Post your favorite Mopar Myth.

The 396 is not the smallest chebbie big block. It's the 366 heavy duty truck engine. Also, the way I heard the older guys at the chebbie dealer where I worked say......In late 69, there were several thousand 396 blocks "accidentally" over bored. Thus, the 402 was born and it replaced the 396 for the 70 model year. In small (Camaro,Nova) Intermediate (Chevelle, Malibu) cars, it was still labeled as the 396, but in big cars and trucks, they got 400 badges. Still under the hood on the emissions decals it said "402 cubic inches".

krazykuda said

No, the 396 and 400 Chevy are different blocks all together.

The 396 is the "smallest" of the big block Chevy.

The 400 was a small block 350 bored out to 400. It was known for thin cylinder walls and wasn't good for durability.

The 409's weren't durability engines. The piston skirts were too short and they had a problem with "piston ****" and excessive bore wear. Hard to get them over 100,000 miles. When they ran, they ran good, but not good for the long haul.

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