the motor mounts are custom off road racing style. urethane bushing. I'm building from a plate of steel and cutting and building from nothing. had to break out my fab skills on this paticular project. they are gettin a little dusty and had to knock the dust off. gonna see if I remember how to tig weld. haven't tigged in a long time. want my welding to look the best it can. i mocking a set of autofab off road racing engine mounts for a 460 application. john does some nice work on old fords if you check out autofab offroad racing trucks. even the pilot bushing gonna have to custom machine for this application. gonna go with a 1.300" pilot bushing. check out photos in my album and you will see whats going on.

 

well got my 400 installed and mounted. Its not a novice situation at all, this i can tell you! I have tools and welding equipment to get the job done. built me a new crossmember for the zf to 205. the zf to 205 will work but have to notch out a piece on the zf flange to make work. the upper shift rod on 205 will not clear and had to break out a grinder to make work. will have some photo tommorrow in my albums. forgot my camera at shop! it will work but you have to have some fab skills for sure.

 

i haven't even read this thread. but ill give you my expert opinion, a 400m 351m is the worst pile of crap ever conceived. complete junk, a big crappy boat anchor. please please dont do it!!!!!!!
just buy a 302 or a 289 at least its a supported motor that makes more power and doesnt suck *****, ok read, my friend has a 77 bronco with a built 400 its a pile of ****!! they have alota issues too with pushrods and oiling. junk...think pinto. inefficient pos horrible gas milage. 360s grow on trees get another 360. betcha a 360 will smoke that pile of 400m you got, hell a 302 will destroy your 400 a 86-95 mustang gt motor will make you a punk with a 400m built or not

 

Yeah but. ;)
LOL ! :)

Will you bother to read this... ?
Rumors & Myths

------------------------------

The 400/351m was hardly-ever produced without being smogged down to
hell tho. :/ So what can you compare them to?

How about this... ?
A 360FE. :)
Compare the 360FE to a 352 4 barrel and then maybe you can see what's
really going on with the 400/351m and what potential they got? :)

If you can't see it, sorry to say, but you are as closed minded as whoever
you heard that crap (in your post) from.

Open your eyes, many 400/351m's went a lot of miles and many are still
out there going right now and will be going in the future.

-------------------------------

My experience with 350 Chevy small blocks...

Brand spankin' new Gelco (General Electric Leasing) leased trucks at work.
Gelco would replace one at 65k miles. :)

Fords (any engine!) wed have to drive them 110k!
That's another year or year and a half before you'd get a new truck. :/

By the time you got 60k miles on the 350 Chevy we'd be putting a quart
of oil in the soft-blocked-sucker a day!

So. Most of us asked for Chevys at work and bought Fords for personal
use. We saw the difference, see? ;)

Yes, this information is from back when the 360FE's, 300's and 351m were
commonly used in Ford pickups and competing with the 350sb.

Hey, it's hard to beat a Chevy 350sb with a brand new QuadraJet on it
when you -ain't- paying for the maintenance and all the tow-ins from the
other flimsy parts on it! LOL :)

My brother bought a new 1/2 ton GMC in '75 and I bought an F150 360FE
+T18. Mine's still pretty much original his is just the opposite because of
all the parts that'd failed on 'im. I'm fixin' to put the original starter back in
mine. It never failed I just changed it out when I had the engine rebuild at
150k miles. Drove it to Willcox and some buddied helped me pull it. That
rebuild has now got 95k miles on it and -still- gets better gas -and- oil
mileage than it ever did from new! Plus more power and better idle too!

Anyway, I see a lot of old Ford pickups with the original factory engines in
'em and yep, they are the sorry old 400/351m you're running down.

Comp 252/252 cam straight up timing set and better valve seals is all my
360FE really needed. ;) Got a 390 (or 390 parts) to replace it with...

http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/file12/fe390crank.jpg

Oh, BTW...
"expert" LOL :)

Anybody that calls themselves an "ex-spurt" or allows themselves to be
called that by others is butthead... until proven otherwise. Never seen it
proven otherwise yet. LOL :)

So cut that out, makes you sound like a fool, no kidding.

