I love the 400 platform. There are so many different builds and types of power adders. I fell in love with the 400 as a teenager. I really enjoyed you guys take on this project! If the 400 had the same amount of money and hot rod parts that the 327 and 350 got the 400 would have been king of the sbs. Looking forward to the next build. Thanks guys for working on these engines and videos some of the best on you tube
You should have ground the top of the center oil gallery, because some double roller timing chains will knaw on it and put tiny flakes of metal in your oil. You fellows better get some one in the shop with more know how!
My 406 SBC with Canfield aluminum heads full roller setup with the stock 2 bolt mains block and factory cast crank 11.125:1 compression was a 600+ HP engine all day long and drove to the track, raced all weekend long and always drove it back home! It was amazingly powerful for its weight, and definitely durable with the thicker webbing of the 2 bolt block and siamese bores of the 400 it makes them pretty damn tough blocks. The larger mains of the crank is also a good benefit for strength, even being cast. The only thing that I changed to from the factory design was the 5.56 to the 5.7 rod length, and clearanced the block and rods for the big roller camshaft. This is the only issue one may have. With the larger dimensioned crankshafts of the 400 and going to the larger lobed camshaft, stock rods you may not have too many interference issues? I know aftermarket beefier rods at the big ends have a chance of contacting themselves in certain degrees. So it's vital to check this out more than once and making sure you have a minimum of .020 clearance between your rotating internal parts. The only issue I ever had while racing was pumping the oil pan dry around 3/4 the way down the ¼ mile. This was self inflicted though, using a high volume high pressure oil pump and a stock capacity pan was a bad combination. And this was with crank scrapers and all the oil return passages were cleaned up and enlarged before assembly. This though didn't make much difference. Adding a 8qt pan and Swapping back to a stock type oil pump it would still start to cavitate the pump around the end of the ¼ mile and I would watch the oil pressure dropping off around mid track, while going through the traps at almost 20lbs of pressure @ 76-7800 RPM'S. It never hurt the engine thankfully, but the problem was the oil flow for the original hydraulic lifters which wasn't really required for my application, so the engine was pumping all its oil up to the top end of the engine and it couldn't return fast enough by gravity to the pan. The answer to this dilemma was oil gallery restrictors and my nightmare was over! It was amazingly different afterwards and oil pressure was no longer any problem or cavitation wasn't a problem I mean. 😊 Otherwise they are fantastic engine's for street or strip or even a daily driver with weekend warrior thrills LMAO!
Wonder if a windage tray may have helped you If the oil gets whipped up too much (aerated) it can wreak havoc on hyd lifters possibly cauing P to V interference . If I build to run over 6k often I always go solid to prevent it. To each their own
And I've seen a 3rd gen firebird with a 383 crate that would just eat rear ends, and do burn outs 5 car lengths long. lmao. Fond memories. Definitely something I won't forget. Goals.
Here's a thing about the 400 blocks. 1970-72 all had 4 bolt main caps, and could be identified on the outside with 3 freeze plugs on the side of the block, the only SBC so configured. 1973 through 1980 had 2 bolt main caps (big block style caps), and the standard SBC 2 freeze plugs on the sides. The 2 bolt 400 blocks are more desirable for a build than the earlier 4 bolt blocks, they're stronger with aftermarket splayed outer bolt 4 bolt caps.
Back in the day (80s as a teen) we all believed you had to have a 4 bolt, steel crank. Little did I know a 2 bolt 400 cast crank woulda served me just fine. Didnt know any better
It really is, if only Id known in the 80s Shame GM never added a lil more meat to those blocks and based their LT1 off it...guess nobody would want a smaller sbc so it may have killed sales . Perfect bore/stroke
I actually found a 511 block with 2 bolt mains ... i was puzzled until i looked at the date it was made ...very late 72 ! When chevy begin changing to 2 bolt mains . The numbers for 2 bolt block are 817 and 509 .
