Miner_Jeepy
Member
Hi everybody!
I'm here to get some advice on an engine build for my jeep j-truck ('64 J300 Project Farmtruck - International Full Size Jeep Association). If that's completely out of line given that this is for A body mopars feel free to delete the thread and ban me. Only coming here because you all have the knowledge and another forum that I posed this to didn't result in anything. I read through the "Torque Monster !" thread and it helped some but not exactly.
I picked up a 400 big block a week or so ago and am going to put it in my truck. I've read some info on building 400s and it all tends to focus around high horsepower drag cars not trucks so I'm hoping you all can help. What I have is block casting number 4006530-400-2 with a cast date of xx-11-76 or 78 and 452 heads. From what I understand the 452 heads are theoretically the "best" iron heads so it's a decent platform to start with. It came out of a farmer's barn and it all appears to be in good shape. Cylinder walls are good, one has a bit of corrosion but I think it can be cleaned up with a simple hone job or slight overbore. Cam is completely wasted so I'll be buying a new one of those and I think the crank is good. It's not completely out but where the rods attach looks fine.
The plan is to make an all out torque monster. I know Chrysler motors already are but more is better. I'd rather have 600 ft-lbs at 2,500 rpm than 600 hp at 6,500 rpm, because truck. That being said I think it'd be absurd and awesome to stroke it out between 451-512. 489 CI would put it at 8 litres which is just a solid round number. So, I want to do a stock-ish rebuild and then at a later date come back and stoke it out. I've never rebuilt an engine before so I don't want to spend money on a stroker crank and then bork it up. Below are the general plans for the builds:
Stock style rebuild - I'm assuming that the block will need to be bored out slightly which is why I have new pistons listed but if I can get away with a simple hone job I'll reuse the stock ones (assuming they're not junk). I also plan on having the machine shop check the heads over to make sure they're good. It would be fun to port the 452s but I understand that aluminum heads would have higher performance potential. If it comes back that the heads are junk I'll just buy Al heads.
452 Heads - replace worn out components (springs, valves, rockers)
cast pistons
Stock con rods
Stock forged crank
Dual plane manifold
Stock style camshaft
Hydraulic roller lifters (less cam wear, more reliability)
Stroker Build - overbuilt to not worry about needing to rebuild it once a year. Would work with 440Source to make sure all the components jive.
Aluminum Heads
Bigger cam
440source crank
Hypereutectic pistons
Forged con rods
Same intake
What would be nice is to purchase some components that would work for both builds. I'm really not sure how feasible that is though. Theoretically, things like the intake/rockers/lifters should be able to be used for both versions but would it be possible to run the same camshaft? For the stroker my plan was to get one that's farily small 230-ish @ 0.050 based on some reading about building for torque. Based on my very limited knowledge the 230 cam in the stock engine would push the peak power higher up in the rpm range potentially to a point that the stock heads couldn't get to, is that right or was the stock cam in 400s a choke point? Would a 230 for the stroker be too small? Only thing I saw was start at 220 and add 5-7 for every 50 ci over 350 ci. I figure erring on the small side of that would work for my torque based build. Assuming I bore it out slightly (0.030 over) I'd like to buy one set of pistons but I don't think that's possible either. From what I understand the 440Source kit recommends rods that have Chevy crank diameter and piston pin dimensions so if I tried to reuse the same pistons on both versions there would be a cascading effect of pistons to rods to crank that would ultimately result in the stroker build. Or am I wrong? Should I accept that I'll have to repurchase some components and think of these as two completely different engines?
More general build criteria is below. I want to run this on pump gas so like 87(89?) octane, whatever is cheapest at the station.
Low compression
9:1 max
Al heads will help reduce pinging on stroker
Build for reliability
If you've read all the way through and I'm completely off-base at this point please let me know! I've just read internet articles in hopes of not doing something completely wrong.
I'm here to get some advice on an engine build for my jeep j-truck ('64 J300 Project Farmtruck - International Full Size Jeep Association). If that's completely out of line given that this is for A body mopars feel free to delete the thread and ban me. Only coming here because you all have the knowledge and another forum that I posed this to didn't result in anything. I read through the "Torque Monster !" thread and it helped some but not exactly.
I picked up a 400 big block a week or so ago and am going to put it in my truck. I've read some info on building 400s and it all tends to focus around high horsepower drag cars not trucks so I'm hoping you all can help. What I have is block casting number 4006530-400-2 with a cast date of xx-11-76 or 78 and 452 heads. From what I understand the 452 heads are theoretically the "best" iron heads so it's a decent platform to start with. It came out of a farmer's barn and it all appears to be in good shape. Cylinder walls are good, one has a bit of corrosion but I think it can be cleaned up with a simple hone job or slight overbore. Cam is completely wasted so I'll be buying a new one of those and I think the crank is good. It's not completely out but where the rods attach looks fine.
The plan is to make an all out torque monster. I know Chrysler motors already are but more is better. I'd rather have 600 ft-lbs at 2,500 rpm than 600 hp at 6,500 rpm, because truck. That being said I think it'd be absurd and awesome to stroke it out between 451-512. 489 CI would put it at 8 litres which is just a solid round number. So, I want to do a stock-ish rebuild and then at a later date come back and stoke it out. I've never rebuilt an engine before so I don't want to spend money on a stroker crank and then bork it up. Below are the general plans for the builds:
Stock style rebuild - I'm assuming that the block will need to be bored out slightly which is why I have new pistons listed but if I can get away with a simple hone job I'll reuse the stock ones (assuming they're not junk). I also plan on having the machine shop check the heads over to make sure they're good. It would be fun to port the 452s but I understand that aluminum heads would have higher performance potential. If it comes back that the heads are junk I'll just buy Al heads.
452 Heads - replace worn out components (springs, valves, rockers)
cast pistons
Stock con rods
Stock forged crank
Dual plane manifold
Stock style camshaft
Hydraulic roller lifters (less cam wear, more reliability)
Stroker Build - overbuilt to not worry about needing to rebuild it once a year. Would work with 440Source to make sure all the components jive.
Aluminum Heads
Bigger cam
440source crank
Hypereutectic pistons
Forged con rods
Same intake
What would be nice is to purchase some components that would work for both builds. I'm really not sure how feasible that is though. Theoretically, things like the intake/rockers/lifters should be able to be used for both versions but would it be possible to run the same camshaft? For the stroker my plan was to get one that's farily small 230-ish @ 0.050 based on some reading about building for torque. Based on my very limited knowledge the 230 cam in the stock engine would push the peak power higher up in the rpm range potentially to a point that the stock heads couldn't get to, is that right or was the stock cam in 400s a choke point? Would a 230 for the stroker be too small? Only thing I saw was start at 220 and add 5-7 for every 50 ci over 350 ci. I figure erring on the small side of that would work for my torque based build. Assuming I bore it out slightly (0.030 over) I'd like to buy one set of pistons but I don't think that's possible either. From what I understand the 440Source kit recommends rods that have Chevy crank diameter and piston pin dimensions so if I tried to reuse the same pistons on both versions there would be a cascading effect of pistons to rods to crank that would ultimately result in the stroker build. Or am I wrong? Should I accept that I'll have to repurchase some components and think of these as two completely different engines?
More general build criteria is below. I want to run this on pump gas so like 87(89?) octane, whatever is cheapest at the station.
Low compression
9:1 max
Al heads will help reduce pinging on stroker
Build for reliability
If you've read all the way through and I'm completely off-base at this point please let me know! I've just read internet articles in hopes of not doing something completely wrong.
