BTW, pistons are available which allow a 6" rod in the 400. Yes the pin hole is way up there in the oil ring groove but it really doesn't effect operation.

 

EOIC for my rockers

 

I am not sure I agree the pin location doesn't matter in the use of a street driven car in terms of the rings.We found that the rings do have for the lack of a better term flutter and sealing isn't as good.Remember your adjustments you make to the end gaps given the engines use and then add in more use of a street car isn't the best case.

 

my aluminum heads have all the holes. per afr's instructions were to drill the top holes at an angle i believe

 

45 degree angles

 

Noice mate. Keep up the good work.

 

My Edelbrock instructions just said drill the straight holes. And a machinest told me that as well.

Also, my intake manifold is missing the ports in the back, but the heads have them. Does this matter?

 

nope. a lot of aftermarket intakes are like that.

if your REALLY worried about it, you can drill and tap the intake for a hose fitting and run hose and tap it into the main cooling system. but youd have either tap it back into the manifold on the front ports before the tstat, or run a secondary, remote tstat on those lines.

 

Well were getting a different intake manifold. Just gonna sell this one because the RPM is to high on this one anyway, 4600-7500 I think, and my RPM max range is 5500..................... fail. Getting edelbrock RPM performer with a smaller carb, 670cfm.

 

what manifold is it?

 

The one in the pic that im replacing is a Holley street/strip dominator. The one im getting is an Edelbrock rpm performer

 

Holley 300-25?
May be interested in it shoot me a pm...pics would be great.

 

Ill send you a PM soon cuisinartvette.

 

nice swap i gotta read threw it some more im swaping a 400 into my 86IROC

 

Got the engine and transmission in. Car started up fine, just a alot of white smoke is coming out of the exhaust. I think running it for maybe 10mins should clear it up from what i read. (New Carb, New Heads/head gaskets, Piston rings fine)

 

You'll get some smoke from the new engine just from oil and even coolant in the manifolds. It's hard to avoid. That's why I use exhaust hoses and try to roll a car outside as quick as possible after starting a motor I've just rebuilt or done heads on.

 

Ya we just ran it for a few and its gone. Looking good so far

 

I cut the top off a old valve cover. Any tips on adjusting the rocker arms while the car is running?

 

watch your fingers! seriously though, you just get the car nice and warm, then loosen all the rockers to take the tension off the lifters and let it sit for about 15 min then fire it back up and tighten down till it stops clattering then another 1/4 turn and tighten the set screw. with the engine running you dont need to worry about tightening in a certain order, just go down the row one side at a time.

and be prepared for oil splatter even with the modified valve cover.

 

Hmm. I'll have to try the passenger side like that. I didy driver side by letting the car warm up. Then loosening 1 at a time till it clatteres then tightened till the clatter stopped and gave it like 3/4 more turn. I think I may have done them a little tight because the engine seemed like it didn't start as easy. But the oil really was not that bad.

 

Car still leaks oil on the same spot on the timing chain cover WTF! I dont know what I did wrong lol, oh well. Atleast the back does not leak. Should drive it once I get my throttle connector in.

Kinda off subject because its a 4th gen camaro but my Z28 transmission messed up the other day. No gears work and there is a whining noise. any ideas? Pump break or torque converter?

 

sounds like it could be the TQ converter since you lost all gears. was it driving fine before you lost it? you can make sure the pump still works without dropping the trans by running the cooler lines into a bucket full of fluid and make sure the fluid flows. just remember the bottom line is the feed and the top is the return

 

Ya ill check to see if it pumps tomorrow. Ran out of light. Could you PM me about the torque converter? Dunno if I can talk about it on here lol. But ya the car had always hung at the top of 3rd gear at WOT at like 6k rpm and I would have to let off for it to shift to 4th. When it messed up it held the top of 3rd for like 3 seconds then a hard shift to 4th and then nothing. No gears worked. So to me 1 of 2 things torque converter or the pump.

Anyway I think I have done everything I can on my 88 camaro. I got an electric timing gun for Christmas but I don't know how to use it lol. So normal light for me. Any suggestions what I should set my timing at?

And so far the cars cooling seems to be working well. Car gets to like 190 then the temperature drops real fast to like 180 and my fan keeps it there for like 30 mins at idle. Still don't know what I'm going to do with my front timing chain leak. Maybe I can kinda "Dam" it lol. I have the 4.10 gears but from what everyone says I should just keep my 3.08. So far so good though.

 

im no trans expert, but from my understanding the 4l60e is basically just a computer controlled version of the 700r4. that would make it a 3 speed with OD. and from my limited understanding it wont shift into OD at WOT. but like i said, im no expert. the tq convertor is what takes the rotation from the engine and sends it to the trans. so if it breaks, the trans doesnt spin and the car dont move. atleast that what my brain is saying makes sense.

 

Ohhh sounds logical yes. If the transmission does not spit out fluid through the feed line than I don't see what else it could be besides the torque converter. Ok cool. Back to my 3rd gen lol.

 

More likely the front pump. Assuming you've verified proper fluid level.

 

true, no fluid moving means no gears either. i wish i knew more about autos....

 

ive very rarely seen torque converters go, not saying it cant, but i doubt it from a hard shift, if you are getting a whining noise, id lean towards a damaged pump.

 

Gonna check to see if fluid comes out of the feed line tomorrow. My 3rd gens throttle connector should be in tomorrow so I should be able to take the 88 out for a test drive.

 

Converyers go all the time, which is why they have so many Racing Transmission Companies cuttinng them apart to repair or restall them, but I agree, I'd look at the front pump first if your converter is new, and what rear gearing are you using and what stall is your converter, if you have a very high gearing (low numerically) like 2.73 it will whine because it is not really locked up fully, but if you have at least a 3.42 you should be alright if your stall speed is no more than 2800-3000? Look for extreme slippage at lower RPMs or extreme slippage at high RPMS when dealing with converters, but you need to find a calculator to determine your percentage of converter slippage, but check fluid levels and then front pump first.

 

So I got the wrong part for my 88 so im waiting for the right one to come in before i can drive it.

On my 94z28 I took off the bottom transmission line. Turned the car on and trans fluid was shooting out sooo.... I guess the pump works huh? So only thing it could be is the torque converter I guess. (Symptoms again- No gears work and loud whine)