My uncle also had a full time 4 wheel drive 3/4 ton 1977 Chevy truck with a 400 in it. It didn't matter if it was on country roads or going down the highway at 55 mph empty or fully loaded, it always made 9 mpg.
Funny stuff. Got a 400 from a '77. Balanced it, quenched with mild port work and different cam. Put it in a '70 3/4 4wd. For a 5,000lb truck that 400 really moved it well. 650 Holley got 9mpg. In a 3,000lb Camaro that engine would have been a handful
My family had a '74 4 door BelAir with the 400/2v setup. My dad loved that car, which got great fuel mileage. A mechanic once told him that the carb was way out of adjustment, to which dad responded, "If you touch that carb I'll bust you in the mouth!"
The 400 went to 2-bolt main caps because the 4-bolt blocks had a habit of cracking at the outer main cap bolt holes. The 2-bolt blocks are actually preferred for high performance builds over the 4-bolt blocks just for that reason.
I was going to add a comment along this line. When building a 400 - if you can find one - you want the 2 bolt block. The main caps on the 2 bolt block are big block style main caps with a wider register than other small block 2 bolt caps. I think the register is the same as the 4 bolt factory caps.
@paulcalloway4364 no, it's not that. It's because of the spacing of the bolt holes. The 400 uses a larger crank journal than a 350 does, it's unique to the 400. The main journal is nearly as big as a big block actually. But it pushed the main cap bolts outward, which is what caused the problem.
I have a 2 bolt main 400 block. Guys opted for these because you could machine it for 4 bolt splayed caps not affecting the bearing web integrity of the block. Eventually guys went for the Dart blocks for a better race platform.
The first car that I bought personally (in 1978) was a 1974 Monte Carlo that had a 400 2V. It ran well, but I didn't really appreciate what I had. If I could find another one almost exactly like it today, I'd buy it.
my mom's idiot wife went down to Georgia and picked a sweet 74 Monty with the 400 and striped it down for a race car for his dumb ass and his boy, after 2 races his 45 yo kid quit and who knows what ever became of the ride, I offered to buy it off him before he stripped it.
Many years ago in the late 70s, I helped my next door neighbor put a 400 small block in a 1969 Camaro, 4 speed with a 12 bolt posi and a 4 barrel carb, she ran very strong. A friend I grew up with wound up buying it and we spent many a weekend at the street races. The gas mileage was terrible for two broke kids just out to have fun, but fun we did have. Brings back a lot of memories.
Love the Chevy 327! My favorite also. I also have always had a soft spot for the 283. The first vehicle that my folks allowed me to drive to school (Freshman and Sophomore years), was a '66 C10 long wheelbase with a 283 and 4-spd.
The 327 was my favorite too! I had one in my 59 Chevy Impala Sport Coupe. I replaced the original 283 with a 300 hp 1962 327 and beefed it up with solid lifters and a fuel injected cam. I topped it off with a direct linkage 3 X 2 Stromberg 97 carbs and a Malory dual point distributor. I backed it up with a close ratio 3 speed with an 11 inch heavy duty truck clutch and a 3.52 ratio posi rearend. The only thing I could not beat was those 413 Wedge Dodges with 4-speeds. They would always beat me the last two car lengths of the quarter mile.
I had a '66 Chevelle with the 275 hp version of the 327 mated to a Saginaw 4 spd trans. With 307 gears it wasn't the quickest but I could outrun the muscle cars on the open road. Much fun!!
The 400 was great in pickups all during the 70's, I knew several folks that had them and used them in their snow plowing trucks and they were torque monsters!
Had a high nickel 400, 40 over. Kept it 6 years without building it. Went LS, sold the 400 block as is for 50 bucks more than I paid for it. There was no shortage of interested buyers.
My favorite small block. A few mods and it will pump out the torque then the horsepower. I used them on the dirk track for years. A couple 406 lower cost builds, then an all out race 421 stroker. 73 feature wins in a 5 year period with a 400 engine.
I had a 72 4dr hardtop Caprice with the 400 small block in it when I was younger. What a great car! Smooth and comfortable with plenty of power for everyday driving. I miss it.
SBC 400. The basis for many drag racing engines. The 2 bolt main blocks were stronger than the 4 bolts because the larger main journals of the 400 necessitated the inner cap bolts to be farther apart than the 350 and that put them closer to the outer bolts and the main saddle of the block tended to crack between the holes. I built a .030" over 4.155" bore 400 with the longer 5.7" 350 rods, 14.7 to 1 compression and the stock cast crankshaft and turned it 7,600 rpm's for 2 years in a drag car and it never popped. I sold the long bock to a friend and he ran it for another season and a half before one of the 292 turbo angle plug heads finally cracked. Those things weren't built for high performance use but they sure held up well with minimal upgrades...👍
Wow I have one built just like that. Runs on alcohol. The 292 were the original over the counter race heads. Got two pair. Also made a 377 which ran 8000rpm for a year.
