400 to 512 Build

-
Good to hear the block was good. Just wondering, is there a low deck aftermarket block available???
 
Hey, Ram,

Pat's tunnel ram looks like a piece of art. I know he put a lot of thought into developing it. I would definitely buy one, but my 'Cuda will be street only and I am afraid the manifold would require a more radical cam than I need.
 
Fishbreath, the split tunnel design should really help keep the torque up at lower rpms.
 
Sounds like the build is movein' right along... I may try building one of those 400 strokeeeeeeeer motors after I grenade a couple 383's...
 
I never did mess with the 400's, are thay thin wall casting blocks?? Going from 400 to a 512 just blows my freakin' mind... Are you going to hardblock it up the the frost plug holes??
 
greenhornet said:
I never did mess with the 400's, are thay thin wall casting blocks?? Going from 400 to a 512 just blows my freakin' mind... Are you going to hardblock it up the the frost plug holes??
Click to expand...

As far Mopar blocks go, let's put it this way.... There are no "Thick Wall" castings 440, 400, 383 or otherwise. No need for a half fill as the brunt of the cylinder pressure is at the top 1/3 of the cylinder anyway. I never did get that train of thought. Good pistons, rods and crank with everything in line (block machining) are more important in that order IMHO.

400's have a massive stock bore of 4.340" vs. the 440 at 4.320". The 400 smog engine would really be a great roundy round engine as it stands with the 4.340" bore and 3.375" stroke if it ever came with decent heads and compression ratio, plus the excellent rod ratio Ma Mopar gave it just for fun.

ace26 said:
Hi all, thought i would throw this out there about the 400 blocks and such as I also have a 400/512 in the works. http://www.440source.com/blockinfo.htm Some good info in this article about big blocks.Good luck with your build BTW.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ace, and I hope we both eat camaros and mustangs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. :read2:
 
4.25 stroke right? My 470 will be in the same area for hp.
 
ace26 said:
Hi all, thought i would throw this out there about the 400 blocks and such as I also have a 400/512 in the works. http://www.440source.com/blockinfo.htm Some good info in this article about big blocks.Good luck with your build BTW.
Click to expand...

That was an interesting read.... Wonder why everyone else came up with a thin wall casting theory except 440source..... Thay did say the older blocks had 10% harder iron... Maybe thats why the thin wall casting theory got started...
 
needsaresto said:
4.25 stroke right? My 470 will be in the same area for hp.
Click to expand...

Yep. :read2:

greenhornet said:
That was an interesting read.... Wonder why everyone else came up with a thin wall casting theory except 440source..... Thay did say the older blocks had 10% harder iron... Maybe thats why the thin wall casting theory got started...
Click to expand...

Could be. What these guys were pouring into what sand castings back in the polyester days is up in the air as far as I'm concerned. Total crap shoot, that's why I had the block sonic tested.
 
ramcharger said:
As far Mopar blocks go, let's put it this way.... There are no "Thick Wall" castings 440, 400, 383 or otherwise. No need for a half fill as the brunt of the cylinder pressure is at the top 1/3 of the cylinder anyway. I never did get that train of thought. Good pistons, rods and crank with everything in line (block machining) are more important in that order IMHO.

400's have a massive stock bore of 4.340" vs. the 440 at 4.320". The 400 smog engine would really be a great roundy round engine as it stands with the 4.340" bore and 3.375" stroke if it ever came with decent heads and compression ratio, plus the excellent rod ratio Ma Mopar gave it just for fun.



:read2:
Click to expand...
What do you think about girdles?? Main cap ones, that is...:toothy10:
 
inkjunkie said:
What do you think about girdles?? Main cap ones, that is...:toothy10:
Click to expand...

Only if they attach to half black nylons, lol.

But back to reallity, the massive stock mains and deep block configuration I think will be fine to my self impossed limit of 6700 rpm with a hp peak in the 6300-6400 rpm range with an auto trans and slicks.

Manual trans, slicks and 200 shot? It would be a really good idea but then again a person would be in aftermarket block range.
 
Could be. What these guys were pouring into what sand castings back in the polyester days is up in the air as far as I'm concerned. Total crap shoot, that's why I had the block sonic tested.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, you were lucky you didn't find a saturday night fever 8-track in that oil pan when you tore it down ;)

I've heard some wild tails about those old mopar assembly lines..
 
greenhornet said:
Yeah, you were lucky you didn't find a saturday night fever 8-track in that oil pan when you tore it down ;)

I've heard some wild tails about those old mopar assembly lines..
Click to expand...

I can only hope for some "wild tail", lol. :toothy10:

I call that "Rounding Up Some Muffalope" here in Colorado, lol.
 
I hope all is well Joe, looks like 9/11 was your last post here.
I hope you are getting a few things dun and working your a$$ off that you don't have time to jump back in here.
A few other folks have pm'ed me and has been concerned about your where about's brother 8)
 
memike said:
I hope all is well Joe, looks like 9/11 was your last post here.
I hope you are getting a few things dun and working your a$$ off that you don't have time to jump back in here.
A few other folks have pm'ed me and has been concerned about your where about's brother 8)
Click to expand...

All is good Mike! Working 12 hours a day, taking care of the dogs and myself has been eating up all of my time. I've been working most weekends too and the remainder of the weekend time I sleep and do laundry, pay bills, etc.

Work has slowed a bit so I had a chance to pick up my block from DC Racing. In addition to DC being so busy, the guy that baked and cleaned up my block passed away in his sleep so there was a big delay there while his brother took over the shop. God Rest his Soul.