Just wanted to say Clay Millican is one of the nicest people I have ever met.unfortunetly I love 20 mins from New England Dragway and our national got rained out this year so I didn't get to see Clay again,but he meets thousands of fans every year and he remembers me by name every year.
I love your comment on the core plug... In the early 70's, in trade school, that was one of the catch questions on an exam. They drilled it in our heads over and over and over; There are no "Freeze/Frost" plugs on an engine, they are "Casting or Core" plugs which are necessary to remove the sand from the hollow part(s) of the casting. They were never intended or designed to prevent damage due to freezing of the coolant inside of the block. Thanks for asserting and clarifying this for the viewers.
Agree...Dart little M block...shocked at all the metal floating around in the water jackets thank goodness I checked and cleaned th eblock out. Woulda killed a water pump fast Blew a plug out the side of my last L98 block due to a head gasket slowly letting go.
True, but a lot of hotrodders with a busted engine will just swap parts rather than buy all new and start from scratch. so this shows how far they're going to get. They could have also destroked the block to 377 cid, saved the crank, and seen what a bigger bore would have done. This won't be the optimal cam grind, for sure, but plenty of cam companies sell a small block cam for "262-400 cubic inches". certainly not optimal for that large a range of displacement.
I guess the question is optimal for what ? For their goals with the 360 ? Csm timing is tailored to your intended use . These engines are used for dyno graphs , lol.
I love those 400 sbc motors. I didn't know there power was that low thow from factory. I have 2 friends and they always wanted me to find them the 400 sbc engine so they could build them for racing. I had one in my truck I built once. I bought a 82 I think Chevy pickup 4 by 4 and I put a box and cab on it that was a 70 pickup truck. It was a turquoise color. I looked cool when I got it done. Only took 2 days to change the cabs and boxes out. I put a 4 inch body lift out of square tubing and had 36 inch super swamper stl on it.
I spent 2 years building(what i considered the perfect high revving 383 stroker street engine) between ordering a little part's hear and there. I sent a high nickle factory 350 engine block to the best machine shop in my hometown. Getting the cylinders bored .040 over, crank mains line honed, debuting the entire engine inside and out, opening up and smoothing out all oil gallery's and returns, getting the Callies balanced and knife edged crankshaft with lightweight Callies compstar H-beam rod's with Icon 10cc forged dome pistons installed. The heads are Brodix SBC 225cc D/S Heads 68cc 2.08/1.60 valves and beehive springs. I broke it in and drove it all summer, adding some Rislone Hy-per Cool Super Coolant additive to water only. We'll winter came around and I checked all my toys to make sure they had antifreeze in them. We'll beings the coolant additive is the same color as antifreeze, I didn't pay it no attention. Needless to say after freezing temperatures both sides of my block cracked in multiple places...........I felt like throwing up when I seen that lol...... after saving for half the year i replaced the cracked factory block with a world products aluminum block. 6 years later and thousands of 8,000 rpm pulls it still running strong.
The 'freeze" plugs wouldn't have been my "first" question. My first question would be, "Was there anti-freeze in the block?" It was sort a blessing though. You guys created a beast!
I don't know about here, but water is typically used on a dyno because freezing isn't usually an issue. Given that most dyno rooms are climate controlled. It probably should be antifreeze though. Considering most don't use a radiator on the dyno either. I bet they don't make this mistake in the winter ever again. Lol
When i worked in auto machine shops in the late 80s people would say all 4 bolt 400s had 3 freeze plugs per side ... wrong ! I have found 2 bolt blocks with 3 ! I was boring blocks every day then .
I would think its Good Practice to Deck that Factory Block, its old,it was done a long time ago by old machines,deck heights are probably different,probably not 100% flat, plus cometic gaskets require a certain RA finish....but great job as always Powernation..