@@edwardkveton3410 Yep. After the 292s the first generation Bowtie heads came out. I had an early small journal .060" over 327 that I turned 8k + on the street in an M22 4 spd. 71' Z28. That was a fun car.
My grandparents had one in a 1975 wagon. I remember taking vacations in that car and it was comfortable, but my grandfather constantly complained about the gas mileage and oil consumption.
My grandfather bought a new 1972 Impala Estate Wagon with the 400 and loved it. Great low end and mileage averaged around 12 - 14, not bad for the land yacht that it was. My dad got a 1973 model of the same 400 2bbl wagon and hated it. Seven mpg city or highway and it would usually ‘diesel’ for a while after the ignition was turned off. Never could get the problem properly diagnosed. Passed my 1st DMV driving test in it, parallel parking was fun!
It did have torque. As a child, my mom's '75 Caprice Classic coupe (400ci 4-bbl) would chirp the tires when shifting into 2nd and 3rd gear at full throttle. It developed an issue with hot starts, though.
@@forterierocksEmissions. In 1970 a rule came down that anything under 400 cubic inches had to be emissions equipped. They bored the 396 to a 402 to skirt regulations, and often marketed it as a 396 to appeal to the image that it had on the street.
This is a bit confusing as I heard or read that the original 396 always WAS a 402 but because of the GM mandate at the time, only full-size vehicles were authorized to exceed 400 cu. in. engines. Reportedly, Chevy just called that engine a 396 to bend the rules. I’m certain Adam likely knows the whole story.
@@Primus54 I don't think that is right. I believe what @richardyokom9282 wrote is correct. The original Chevy 396 had bore at 4.094 in and stroke at 3.760 in. The 402 cu in engine (marketed as 396) had the same stroke with a bore at 4.124 in.
@@Primus54 In 1970, Chevy bored out the 396 cid big blocks by 0.03” from 4.094” to 4.125”, which raised the total displacement to 402 cid. Pretty much everything else stayed the same internally. One other change though was the spark plugs, which got a new seating design for 1970.
My opinion on GM labeling the small and big block both a 400 is because they already had the cool chrome placards with 400 printed on them and GM is always looking to save a dollar and probably didn't want to make a 402 placard. 🤣🤣
It was also done in 72 on the Caprice two door. I had one in High School and hated that I ever got rid of it. Lady pulled out in front of me and it kinked the frame where it bends in front of the firewall along with destroying the front clip. Could have been fixed but kept the engine and TH400 and put it in a 78 Cutlass body. Then when my young and dumb self totaled that, I sold the engine and trans to a guy that put it in a 71 Camaro. @@silicon212
I had a 78 GMC Jimmy with the 400 small block with 4 bbl quadrajet and dual exhaust. There wasn't a catalytic converter or air pump manifold. The engine was factory rated at 185 hp. I loved that truck. Thanks!
And I had a '77 Chevy Blazer with the 400 and 4 barrel quadrajet. Started everyday no matter the outside temp; always smooth as silk and idled beautifully. Absolutely loved that vehicle and wish I had it back.
Had a '77 Chevy Van, "one ton" with no cat or air pump. I believe that year in the van they were officially 177hp but it was surprisingly fast for a huge heavy vehicle!
By 74 Chevy had lowered the compression ratio to about 8:1 for unleaded gas and with some new emission controls it just choked those motors. Under the old leaded gas tuning that motor probably would have been around 225 to 245 HP
My father bought his father's 1976 two-tone green chevy K10 (full time 4wd) that grandpa had bought new. 400 small block. He rebuilt it himself in 1995 with 215,000 miles on it. Had it til he passed in 2020. My dad loved that truck😢. He so badly wanted to do a complete restoration not only 'cause he loved it but it was his father's. He had many of the doors, fenders,etc bought. He loved🙂 telling me stories of running into a guy who would see his "half ton" but then see the 400 badge in the grill and say "oh,this has the 400 !" My dad would smile ear to ear "yep, it sure does, all original".
