Some help with a 400

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If you really want budget, post #21 is the way to go. With some mild port work, 1 HP per cubic inch can be easily reached. That would be my build. Stock short block, mild cam, milled and ported stock heads. Good all around pump gas reliability.

That said, the 451 won't cost much more......although the pistons will be more than the stock 400, the difference won't be drastic.
 
RustyRatRod said:
If you really want budget, post #21 is the way to go. With some mild port work, 1 HP per cubic inch can be easily reached. That would be my build. Stock short block, mild cam, milled and ported stock heads. Good all around pump gas reliability.

That said, the 451 won't cost much more......although the pistons will be more than the stock 400, the difference won't be drastic.
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That 451 with a light weight aftermarket piston is an amazing engine that revs like a small block. I will NEVER build stock displacement again. It’s too easy to build cubes now a days.
 
You can get some pretty good performance out of a 400 without doing almost anything to them. Imagine this one with better heads, a good aftermarket dual plane 4-bbl and something more than 7.5:1 compression.

The slug 400 on the dyno.
 
IQ52 said:
You can get some pretty good performance out of a 400 without doing almost anything to them. Imagine this one with better heads, a good aftermarket dual plane 4-bbl and something more than 7.5:1 compression.

The slug 400 on the dyno.
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But it doesn't have 10:1, a 3/4 cam and tuned race headers.
 
Ottmundr said:
They made all the old episodes private. I'll be damned if I pay money to watch guys horsing around with their toys when I can go do it in my garage for free!
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It's been a long time since I haven't been a subscriber to MTOD but I believe Engine Masters is still a free show but 30 days behind for non-subscribers like Roadkill. Motor trend ditched YouTube over the fact that you don't make any money unless it involves video games.
 
justthatguy said:
I had heard that when you use a 440 crank you grind the hard metal off for the offset and it weakens the crank. Never looked much into it however, would I use the 400 rods or the 440 rods? Sounds expensive for machine work.
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Back in the day, cranks were ground down quite often. They didn't just open a catalog like we do today. Mopar journals are 2.380 while the famous "Rat" motor, the 454, gets by with a 2.20 journal and 450 HP in an LS6. Your journals will be plenty strong enough.

Murray said:
so the builder is lowering the compression from 10 to 1 down to 9.5 to 1 to compensate for the bad gas,
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The advertised 10:1 compression was in reality 9.5:1. The Roadrunner owner in 1969 didn't know the difference.
 
IQ52 said:
I am not going to let this one slide. I had a factory 440 forged crank turned down to 400 main size and took .125" in radius off the counter weights. I used a 6.76 H-beam 440 length rod and a Ross forged piston. Wound it to 7,200 rpm where it was making 787 HP on 91 octane pump gas. It is now de-tuned to 580 HP and running in the shop truck. No, I think the factory 440 forged crank will hold up just fine.
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-------kick ***, what heads ??
 
IQ52 said:
The 787 HP? Our ported Edelbrock RPM's. 580 HP? 906 or 452 heads, I cannot remember which ones we switched to.

Here is a little article from the HOT ROD network on the engine when it made 723 HP on Comp Cams dyno.

2009 Amsoil/Mopar Muscle Engine Challenge LaRoy Engines & ProMax Performance - Mopar Muscle Magazine

We took it home and made a cam change and it went 787 HP on the dyno at Performance Auto Machine in Idaho Falls.
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Just read ur part, didn`t read the others. You all got it going on !!\ Had that figured before hand tho----------
 
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