If you ever have that much trouble taking off a cylinder head, first make certain you got ALL the bolts. then, undo the rocker arms so every valve is closed, grab a leakdown tester device that lets you pump air into the cylinder, and find a cylinder at TDC and give it some air. unless the head gasket is blown or the piston rings are gapped wide open, the air pressure might be enough. Also, it's a lot easier to slip the camshaft in before the crankshaft. Put your block on the floor, bellhousing-side down. Gravity will be your friend as you drop the camshaft in vertically, and you can do this dry, smearing on lube as you guide it past new cam bearings by reaching into the crankcase. now your lube stays inside the crankcase instead of leaking on your shoe. Now use an engine hoist to get it up in the air, bolt on the apparatus from your engine stand so that you only have to guide it into place on the stand rather than hang the engine and try to get every bolt to match the stationary engine stand.
Back in the day my good friend was a truck puller, in Super Stock class his weapon of choice was the 406...Nascar 350 block punched .030" & Lunati 3.75" stroke crank, heavily ported 202 doublehumpers, came that had over .900" lift, 6" aluminum rods, 14.5 compression & 750 double pumper on alcohol..she was very stout!!!
I sure wish I would have dynoed my 406 back in 1995. Wisco 14.5:1, 6.0" H-rods, AFR 220 64cc heads, Lunati solid roller cam, Victor E intake, holley 850cfm and it ran lean as he'll all the time. Twin holley blues on 1/2" lines struggled to keep up. '65 chevy II, 350TH 3500 TCI stall, 488:1 rear. 9.54sec @145mph I always guest it was a 750hp motor.
My last 406 had hyperutectic pistons. A 480 lift cam and 492 gm double jump heads. 750 Holley. That thing made enough power to put a 3800 pound 87 monte carlo into the high 11 second class. Give me 400 or nothing.
That sounded beautiful on the first pull. Great work. Also, 406 is an old Ford displacement from the early 60’s. That poor motor with the BRG paint doesn’t know what it is. 😊
2 bolt 400s are supposedly stronger than the 4 bolt plus you can install splayed caps on a 2 bolt block and 400s are notorious for having out of round cyclinders, i rerung a 406 as a ladt ditch effort and even tho the bore looked nice from the dingle hone it had bad blow by so it went in the corner and replaced the engine in a tube chassis vega wagon with an old stock 283 just so we could go to the strip, we tossed 305HO heads on it with a nice big cam and a dz302 high rise intake to try n wake it up some, it would pull the wheels effortless and run low 6s in 1/8th with the 406 with camels vic jr and big cam but with the 283 let go transbrake it would chirp n go very smooth steady and slow lol and ran around 8.5 not fast but better than sitting home.
@@HowardJrFord THey can crack from headbolts also thats common .Some tap steam holes and screw in a plug, drill a hole to make that area a little stronger
They are, by a little. The reason is the block webbing is the same for 2 bolt mains, as for 4 bolt mains. The only thing different is 2 extra bolt holes. Without them, the webbing is solid, thus stronger.
I want you guys to build my 351 Cleveland. I'll buy all the parts if you want to feature it on TV. So far I've got Trickflow heads. Still got to buy Eagle 4 in forged rotating assembly, cam & edelbrock air gap intake manifold.
Whether it's a 350 or a 400, I'll take a 2 bolt over a 4 any day. If I need the strength, it's better to have the mains splayed than have a factory 4 bolt
WOw that is BBC power! Cubes fit the intake heads perfect. Thats an old grind but it works great in about anything Imagine if GM used these for performance apps like the LT1
You guys are living the dream, I can say that cause I am so old. When I was a kid $10 Grand would get you a stomping competitive mill. Atomic engines and B & M but alas so many places to noodle away the cheddar.
Sillicon, not all 72s were 4 bolts, my hubby found a late 72 built in november, k date, that was a 511 number with 2 bolt mains ! Most 2 bolts numbers were 817 or 509,, thats last 3 digits of casting num. On bellhousing end of block. Most 511 blocks are 4 bolt but pull the pan to be sure, also, some 2 bolts have 3 freeze plugs, hubby has shown me !