400 4 bbl. Carb on my dads '76. And bigger radiator 4 row I think that came as a heavy duty cooling option. He loved explaining how the 4wd full time worked, how it was nice, but they could spin independent of each other "see, then I can even pull 'er into 4 wheel high lock"
I once got a ride in a '70 Caprice- circa 1980- with the 400 small block. And yes, I will always remember how rhat car just boltie away from a stop sign with little fuss and no noise. The way it pulled it was hard to believe you were in maybe a 4400 pound car, but that is a lot of cubes to move the tonnage. A great ride before fuel started going up like a rocket.
One factor that made the 400 sbc less popular for aftermarket and performance use was a less advantageous rod angle as compared to the 350. This meant some limitations for higher hp, higher rpm applications.
@@Shaft-Industries You are correct, but back in the early days of the 400 SBC, due partially to the reason I described, people just found it easier to use a 350. Nowadays, at least since the 90s or so it hasn't been an issue, but the 400 didn't take off right away in its history for this reason.
@@howebrad4601 Yeah, that's probably another reason there are a ton of 383's out there. You get the stroke of a 400 but can still use your factory rods and still achieve more torque.
My folks had a Canadian built 1972 Pontiac Catalina with the 400 c.i. engine. The car was the very definition of "lemon," but the engine ran forever with never a problem.
I guess that might have been the same small block engine discussed in this video, since Canadian Pontiacs of that era used Chevrolet engines. But, wasn't the Canadian model which was comparable to the American Catalina, named Pontiac Strato Chief or Laurentian? I didn't think the Catalina name was used in Canada.
@@TonyM132 The car was built in Ontario for the American market. It was ordered for stock by a dealer in Marietta, Ohio, where my folks bought it new, after the '73s had come out. They got quite a discount.
@@tombrown1898 Oh, I see. In that case, it shouldn't have been the Chevrolet small block 400. It should have been the Pontiac 400, a totally different engine.
@@TonyM132 Okay, that makes sense. All I knew is that it was a 400. When we'd had it for just two weeks, I was driving along at 35 mph, and half the transmission dropped onto the pavement. Shortly after that, the differential crashed. It was under warranty, but these moments were harbingers of more to come!
In 1974, my dad bought a Pontiac Laurentian station wagon in Canada with a 400 4 barrel small block. It looked exactly like the engines in this video. Never had any issues with the engine other than the trans cooler leaked in the rad and the block had to be rinsed.
They’re far from forgotten. Everyone I know talks about wanting to use a 400 for a build. Heck I’ve used one. Turned a 400 into a 409 stroker for my Z28 Camaro. The engine was a torque monster when it started out, and it remains one after it’s built.
Hey my airborne friend the 409 Chevy engine block was a whole different thing by the way buddy looks like you need to do some research on it that motor was a motor designed after the first generation of the big block Chevy motors like the 348,409's in the early part of the 60's first placed in heavy duty truck application and they later in the same decade they were also being used in the early Chevy Impala,s maybe you are just too young to remember them car's 🤭🙄
A 409 Chevy motor would have metal valve covers that are shaped like a w and it would be a big big block Chevy motor from the 60,s late 50,s so I highly doubt that you have a 348 or a 409 big block Chevy motor from that time period it's highly unlikely
I had two 1973 full-size wagons, both with the 400 small block. The lightly equipped Impala (A/C, tilt, power tailgate) had lower gearing and felt almost sprightly. The fully loaded Caprice Estate had highway gearing, and of course more weight, and really needed more engine. But both were smooth and utterly reliable.
Do you recall what rear end was in them?I recall reading that on the 60’s models,if you ordered it with the towing package(ball hitch connected to frame) they came with the 12 bolt posi.I don’t remember what or if it mentioned 70’s but it would have gone to the 10 bolt I imagine but I’ll take a10 bolt posi any day.actually I did take one.lol
I had a 400 Small Block out of an Impala in my 69 Chevelle to replace a 6 cylinder. Mild build made 420 hp and 470 lb ft in 1984, it won me a few street races since back then everyone with 200 hp thought they had a 12 second car.
Had a 400 in a '77 3/4 ton pickup. Plenty of power, but had problems with starter& ring gear on flex plate. Changed several of each. Carried a big screwdriver to turn flywheel past area where teeth were ground off.
Lot of people think the 2 Bolts were the better block to use in a high performance application becasue the 4 bolts would crack. My experience with these engines is that most of them will crack in the valley in the 450HP area. That's an easy number to hit with today's aftermarket heads and roller cams. They do make good low end power in stock form though and weigh no more than a 350.
Ive never heard of these blocks cracking in that area. We ran a factory 400 block in our Altered making 600 plus hp on alcohol with no issues of cracking. 14.7:1 compression and routinely run in the upper 7000 rpm range. We ultimately replaced it with an aftermarket block in preparation for a supercharger, knowing the stock main cap would never take what was coming.