The block looks great and I have the sonic test graphic from DC that I'll scan and post here shortly. I also made a couple of changes to my build after conferencing with Dave from DC when I picked up the block.

#1 I'm going with a half fill of Hard Blok. Dave said that that the minimums he listed on the graphic were mostly 4" and below on the bore and it should give me some added rigidity in case I'm inclined to add a 100 shot of n2o. I don't really think I'll need it and the first few runs are likely to make me eat the seat with my butt, but it's cheap insurance for future minor upgrades. Dave also mentioned that I should run a air hammer lightly over the block sides with an appropriate attachment after filling with hardblock to get all the bubbles out and make this stuff settle. I never would've thought of this and just goes to show that there's always something new to learn and I certainly don't know it all. He also said that it will take two weeks to cure and not to bring it in for machining until such time as passed.

#3 I'm dropping the comp ratio to 10.63:1. He said the 12.75:1 with the 108 LCA cam I chose would be too much for premium pump gas, even at this altitude with aluminum heads and a generous amount of quench. He reminded me of the large bore on a B engine and the time it takes for the flame front to travel. 11.5 would be about perfect but I wouldn't be able to pull that off without opening up the chambers or one-off custom pistons. I might be able to do this by unshrouding the valves, but I won't know for sure until the heads are in my hands. This means that I'd need to get the heads prior to getting the rotating assembly and do my calculations then. I'll post more on this if need be.

#4 A full port job shouldn't be necessary with the Victor MW heads. According to Edelbrock, they flow 322 cfm on the intake side at .600 lift so a good five angle valve job, casting clean up and some throat and bowl work and I should be good to go. I told him I got a Dana 60 for this build. He said "Good, you'll need it." :-D He also said that he was pretty excited about this build too as he's done tons of these in the past and he really wanted to see what this would do with newer heads and cam profiles that are availible now but weren't back in the 70's and eighties.

Dok X and I started evaluating the Duster this weekend. We checked for bondo and general condition and found bondo behind the rear wheels on the rear quarters (typical), but that was about it. We also found that the present engine is a 360, but in poor condition. It does have a TCI flexplate on it (I'll sell that) but there's rust on the cam, the heads are rough and there's mouse droppings and feathers IN the engine, lol. The radiator is also full of seed husks, lol. The build tag is nowhere to be found so I guess I'll never know what this thing was from the dealer other than a manual V-8 and it was gold in color.

I'll post pics of the newly cleaned B block and the sonic check graphic if work leaves me alone today. :) Since you all are into destruction I'll post pics of mouse damage and rusty LA engine parts too, lol.
 
Work didn't leave me alone yesterday, but at least I'm workin'. :)

Had a great Turkey Day today, went bowling, bowled a 135 average (not bad, I hadn't bowled in 5 years), went out with the same friends for dinner at the Summit and suprised them by taking care of the check. :cheers: Overtime has it's advantages...

Anyway, I got home and saw my B block just sitting there...... All lonely.... :-D

Fed and played with the dogs and heard the muted call of the Mopar low deck B block from the garage....fix me you mfer, it's cold in here and i need your attention... :toothy10: I opened the door, hit the lights and it said "Thank Goodness! The last nimrod that had me busted my oil filter on the frame because I had a broke motor mount and drove me home on mist and a prayer!"..... :-D

Well, after hearing all that, I figured the least I could do was put my baby on a pedestal after being all cleaned up and post some pics. :read2: Granted some of the advice I'll give here is overly simple and it's not meant to insult your intelligence. On the other hand, if some of the stuff I lay out needs more explanation, feel free to ask.

These bare blocks weigh in excess of 220 lbs. Don't be a dummy and herniate your *** getting this on a stand. Use a lift and attach with grade 8 bolts. Why grade 8? Hardware or grade 5 are sufficeint to hold the weight, BUT chances are that the original holes may be somewhat buggered and a grade 8 will just cut through. Keep in mind that a bolt holding an engine on a stand is in a single shear plane too. I don't trust hardware from Lord knows where on my stuff. It's way worth the extra buck and a half.

That lift is one of the few things I ever bought from HF that's worth a crap. I got it on sale for about 120 bucks IIRC about 6 years ago and it still works great. It folds and weight about 250 lbs. I've beat it to death and it still looks new.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0105.jpg
    117.2 KB · Views: 219
  • IMG_0106.jpg
    119.9 KB · Views: 237
  • IMG_0107.jpg
    83.7 KB · Views: 214
As promised, here's some nasty pictures of the 360 that cam with this Duster. The 2 bbl looks rebuilt and new, anyone want it? lol!

I bought this for the body thinking that the 318 in it was scrap anyway but I did a bit of checking and it's a 360.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0104.jpg
    76.9 KB · Views: 213
  • IMG_0103.jpg
    52 KB · Views: 224
  • IMG_0102.jpg
    55.3 KB · Views: 208
  • IMG_0101.jpg
    74.7 KB · Views: 208
  • IMG_0100.jpg
    128.2 KB · Views: 208
This engine was originally in a Ramcharger. Note the "T" which means truck. As far as I know, the "T" block is no different than a passenger car block. The "7" denotes a 1977 date and the "40" means "400". :)

I don't know what the rest of the numbers mean, if someone does know, please post.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0110.jpg
    76.8 KB · Views: 206
This block was cast February 5th, 1977. I was 11 years old, lol.

Note how clean the process of baking and steam cleaning got this block. It's like new!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0112.jpg
    108.2 KB · Views: 207
  • IMG_0113.jpg
    101.4 KB · Views: 200
  • IMG_0114.jpg
    95.8 KB · Views: 199
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top