I had a 2017 F150 3.5L eco boost. It was a torque monster and towed my 10000lb trailer awesome. If this new motor for Ram is anything like that it will rock.
I used to be upset when I missed power block on Saturday seem back around 2000 there wasn't squat for car shows and basic cable sucked at least when I got digital premium I was able to get speed channel I thought that was awesome were to spoiled now.
I bought my parents 1971 Chevy Kingswood Estate wagon and raced it at Union Grove Drag Strip in Wisconsin. 1st run all 100% stock and ran the 1/4 mile in 17:88 @ 95 mph she had a SB 400 2bb with a 4 bolt main turbo 350 and a 273 gear. Over the next 5 years that engine was rebuilt several times. I tried TRW 12.5 to 1 pistons and running on premium fuel with 104 octane booster still had issues with spark knock. Finally settled on 10.5 to 1 Stock heads, crank, rods, but up graded Oil Pump, Camshaft, Timing Chain, Intake and Ignition accel duel point system. Holley 850 double pumper and hooker headers. Turbo 400 and a 12 bolt diff with a 4.56 gear. Best time 12:25 @ 135 mph drove it every day a real sleeper. The cool thing about that wagon was it weighed about 4200 pounds and the weight transfer to the fat tires through the leaf springs and traction bars I had very little wheel slip, all grab and go. Sad part is I sold it for 10 cents on the dollar invested not including my time. Great memories worth every penny in fun, good times with buddies and learning my trade. Anyway your project brought back good memories so thank you.
@@1Phoenixfire idk. If it’s actually a dyno mule like they said then it probably stays on there. Plus if it’s a heated room then you wouldn’t worry about it freezing
Problem is that nobody drives on the street at 4000- 7000 rpm. I'd like to see the build make power off idle up. A torque monster is always cool, especially for a 4x4 or daily driver.
I forgot to put in coolant before winter and did the same thing, 4 vertical cracks, 2 on each side. I just took the grinder to them, filled and covered them up with JB Weld and ran it trouble free for another 3 years before I upgraded my valve train and spun a couple bearings on the crank journal. I'll pay for shipping and give you the scrap price for that block. Lol
I’ve watched a lot of these shows and these two together are the best…I hope they stay grounded and keep putting out videos. People like muse need this type of “entertainment”/actually, knowledge! 😊
"Just run the dyno!" grits his teeth lol ive been with powernation family since powerblock back on tnn before it was spike then spike....my have times have change and also the horsepower has added 100s of hp for the same type of builds....i watched back when a pump gas that was 400hp was crazy now 600 lol...cant wait for whats to come in the next 25 years
i love a 400 , i built a 73 400(out to 406) 2bolt block with the splayed main caps stock crank and rods wth new hypertectic pistons but issue's with sump leaking and steering hitting high volume sump meant it came out one to many times and i decided to build a 400 dart block(no water jacket between cylinders ) with all the new goodies like scat crank and 6" rods Wisco pistons with raised gudgeon pin holes roller solid and afr 228 heads crane rockers ,bushed roller lifters ' ive only had it started a couple of times and it sounds awesome through 24" hot dogs
Not the heads, the cam. We all know that torque is never affected by stroke either.....right ? It's an apples and oranges thing, the definition of bigger is "more" , ya feel me ? If they had put in longer rods it would have had even more torquies.....know what I'm sayin ?
@@jamesroberts1800 - Torque is little affected by stroke or rod length, but varies directly with cubic inches... Torque 'characteristics' change a mite by stroke and/or rod length...
What I would do is leave it in the garage, get yourself a few super high quality microphones surrounding the engine then wire a start up switch, maybe a few of them, inside your house with a good speaker system like Klipsch and I would start this engine everyday just to listen to it. What a symphony!!!