I should have watched the whole video first. I had no idea they were advertising the 396/402 as a 400, that's crazy. Another very informative video. I'm 48. My dad loved chevys, I had never heard or seen that before. (P.s. guys should save all that old literature, any & all of it, there's such good stuff in that literature. My dad saved a fair amount of that type of stuff from dealerships. Just don't throw it away, put it online for a penny, or a flea market.)
I enjoy all of your spotlight or all of your videos. I look forward to any video you make. I like it when you have guests and I enjoy your porch chats.
My Pop owned a '72 Blazer w/ one of those 400 C.I.D. small blocks and it was definitely a torque monster, as it would/could spin those 30" tires w/o much effort. That Quadra-jet on top didn't hurt, w/ those massive secondaries kicking you in the pants each time you stomped the GO pedal.
I had a 73 Caprice Coupe with the 400. It already had a 4bbl intake and Qjet on it when I bought it in 1993. It ran okay,but I added a new cam, timing gear and HEI distributor. I took it drag racing and it ran 16.0 on the 1/4 mile.
I've known about the 400sbc since I was 15@1988 my best friend put one in his 80 Z28 with a 750 Holley torker2 intake big cam and headers it was very fast! I'll never forget the power from that 400sbc!
I had a '77 Chevy van with the 400 - 4 barrel. I had several people tell me that they were prone to overheating. I never had that problem with it. Shortly after I bought it, I did have several push rods get bent, and I didn't mistreat it. Replaced them and it ran great. Just one of several vehicles I wish I'd kept a little longer.
I still run the 400 sbc on the street today.It is still boss N/A.Fitted with AFR heads and all the basic goodies this old 68 is still a threat to any new sports car,mustang,hellcat,Camaro,ex ex on the streets.N/A LS pull up on me all the time.Lol the grin on my face when the light turns green.🤩💀👊
I built a 400 sb & installed it in my’69 Camaro. 1971 engine with 4 bolt main brg. Caps out of a Kings wood estate wagon . Very nice build - While I was a tech at Chevrolet. Many great trips In the car ! Many offers to buy it …. Kept it !
My uncle had a 1972 Impala with this 400. We were out in the Nevada desert with a stuck thermostat. It was overheated for only a few minutes, but that was enough to cause some damage. When we got back to town, we immediately noticed a rough idle, probably from the brief overheat.
I had a 1972 3/4 ton big block 400 It was a camper special with overloads ,with full power steering and power brakes you could drive it with one finger ,but if I had the camper off of it I could pull out on Monterey hwy and smoke the tires for as long as I held the throttle to the floor ,it was forest green ,with 2in tubes and a holly 750 it run like no other stock pickup around and averaged 15 mpg on the hyway awesome truck could haul anything and with a full size camper and pulling my 18 ft boat ,I could pass anything on the road couldn't even feel that boat behind me passing big rigs on my way to clearlake ,yes it was one bad ass truck ran like a scalded dog ,dam fast 👍
I was given a 400 back in the 80s and originally had no real intention on building it at first. My dad has his all original 72 caprice with a 400 2v. I also obtained a 72 nova in trade for building a th350 for a friend's Camaro, and it was then when i decided to put the 400 in the Nova as the engine was removed. Bored it .020 over and used hyperutectic pistons along with cranes hmv-272 cam, didn't go too crazy since the car had to smog here in California. Just told the shop it was a 350 engine and had a q jet as they wouldn't know what it really was. Passed smog, and the car dynoed out at 373 ft lbs at 2k rpm and an honest 300 at 5k. Very broad power range but it was a very fun car to drive. Would wind up twisting a factory axle on a 2.73 one legger 10 bolt but the car at 25 mph could scratch the tire with the snap of the throttle.
When I was younger, I had a 1977 Chevy Monte Carlo with a 305. When that engine wore out, I replaced it with a 400. But not just any 400. I got a 400 short-block (engine minus heads) from GM parts counter. I modified a set of 2.02 valve heads by adding the steam hole put those on the 400. Then I used the stock 350 L82 camshaft and a 4-barrel quadra-jet and manifold. I figured using production parts would help reliability. I also changed the rear end in the Monte from a 2.73:1 ratio to a 3.55:1 ratio and added posi-traction. That Monte-Carlo scooted. It embarrassed the production Corvettes of the late 1970s and early 1980s. What I essentially had done is made a 400 CID version of the L82 350 used in Corvettes and worked great. It didn't stretch or stress the 400 CID engine and it drove for 60,000 or 70,000 miles that way until the car changed hands to someone else.
