stroking a 400 more?
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From: Alston, MI
stroking a 400 more?
i heard from a site a while back that the 400's pistons never reach even close to the top of the deck (something like 0.2" from the deck, i could be wrong on that number). i was curious if regrinding the 400's crank from a 4" stroke to, let's say, a 4.02" stroke would boost up my compression, but still be streetable (meaning run on 89 or 93 octane)? the boost in torque will only help the engine's cause.
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From: wyoming
not really a smart/financial situation.
Once you do this finding a con rod is the next challenge. going to a bigger stroke and smaller rod diameter like on some of the 434" motors is the next big step. Finding a con rod and all the machine work is a little bit of money to get the combination together. looked into but felt I didn't really need the extra stroke/cost. Buying the tim meyer pistons or doing a cleveland piston is about the best way to go. Did a cleveland piston project and the piston is about a little over.020 over stock and helps. I have recently learned that decking the block the minimum amount is a good thing. taking away any material from deck area on a 400/351m takes away strength. Allows the head gskt machined surface area to move around a little more than I would like after doing some serious dialbore checks and other torque plate inspections. Catch you later and good luck. My engine is about together and life keeps messing with my toy time. 
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From: Alston, MI
thanks for the reply, wyoming. see, i was under the impression that i could get some sleeves for the con rods to make up for the smaller crank. i figured that it wouldn't hurt any if i went to a machine shop, bored out the con rods, sleeved it so it has tighter tolerances, and put it all together. would this be possible?
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From: Tanilba bay NSW Australia
easier to fit 302 CC aussie heads. If all the rest of block deemed ok and no machining/parts needed, fit these heads. They bump comp nearly a point over standard and potentially allow more timing/reduce detonation.while you're at it, source a new cam, lifters and timing chain. Fitting these heads that would be better than mucking around sleeving conrods. You would be better if going down that route just getting different pistons ala T meyer, or using applicable 351cleveland pistons and sleeving them to take the different piston gudgeon.
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From: Alston, MI
true story. i was just shootin' around for something different haha. plus, did all the math, and if i stroked it out to 4.077 and bored it out to 4.040, the motor would come out to be a 418ci haha
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From: Alston, MI
haha best answer ever! had to show that to the girlfriend! yeah may as well bore it out to a 408 and call it a night. get cleveland pistons with a 040 over and whatever i have to do to make em work with the 400.
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From: Tanilba bay NSW Australia
A fellow on this site that I've been conversing with went with sleeving cleveland pistons. I know there are a bucket load of different pistons here in Aussie, and rebuild kits (albeit cheap ones) can be around 500 bucks. It probably cost me 6-700 more to do my 400 and I saved a couple of hundy getting them in from T Meyer. I could/should've maybe just got a set and sleeved them, but Tim seemed to have good info on rough comp for diffrent heads and I erred on the ide of safety. If you want I'll check with old mate who did the piston/sleeving thing on his and see if he'll pass on the details. He did it for several different reasons, not all I can post here, thats why i want to check with him before organising a "hook-up".
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i heard from a site a while back that the 400's pistons never reach even close to the top of the deck (something like 0.2" from the deck, i could be wrong on that number). i was curious if regrinding the 400's crank from a 4" stroke to, let's say, a 4.02" stroke would boost up my compression, but still be streetable (meaning run on 89 or 93 octane)? the boost in torque will only help the engine's cause.
Stroker kit plus overbore gets you to 434, from what I can tell, that's the limit for this block. Note it is a .25--1/4 inch--extra stroke.
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From: Tanilba bay NSW Australia
Shame. Must be a big market for pistons etc? There are some very cranky aussie Falcons running hot 351 clevos over here and even the Holden (aussie GM) who hate fords still know they go OK.