This was a sweet build. I have a bunch of 400 parts sitting around in my basement, from an old project that never quite came to fruition. Now you’re makin me want to go buy an old 350 block and build a little stroker to drop in a cheap G body or an old C10 or something. Now I just need to finish my other project truck lol. Wish me luck, I’m gonna need it in this economy 🙄
Always go for the bigger stroke crank if you can. Found if an engine with 30 deg more cam timing than stock doesnt do it then the solution is a bigger stroke not a bigger cam. You wont regret it believe me. Major difference everywhere.
Remember late 80s? The typical 390-400hp recipe was 11-1 350 ported camels vic jr 292 cam .Loved the Isky version over the comps. Needed plenty of gear or it would be a pig
Would have liked to see the numbers a cam swap, fresh timing chain, headers and four barrel carb would have done. I got a 400 and that's all I could afford years ago and it was a torque monster
Yeah, that huge ac compressor, and pull a loaded dump truck and see how much it loses, and disconnect a couple of spark plugs and see how much it loses. All of which have nothing to do with maximum dyno hp tests.
Anyone like me, wish they would have done dyno stages, with this 400? Example: This stock= stage 1, then stage 2= put the aftermarket intake, and 4brl. carb. from project compression obsession, then stage 3= Add the Big 1in. 7/8 dia, Long tube hedders, with a 3in. Dia., 18in. Long, collector extension. That would have been Awesome! Plus then when they rebuilt this 400cu. In., into a 406cu. In., added the roller valve train, and Afr 220cc Eliminator cyl. heads, we would get to see the 200 to 250Hp increase!
I was seriously curious about this one, as I run a 400 SBC as one of the engines in my 71 Camaro (the other is a 383, and the two short blocks share the same heads, intake and carb). It's not built as beastly as yours, but it has insane torque.
I was able to pick up a pair of iron eagle 230 heads. I know yours are aluminum, but did you drill for steam holes? Im thinking of NOT drilling steam holes, and see what happens. (Wonder if they Iron Products would answer my questions if drilling is necessary. (?)
I wonder how many people learned that "freeze plugs" ARE NOT freeze plugs. They are actually supposed to be called core plugs. Just like the "harmonic balancer." It IS NOT a harmonic balancer, it is a crankshaft dampener 🧐
Tommy put that engine back into the Caprice forget about LS. Mr. George how much is the LS no that's too much. 🤣 All jokes aside I like a 350 stroker or 406 because they're easier to get decent power a low-budget.
I feel your pain. I got called away half way through winterizing my antique 1966 StarCraft and when I got back to finish it I forgot to drain the block and manifold. I was rewarded with dripping out the drain plug in the spring to find the block pushed out between the two center cylinders and the special mercruiser aluminum manifold ruined. What’s sad is it was low hour original to the boat and ran great. I was able to replace it with a later production salvage engine.
Oof, that sucks man. Inboard engines can be a real pain to swap out too, depending on where they are in the boat. That’s why I always make a checklist on cardboard and I don’t cross anything off til I finish each job. You always end up forgetting something when you get interrupted and have to come back and try to remember where the hell you left off lol
@@CivilizedWarrior at the time I had a toddler and an infant. My son was helping me but got cold and wanted to go inside. When I got inside I got wrapped up in other things and that’s the nature of how distractions go. It’s a Mercruiser 1A power package so it wasn’t too hard to pull it I just had to pluck the stern drive then lift the engine out over the transom.
@@Jon_Flys_RC oh nice, that’s not bad. My grandfather has a 91 shamrock 26’ and his 5.7 mercruiser is in the middle of the boat covered with an engine box/tackle storage bolted over it, with like 1/2” clearance on either side. You have to unbolt the motor mounts and jack it up just to change the plugs. Anyway that thing was a pain, we had to rig up a cradle with some I beams to yank the thing out. I love fishing, but man do I hate working on boats. Lol