Had one in a 1974 Chevelle in the 1980's. It came with a 400, 2 bolt, 2 barrel. There were main caps available with splayed outer bolts to convert the 2 bolt to 4 bolt. Much better than the factory 4 bolts which notoriously cracked in the main web. Many don't know the 3 bolt 400 block was better than the 4 bolt. I had a forged 327 crank in it with the rod journals reground off center for a stroke increase. Had to grind the shoulders off the rod bolts to clear the block. With aluminum corvette heads, intake, cam, forged pistons, and a good 4 barrel, it was a torque monster. I wish I had that car today. Most that I tell about that motor don't believe it. I don't remember what it cubed out to, but it was a big block killer. I put a 12 bolt posi in it and a TH400 with a manual valve body. It would slam you into the seat easily. You had to respect the throttle on that thing. I would love to replicate that car, or find it is it still exists. I built that motor in a dirt floor garage and had a local race shop do all the machining. I had driven the car stock in my senior year of high school. Lots of guys made fun of it because it was a 74 and not a 69 or 70. Building it up was a dream come true project when I was just out of high school. Nobody made fun of it after that.
My parents had this engine in a Caprice Classic. It hauled that heavy car through the steepest of mountains without effort. It pushed that heavy car through uphill highways like they were flat. It idled so smoothly in traffic that it felt like it wasn't running. You didn't need to know the temperature because it would not overheat even in the hottest of days while powering through the above 3 conditions. Best of all, you didn't need to fear the fuel gauge either because the cost of a gallon was 33 cents.
We had a 70’s Belair station wagon we named the dinosaur as it was green. It had a sbc 400 with a two barrel with 400 emblems on each front fender. It was a great first car for me. It’s a bucket list item for me to build a 400 engined project car!
Love your channel and your amazing knowledge and insight of the Automotive Industry. Those Bob Lutz interviews are so enlightening as I spent 25years ,1975-2000, selling Chrysler Products. Recently built a 400 small block 2 bolt main for my 1972 Chevy C10 Pickup. It has 9.2 compression ratio with a .30 bore, so now 406 cu. in , and used a flat tapet cam as well. Installed this summer using the original Q-Jet which was tore down completely and rebuilt have put about 1000 miles on the truck now and am very happy with this torquey engine.
People forget that engines in this size and displacement range weren't intended for performance, they were intended as uplevel powertrain options in sedans and trucks (Ford's 390 FE is the classic example of this). Seems an obvious point, but you'd be surprised how many people can't distinguish the difference in that era between a basic high torque large displacement engine, and a legit Hi Po engine.
Back then, an amazing number of full-size cars were outfitted with tow packages for pulling pop-ups and smaller travel trailers, so torque-heavy engines were definitely popular.
Great point. Thats why it was used largely in station wagons and K series (4WD) trucks. Had torque for pulling and low end needs. It was the goldilocks between the 350 and 454.
The car i learned to drive in, AND drove to prom was a 1964 Impala 4door post sedan. It had a transplanted 4bbl400 sbc/th350 from a truck.. That mutha was a beast.
I put that 400ci into a 4x4 LUV. Damn that was fast - but never could get past the overheating. Larger radiator, headers, louvered hood all helped but didn't cure it. Kept it for 20+ years.
I’m still perplexed at what a masterpiece the SBC was, it was a home run and a great package that managed to be small and compact, lightweight, cheap to produce, very durable and robust, breathed well and made great power and economy, and was designed in a way that was very ingenious about super easy repair and serviceability, my favorite design feature was the stand-alone design of the water pump that only had 4 bolts and two very small and simple gaskets, unlike literally any other V8 on the market that was integrated with a dozen or more tiny screws prone to snapping off, and several other larger bolts of varying confusing diameters and lengths. All other designs for V8 water pumps were stupid by comparison, with countless failure points that can allow coolant to intrude into the crankcase because the coolant passages went through the timing covers as well as the water pump. Sheer stupidity on the part of engineers for all those other V8 designs- I’ve worked on all of them, and all of those integrated front cover designs were either a stupid and obvious oversight, or an intentional one to encourage engine failure. The ball stud rockers were awesome as well, and the fact the SBC had 5 head bolts surrounding every combustion chamber, while most other V8 designs only had 4 surrounding each chamber. First gen olds rocket is excluded from that, as those actually had 6 bolts surrounding each combustion chamber, which made them an excellent choice for supercharging in the early days of hot rodding. 🤘🏾🤘🏾🤘🏾
@@harveynewman4333 amen, the design genius of Ed Cole and the team that designed the SBC is pretty legendary. As a huge fan and owner of several first gen Olds V8’s I can’t help but spot several design similarities the early Olds 303-324-371-394 had with the SBC. The stuff that came out of GM in that era was definitely the golden age.
