Ok here's the deal, I'll be picking a 400 block next week (hopefully if all goes well), and I'm wondering what I should do with it. Would I be better off if I:

A: Destroked the engine and made a 377? (or right around there)

B: build a 406?

C: Stroke it?
Could I get some opinions please? I'm stuck right in the middle here as to what I should do with it. I've heard that the shorter stroke will give me lots more revving capability, but the stroked engine will give me more torque. Which would be the better way to go?

Any info appreciated, thanks.

 

ah lucky you! i wish i had money for one
eventualy i will ---might be hard to find and pricey around here...

 

I didn't know it was even possible to stroke a 400.

 

How much are you getting with this "block"? Crank?

350 cranks are plentiful & cheap. But, 377 pistons are not. And giving up 29 cubes makes sense because .......

400 cranks aren't cheap, but if you already have one, why spend money getting another? 4" strokers aren't cheap, either, to say nothing of the supporting cast required for them. If you want a stroker SBC, start with a Motown shortblock.

 

Simplest thing to do would be to build a 400, in whatever overbore (or lack of it) required by its condition.

Budget? Goals? Timeframe?

 

if i were you, i would build a 400/406/408 depending on the bore
then put a roller cam in it with conversion lifters...

be a nice little engine......

 

My friend is trying to sell me a 455 oldsmobile engine. A mechanic built it and had it in a early 80s cutlass. He bought the car to build another dirttracker. He just pulled the motor and its sitting. he said its a monster the guy even built a special mount for the a/c. If he says its a monster I believe him. A couple of years ago he had a 4-wheeler he raced. Ran on alchohol. He raced it until it threw him and broke his back so he knows fast.

I would say destroke it. Take the road less travelled if you have the time/money to find parts and such.

 

Well you know what I say considering were both picking up the blocks at the same time..

Heres Your Destroked 377
CAST
http://www.speedomotive.com/Destroked%20377.htm
All Forged
http://www.speedomotive.com/377%20AL...RANK%20KIT.htm

415cid
http://www.speedomotive.com/500_hp_maxi_mouse.htm

FORGED
http://www.speedomotive.com/415%20MA...RGED%20KIT.htm

421cid
http://www.speedomotive.com/chevy_42...g_assembly.htm

434cid...
http://www.speedomotive.com/chevy_43...g_assembly.htm


Not like You have to get part sfrmo here either. Just examples.

Im prob gona do a depending on the bore on the blocks when we pick em Up. Im most likly gona have it tanked,aline bored, etc. and do a 420myself..

 

This is some good reading for ya Gary

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/eng...02phr_377cI09/

 

ok my time frame is all the coming winter, building it for next spring, so that's no big deal. It's just a bare block, no crank or anything. Budget to build is roughly $1000, give or take a couple hundred. I was thinking about the 377, mainly because the 350 cranks are plentiful and cheap, plus I dont' see them too often. I will be getting the block "0" decked, align bored, etc. I want a good engine here, so I'm going to take the time to build it right. But this is where I am hung up. I can't decide what to build with it, and I am wondering what would be the best way to go.

 

You're not going to get much of a short block for $1000 if you spend all of it on likely unecessary things like align boring and such. You're going to have to get real. Additionally, a 400 crank will cost you less than a 350 crank plus a set of bearing spacers; so there evaporates some more of your already unrealistically tight budget. Leaving out cubic inches will not only reduce the engine's power but also unnecessarily reduce your wallet.

All this stuff about destroking it is coming from people who have never done it, and haven't suffered the disappointment of building a more expensive motor that goes slower than the less expensive one. Sometimes there's a reason why "the road less travelled" is exactly that.

400s need heads. All those inches aren't much good unless you can fill them. That's where your money needs to go, not in a bunch of "trick" experiments.

Build a 400, stock bottom end, nothing fancy; get the best set of heads you can afford. Vortecs might not be a bad idea if you don't already have something else and/or alot of the peripherals (intake, the right rockers, etc.)

 

Yeah I must have been smokin something when I said $1000 budget. I agree with you.

 

gary, just some food for thought..... it cost me about $1000 to build my 305 last year. that was tanking the block, buying new pistons, having a couple rods reconditioned, having the various plugs and bearings installed, etc. that included having a set of heads tanked and checked that i ended up not using.

ben's 406 cost him around $2500 if i remember right, but you'd be better off asking him. seeing as he lives close, and has built one of these engines, i'd check with him for some input on how to build. you don't have to rev a 406 high to make power. ben is only turning about 5k rpm at the end of the 1/8 mile.

if you're doing a 406 for the bird.... i'm thinking along the lines of what travis said. set it up for a roller cam, and use an lt1 intake, or a miniram. i'd hate to see the bottleneck that the stock tpi would be on a 400.

 

hi. im travis.





but like RB83L69 implied.... any gains done by destroking it for higher RPM usage will be lost if the entire engine isnt overbuilt to withstand superhigh revs....

 

427/434 stroker kit (4" stroke)

Will prolly cost an ***-load, but well worth it

 

Thanks for all the info guys... after a little research and some thought, I doubt I'm going to go with a 377. It seems to me that the RPM range is nice, but it doesn't pack the punch one would expect.

 

This is how I bought my Rotating Assembly for my SBC 400.
www.EBAY.com

Wiseco Forge Flattop Pistons $419.00 (Dirtrackthunder)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=46098

Eagle Forge H-Beam Rod 6" $335.09 (Gofaststuff)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33623

Scat 9000 Cast Steel Crank $222.50(cnc-motorsports)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33616

Clevite main and Rod Bearings $54.00 (fomokid1988)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33619


TOTAL COST $1,030.59

I can be done on a tight budget, just have to do a little surfing and bidding

Machine work will cost a few Cino's........

 

I was hoping it could be done cheap.... have to do a little searching.

 

that is cheap.