Alvin in AZ

 

some of us see things for what they are and some see things for what they can be. I see who your are. You need to get educated on engines and speak with some intelligence. yes their is better engines out their but the 400 has some serious potential if you are educated. if you check into the enginemaster challenge $100,000.00 on the line and the 400 ford has won it twice. these engine builders didn't accidently build and win. serious thought was taken into account and picked this engine for a reason per the rules. From a engine builder who knows way more than me Jon kaase was asked why they don't run 289/302? he said without hesitation intake runners are to short with the small block, this is a quote. if you don't know who jon kaase is he is the creator of the 460 ford scj heads. he's also a IHRA dragster engine builder and many other things. his mentor is warren johnson. if you don't know who these people are you need to get educated on engines so you can speak with some more knowledge. yes the 400 really sucks with all the emmission crap they put on it. back in the day FORD didn't know how to work emmissions and this was a very bad example to follow. things have changed and we are smarter because of it. Most guys would love to have a 4" stroke crank in their engine. Get educated young man!!! 400 was lacking 2 things compression and decent cam. if you fix these 2 things it will easily double its hrspwr from factory specs.

 

back in the first days of emissions ALL engines got butchered to meet the all new standards ! I had a 74 dodge D200 camper special extend a cab that had a 440 in it and it was a DOG from the factory ! my buddies older 68 dodge truck had a 318 in it and it would run circles around my truck with that 440 and would also pull more !

 

lots of the newer generation are very lucky to have not experienced this experience and dissapointment. But the other side of the coin is this paticular moment also created a learning curve in outside the box thinking. for those of us who think outside the box and want better are usually inspired by these things. keepin old iron alive one ford at a time. every engine has its potential with in certain designs. 4" stroke is a nice start in the engine world of any engine. 400 has its limitations also. A FE btm and a cleveland canted valve head would be a stout piece of equipment if it could be put together. I don't have these tools so it will have to wait?? sorry for hijacking but something had to be said and hopefully something can be learned.

 

I swapped a 390 to 400 in my 1970 F250, 3 months ago,I'm still having problems I've changed C6 transmissions, modifed trans mounts, shortened the frt half of the dirve shaft by6inches, should have only been 5 inches. had shaft rod made. Trouble My driveshaft hits the bottom of the cab. Just found out about the engine stands being to tall, needs stands from a 73-79, ther 1' shorter which raises trans higher, easy cure bolt the trans mount cross member to the bottom of the frame with spacers.Lowers trans about an inch Then put longer bolts and spacers to lover the center drive shaft mount. this I've already tried and would have worked perfect if I had known about the shorter engine stands.now I have to pull the engine out and replace the stands. hope this helps you not have the troubles I've had.

 

Every time someone brings up the 400 we get the "400's are turds, boat anchors, etc." crowd. And I wouldn't even be surprised to find that most of them have never owned one.
When the 351M in my '79 gave up I replaced it with a 400. (No 'M' on the 400).
Friend and I had very similar trucks, his was a '73 3/4 ton, mine a '79 3/4 ton.
His had a very mild 390, cam, dual exhaust, slightly bored out.
Mine, bone stock 400 with all the smog crap.

At times when we would travel together we'd race 'em just for fun. He'd never catch me, I'd walk away every time.
His did sound better though.

I'd put a loaded equipment trailer behind that truck and pull it @ 70+mph like it wasn't there. (Back when I was young and stupid enough to do that.)

Being a young guy back then I did have sort of a lead foot, but still got 12mpg. I can only dream about getting 12mpg out of my 390.

400 is a very good engine, with an undeserved bad rap.

 

Maybe not the 351m-400 arguement, but here in aussie the 351C that was used in the Australian falcons in the 70's was (and still is ) a very respected piece of kit. We also had the 302 version of these and while these were very good you would never have a 302C over a 351C in the big cars. Seeing that a 400 is only a tall deck 351C, I can see no reason other than misinformation/myths/urban ledgends that would prevent you doing the same thing. We are slowly getting more and more tech and parts support for these. In saying that, I wouldn't have a 351m for any other reason than getting a donor for a 400-434 build. Just remember that the smaller motors will (or be able to) be built to rev, but the old race adage is Torque wins races, HP sells cars. A well built 400 will never be the screamer that a similiarly built 289/302 etc will be. It would come down to what vehicle you put it in. The bigger the vehicle the bigger the engine-simple as that.

 

I never understood why people bash the 400. All in all its a stroker cleveland. The ability to bolt on 351c heads is what makes it special. My brother and I are building a 400 with 4v closed chamber cleveland heads for his 69 f100. Cant wait to see how much power it makes.