We had a 74 BelAir station wagon with the 400. It had freeway gearing so the rpm stayed pretty low so that boat was smooth and quiet. Even when we took trailers to the dump it was a comfortable ride and had no problem pulling a several thousand pound trailer. We would open the rear gate and watch the fireworks while lying in the back. The strange rear window raked forward so far it was like not having a roof. In all it was a really good, but ugly, car.
I believe Chevrolet was playing small games with their advertised engine sizes for a little while during that era. The 396 big block was actually a 402. Anecdotally, a friend of mine was building a 396 for one of his friend’s Chevelles, and when calculating the engine displacement to calculate compression ratio, couldn’t figure out why he kept coming up with 402. I have heard rumors that Chevrolet did this for insurance purposes. I have heard other rumors that it was done due to some internal GM restrictions on engine size. Why they would go on to confuse people with a small block 400 that was actually a 401 and a big block 400 that was previously known as a 396 and was actually a 402 is beyond me. Lol
The 400 isn't way far off when you get down to brass tacks. It's the same bore & stroke as a Pontiac 400. There are other more obvious examples. Pontiac 301 is 4.00 X 3.00 like a ford 302, but called it to make it different. Best example 😅 no one ever talks about. A Pontiac 350 is bore 3 7/8 (listed as 3.875,,,sometimes 3.88) & stroke of 3.75. I think its 354.7 cid (haven't done the math in a while,but Pontiac mags talked about it too. Still called it a 350, the name was popular ,4 GM divisions had 350s
Because most car buyers are hardly aware there is even an engine under the hood. Its just some hazy black magic kind of thing that makes their car move down the road somehow. They dont like to think about it. It makes their head hurt. And these people vote.....lol
I had a 1971 Impala coupe with a 400. It was an incredibly torquey, and very thirsty motor. You could watch the gas gauge twitch towards E as you drove.
Thank you. I've been waiting for this video for about a year now. I have a 400 small block. 1973 year. I've owned it since 1986. Its been excellent. Never any issues besides a timing chain and gear set. It has over 200,000 thou on it today. I love my 400. Oh and it has excellent torque.the engine is is in my 1980 monte carlo. It has a 2bbl carb stock. I can break the one wheel wonder loose at 25mph. Thats the truth. Oh and its 100% bone stock.
Had a good friend in high school that had a 72 Caprice with a 400. Yanked the 2 barrel off, did some bowl work on the heads and put a factory iron intake with a quadrajet back on it. Swapped the points for hei ignition and it was a monster. Stock cam and rotating assembly even. Don't remember the EXACT numbers but a before and after 0-60 went from almost 11.5 seconds down to 8ish. The 400 wad a sadly overlooked engine.
As for gross to net hp comparison: Check out the 1971 Chevrolet sales brochure of that year. It lists the gross AND net HP for the 400: 255 gross, 170 net for the Turbo-Fire (which was the small block) and 300 vs. 206 for the Turbo-Jet (which was the big block and actually a 402).
Great video on one of the least known small-block Chevrolet V8 engines. I never had a vehicle with the 400 engine, but my first car had the 307 small block engine. Although not a performance engine, it introduced me to the merits of all Chevrolet small block V8 engines: bulletproof reliability, durability, simplicity, and low-cost maintenance.
I put a mildly rebuilt 400 small block in a 1977 down sized 4 door Impala 😮 with headers and dual exhaust! It surprised a few Trans Ams, Camaros, and Corvettes 😅. Oh it also had a 600 cfm Holley 4bbl.
I had the 1972 Caprice with the 400ci with 4-bolt mains. It was twice the fun after adding dual exhausts. When I traded the car in 1989, it was sold and it vanished before I signed the papers for the new car.
My grandfather had a '75 or '75 Caprice with the 400 small block in it. He bought it new and it supposedly had the police interceptor version in it. I was too you to drive it but Grandpa loved it. He bought a new '82 Electra with a 307 to replace it and the Electra was so much slower that he kept on driving the Caprice! We'd go out to visit him and the old Chevy would be under the carport while the new Buick sat out in the sun.
Very true. I recently encountered a "Chevy enthusiast" who insisted that the 400 was big-block only, when I suggested that they must have been trying to save a few pennies per fender badge...
