Hey everyone this is my first post on here but I have been watching this forum a lot over the last 6 months, and reading up on other 400 builds. Over the last 6 months I have been building a 400 from the bottom up through a high performance engine building class at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, OH. I was looking for an engine before the class started and someone gave me this 400 and I had never heard of one being built so I decided to take the challenge.
All machine work has been done by myself with help of two very knowledgeable instructors.

This is what I have done:
Baked and shot peened block
Align honed main journals
Bored and honed to 4.030
Baked and peened rods, then balanced, polished, and re-sized to stock spec.
Balanced complete rotating assembly
Found a set of "aussie" style heads which I ported (230cfm intake and 200 cfm exhaust at 28"), installed new guides and seats, along with a new valve job

Installed comp cam kit 32-242-4
http://http://www.compcams.com/Compa...?csid=847&sb=2
Stock cast style pistons
Milodon High volume oil pump
Canton 7qt. rear sump oil pan
Weiand action plus intake
Holley 670 street avenger

Im sure im forgetting something if you have any questions let me know.

Fired it up last night on the schools dyno first pass after break in showed 300hp and 405ft lbs. It barely made it through the pull it was so lean bumped the jets up 4 sizes and the second run was 370hp, 445 ft lbs and still too lean but ran out of time after second pull i will be making more pulls tonight and will be back here to update you all.

Here is a link to the video of the second pass.
http://http://youtu.be/x4PmQ_yzF9Q

 

on the intake flow did you flow with intake attached or just head. this will change your flow numbers. some restrictions with most dual plane intakes. catch you later and nice little monster. keepin old iron alive one ford at a time.

 

not able to see exhaust system, curious. 262 comp cam nice little 4wd cam. when that lean did you hear the engine ping or detonate/pre ignition. curious to know. that lean bad things can happen.

 

Did you chamfer the cranks oil holes ? Check the bearing clearance with a good dial bore gauge that reads in .0001" ? When I build a 400 that is going to leaned on hard I always put oil restrictors in, but I do drill them out a little bigger. I never just bore and hone a block to .030 or any over size. I always find out where the pistons should be measured at on the skirts, then finish hone to the clearance the mfgr recomends. After any align honing or align boring you should always test fit the rear main seal, put it in the block and cap and check the crush, it should be around .020. Then put the seal in the block alone and tighten the cap down. Then check the seal for roundness, you don't want to get caught with your pants down with a rear main leak. You make your own luck in engine building.

 

doesnt sound like you've done a bad job at all! good stuff. Roller rockers next and my dream manifold would be one of the Edelbrock air gap intakes. They only do this for the 351C I believe so if you wanted to fit that you would have to manufacture a set of spacer adapters to fit it. You can but them from Parker motorsport(?), but as you are doing an HP rebuilding course you may well be able to knock a set up your self. Otherwise well done.

 

Well after the tunin last night we were able to get the air/fuels to where they needed to be and the verdict is still 370hp but got a little more torque at 450ft lbs. Both curves are nice and smooth and it idles beautifully with just a hint of a lope. Overall I'm pretty happy with it I can still use it and have fun with it too.

 

Any way you could post up more about your final combo and maybe the dyno charts? Do you know what your compression ratio ended up being?

Thanks

Looks like the motor turned out really well!

 

what was your top RPM?

 

Compression ended up being about 10.3:1 and it never did ping even when it was lean. We did try running it up to 5500rpm on the first couple runs but it wasnt doing any good up there so we limited the runs to 5000rpm.

 

You need to find a nice torino/ tbird/ galaxie/ bronco in to get a bit of fun out of it!

 

Good numbers!!! Especially at only 5000 rpm. I am wating for a mellonized distributor gear for my 400 so I can fire it up. I hope to get around the same numbers. Job well done. Popa Jophn

 

that should read Popa JOHN. damm big fingers!!!!

 

what type of exhaust did you run? curious. what size collector? might be some power to be had? nice build and congrats for keepin old iron alive one ford at a time!

 

Outstanding work. Well done.

Aussie heads on a 400. Surprising. I am curious to know what the deck height of the pistons was. Were the pistons down in the hole?

I'm building a stroker Clevor with 2v OC heads, and my compression ratio seems to be in the same range with the pistons .016 proud. I'm guessing your pistons would be down in the hole a bit.

What rockers did you use? I have ordered Crane Cam's long slot stamped-steel sled fulcrum rockers.

Again, awesome job you did.

 

Wyoming, Not sure exactly what size collectors were used but they were larger than my ports were they were a set owned by the school.

PC, after decking the block i was still about .055 in the hole, and i used the scorpion pedestal mount roller rockers they are very nice and very pretty too!