I saw a 406 ci. small block chevy yesterday. The guy is an old shop teacher of mine and I think he wants around $1000 for the engine. He says it has about 500 miles on it. The block was built by a local speed shop called billy grahms (or something like that, its still to early for me). He's an honest guy, and I was thinking about it. What exactly would be needed to swap out my 305 to a 400 (its a seventies block). I would really like to keep my tbi setup. Could I get away with a set of 350 injectors and the caprice chip? What about bolting it up to the bell housing? Would I need a new flywheel and flexplate? I was also thinking that I would like to do a roller cam conversion. Right now the engine has a flat tappet cam in it. Just a thought though. I know that I could come up with the cash if I got some side work down .

 

The 305/350 are internaly ballanced the 400 is externaly ballanced. That means you will need a flex-plate and Harmonic ballancer for a 400. It will bolt up to your trans. I bet a TBI with the pressure pumped up will feed the 406.

Just a note: The 400 was oringinaly a smog motor to move heavy stationwagons and such. Make sure the limmiting compression ratio and "cerial bowl" pistons have been upgraded to someting like 9:1.

 

i'm building up a 400 right now. i was lucky enough to get a running one with everything out of a truck a friend of mine had built up. right now, its got 882 heads (dunno if they were car or truck heads), edelbrock performer intake, and a summit 214/224 cam. all of my exhaust will be done (heddman headers, 3" 3way cat, hooker catback). the tbi setup is the only place i see snags, but it will run. i've done a bit o work on the throttle body and i have 350 injectors. i also will be purchasing a vAFPR to help bump up the pressure. for now, i will be happy with that. the only way to get the full potential outta these engines will be with some custom prom work, but i'm trying to learn that as i go.

 

well my shop teacher said he had the block built up by billy grahms. So i think that took care of the cereal bowl pistons. So how much would be a good offer?

 

I've often used the old addage "One dollar per cubic inch". But for any built motor your getting a lot of labor and speed parts. Offer him $500 bucks. The worst he can say is no.