I love giving know it all's more bad information. like when my 62 yo neighbor asked me who won the civil war, or telling people that the world was black @ white before the atomic bomb was dropped in 45
About 10 years ago my son and I built a 70 Chevelle with a SBC 400. We bored it .030, forged pistons, Edelbrock heads, air-gap intake. Trans was TH400 with a 12 bolt diff. with a 3.31 posi. That car was a blast to drive.
The 400 got a bad rap for the siameese bores and cracking but it's essentially a 396 big block in a 350 small block package. I run an aftermarket 400 in a lightweight Nova and it's the perfect street strip set up because it has way more power than a factory 454 big block offered, yet it is lighter as it has an aluminum upper end to help keep the weight on the nose down.
After graduation, I drove a 79 Chevy G20 3/4 ton delivery van with the 400 sbc for a printing company. Well I would occasionally have to race against other delivery drivers and I tell you the truth, I never lost to another delivery driver. Racing a 260Z in Pasadena Texas, a MC cop came after us and 260 turned left and I turned right. He went after the Z car and I skated through the neighborhood. I basically had a lot of fun driving the 400.
We had a 74 malibu with the 350 2v and friends had a 73 impala with the 400 2v. Despite the extra girth, whenever we did for fun the stoplight grand prix in the local high school parking lot, I'd get the jump on the Impala initially but just a few feet later it'd catch up and outpace me every time.
I owned a 1970 Skkylark convertible with a 400ci. It was a great car that I wish I had never sold . It's still on the road and I parked next to it at a car show 2 weeks ago.
I had a 400ci in my 1977 K20. It spent a large amount of its life pulling a 16.5’ gooseneck trailer that routinely hauled 400 bushels (22,400 lbs.) of corn. The only thing I wish I’d have done was put traction bars on rear axle. The motor was a workhorse for me and always answered the call. No complaints.
When I was younger everyone wanted a 400 small block to build and put into their car. That was the tail end of the old school of thought that “there’s no replacement for displacement”.
The Tonawanda 400 with the double hump heads, a Saginaw M20 4 speed, and a Chevy 4.11 rear end needs ZERO modification, especially to be driven on the road. My brother has a 64 Impala SS with this setup and in the late 80's the fastest manual Mustang 5.0 would be completely embarrassed from stand still, first to 60, or even starting at 60. The engine and transmission put so much torque to the rear that the first rear end he ran, a 3.73, twisted and shattered not long after he first built the car. Probably the scariest car I've even been in because a takeoff that fast with a top end to fast to handle in a car that big is just an eerie feeling!
@@anthonynelson9136 Dude seriously... None of that is factory for his car. Was saying the engine, transmission, and rear end he used all needed no modification from how they came from the factory. THE CAR came with a 327, 3 speed Saginaw on the tree, and 3.36 rear end. He still has them all because of their original matching numbers.
In 1986 ( new zealand ) I bought a 1974 Holden Monaro 2 door coupe , from the factory it would have come with a 253 CI v8 ( maybe 308 ?) but it had a 400CI 2 barrel Chevy put into it , and a 4 speed Saginaw ,with a Mr Gasket quick change shifter . The only v8 I,d owned beforehand was a 318 Chrysler, and I remember the first time I let the clutch out in the Monaro and felt the power , I thought " I better be careful with this " . I dont know if it may have had something done to it to increase the I horsepower , I'd been told that it had been rebuilt by someone in a local hot rod club and the prior owner of the Monaro won it in a raffle, but it had a perfectly smooth idle, so obviously not a very hot cam , but by god it was torquey and pretty damn fast .
Never had a car with this engine but I had a 1977 Olds 98 Regency with the 403. That car really had it going on with put you back in the seat power that often surprised passengers enjoying the luxe comfort of my man cave on wheels. Suckers to the side!
Hi Adam from Australia, we had quite a few 307, 327 and 350 SBC engines installed in local Holden products in the late 60's to early Seventies. A lot of these engines were also imported privately for marine, hot rodding and retro fitting to older/ newer cars. Almost no 400 SBC engines were imported, the reason being they had an incorrect "connecting rod to stroke ratio" ( the angle of the connecting rod is too extreme when the piston is halfway down the cylinder so the combustion pressure is spending to much energy pushing the piston sideways into the cylinder wall rather than down on the crankshaft) and no decent power gains could be attained. The after market companies knew this, this is why back in the day, stroker cranks for 350 SBC's were limited to 383 C.I., the absolute limit for a usable connecting rod to stroke ratio on a standard SBC.
