I've got a 400 SBC /w 85 000 miles on it and an 87 formula w/o a motor. (TPI wireing harness still lingering)

the motor came out of an 76 van, #330817. 882 heads.. q-jet carb /w #73 jets

i do not have the money for major upgrades (aka heads, bottom end) and that can be done at a later time, the car has been off the road for 1 1/2 years and i'm getting annoyed at seeing it sitting there.
i'm throwing the 400 sbc into the car, my question is; what should i consider beforehand and what little things can i do (cam intake headers?)

ran desktop dyno, headers make a big difference and an XE268H (339hp @5000rpm 410q @3500rpm)

i do not know how accurate DD2000 is tho. i know the numbers are somewhat exagerated.
i'd be happy at 300 hp and 400 lbs tq for now.

thanks.

 

good question... i'm wanting a 400 block... bore it .30 over.. i've got most parts in mind.. and listed & all...

but.. yours is stock... if you want power.. the 400's are a biznatch to work with... they overheat if you do much to them.. sometimes stock, from what i understand... this is due to the fact that, with teh block, there are no water holes in between the cylinders or.. something like that... a cam might help, i duno.. i havn't thought much of taking a stock 400 and jucing it up... but cam & heads always help.

it basically depends on how much you wanna spend.. ya know?

1000 bucks, could do wonders if you ebay stuff, :-D.

just my not so knowledgeable .02. :-P

 

You might have to use headers anyway, I don't think 882's have the 7th exhaust bolt hole for your stock exhaust manifolds.

 

A bone stock 400 makes 400 ft lbs, so the typical intake, conservative cam (less than 220 degrees at .050" of lift), and a 780 carb with free flowing exhaust should get you there.

 

A good way to make Desktop dyno more accurate is to use "HP manifolds" when you use headers on the vehicle. "Small tube headers w/ exhaust" is way over what typical headers give.

Here is why I belive what I believe. Take my old S-10 motor for example: (see sig) Desktop dyno says 522hp@ 6500, 490tq @ 5000. The first thing I did was change the style of cam I had from roller to hyd. It went down to 477hp@ 6500, 420tq@ 5000. Next I took away headers and put on stock manifolds. Resulted in 384hp@ 6500, 352hp@ 5000. By changing ONLY the style of cam and headers it lost 138hp/138tq!!!!

We all know there can be some great improvments with headers and roller cams. But with the Exact same cam(the motor still had headers at the time) and the only difference is a Hyd. vs. a roller you would never see 45HP/70tq gain from an exact same cam, but switching from hyd to roller, no way!!

Anyways back to the headers(still hyd cam), its 384hp/352hp with manifolds, 415hp/371tq(+31hp/+19tq) with HP manifolds, 477hp/420tq(+93hp/+68tq) with Small tube mufflers. WHat sounds more reasonable to you? I always use "HP manifolds" inplace of headers and always use Hyd cam no matter what.

My results are: when I input them into desktop Drag, they are within .1 & 1mph!!!! My results were 11.84@ 122mph for the 522hp motor and 12.22@ 115 for my "custom" Desktop Dyno/Drag.

 

Totally discombobulated

 

Thread resurrection. Nobody ever answered how to make a cheap 300hp from the 400sbc

 

...because I wanna know too now. I'm guessing a simple cam with breathing heads plus exhaust

 

Yep simple. I would use Vortec heads or even a set of 083s with full exhaust and decent cam, intake, and carb. Would easy make 300 HP on a 400.