Very interesting information indeed. I owned one small block 400 & had always been impressed with how it ran but always did feel that the 327 was really the "sweet spot" among the various iterations of the small block Chevys. Seemed to be the best one for achieving high RPMs & high HP/Cubic in. 350, a little less so & 400, definitely not so much.
383's were based on .030 overbore 350 blocks with 400 crank with main journals turned down to 2.45. 350 blocks bored .060 over with 400 crank would be 388 cubic inches. So 383 is no absolute limited magic number. Rod ratio is the same.
@@ewoodWood I'm talking about Australia back in the 80's and 90's. There were no 400ci chev cranks here back then!. If you wanted to go bigger on your SBC (at a reasonable price) then a stroker kit was your only option, at least two (U.S.) companies supplied them and both were 383CI (without counting an overbore obviously) For the reasons I mentioned above.
The 383 is a 350 with the 400 stroke and rod length. Time to look again at what you had stated. And yes, the rod/stroke ratio isn't ideal, but it sure appears to work in that case. @@indykartsindoorgokarting6711
4 bolt main bearing block 3 freeze plugs per side 2 bolt block 2 freeze plugs per side with a boss for the 3rd freeze plug in the middle (not machined) having worked in a machine shop I've seen hundreds of sb 400s but never a 2 bolt block with 3 freeze plugs people say they're some out there but never seen one from what I've read the 4 bolt 3 freeze plug motors they only came in trucks for 2 years only although undesirable they are rare
I assume you know the reason for the different front balancer and also different flex plate/flywheel. for the sb 400 of course they are externally balanced some of the 400s our shop worked on had destroyed main bearings and sometimes even a broken crank due to using a non-balanced flywheel /flex plate
I remember in 400 small block. I also kicked myself for not buying that 1971 Chevy truck with 400 small-block about 10 years ago and basically had no rust. If I recall correctly it was a 3/4 ton truck. But I didn't want to drive all the way out to Southeastern Kansas to pick up two vehicles! Once I got then pick up the 57 Chevy that we won on auction, I saw that truck and you as well kick myself for a very long time. Because it looked a lot better than pictures showed. Thank you for doing this on a Chevy 400 small block. I'm still love to have one but at time goes. 5.3 you just find any day of the week.
Beleve me. Thet engine has not be forgotten. In Sweden ponycars was running high 9s on the quartermile with the right omunt of massage of the sbc400 and nitrous. We will NOT forget that machine
Chevys 400SBs were one of the best ever built and best bang for the buck. Cheaper, easyier to modify and get more power out of them than the expensive 402BB smogger engine that you have to spend tons of money on to raise the compression, Its easy to build a 10 to one compression 400SB, RV cam it with a 4 barrel daul plane intake and small tube headers and you got a real torque monster for cheap for towing. Id take a 400sb over a 402BB any day. Ive got about a dozen of them and all standard bore and I only bore them .020 if they clean up on the first try. Some say they have heating issues, crack heads etc is all bullshit. After 74 they used lighter casting heads on them with catalic converters which could cause more heating issues. One thing to note 1970 was the only year of the 9 to 1 compression 400, after than they dropped it to 8.5 and even lower in the 70s. 1970 was the only year of the 400s that used the 598 head castings that used 1.94 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves, hard heads to track down. The 5.565 connecting rods wasnt that big of a deal for low rpms and torque. 5.7 or 6.0 inch rods can be updated for higher rpm 400s. Theres alot of faults information out there that 400s were junk this and that bullshit, them same people really didnt know shit about them, the few guys that did know them hoarded them all up like I did. My plan is to build another one for a pulling truck in the near future with custom ground roller cam setup, near 10 to one compression and run 91 octane gas. Thinking of using a 4 bolt block if I can but have more 2 bolts than 4.
My mother had a '72 4-door Impala with the 400 SB, 2bbl. Dad bought it as a dealer "demonstrator" model, something he often did. It was a great car. I remember "demonstrator" vehicles offered and advertised as such as a kid, in the 1960's and 1970s, but I don't recall hearing about them nowadays.
I build one for my former 1971 Malibu. I figured why go through the extra expense of building a 350 into a 383? I topped it off with a Quadrajet. I had a torquer for sure. I added a slightly hotter cam to bring in some horsepower too. I put in some heads with larger valves and, of course, drilled for steam holes.
To make it a stroker conversion your gonna need a different crank shaft a duh 🙄 duh dude combine a 400 Chevy crank shaft and a 350 Chevy motor block and then bore it over.030. over then you will have a 383 Chevy stroker conversion hmmm 🤔 ok what a pathetic bunch of people lmao 😂
