...I sent you an e-mail, it may be something you're interested in, maybe not. I figured you'd know more about it than I would. Just to put the question out here: does anyone know about the 400 with freeze plugs in the lifter valley?

 

n/m

 

Chris,

I don't know anything about it. I've never seen an M-block with freeze plugs in the lifter valley, but there are apparently several early variants I've never seen. I have not researched the early engines ('74 and earlier) near as much as the later engines.

The numbers you listed are late MY1971 production dates, so it seems unlikely the engine is original in that '73 vehicle.

 

The heads were also D1AEs, and were DIF castings.

 

send me the pics if u can

 

I'm going to try and get back to that yard Saturday morning, and I'll shoot a couple of pics then. The Mid-America Shelby and Performance Ford meet is in town this weekend, so I'll have to split time between the yard and the swap meet. I'd like to have the block just as a conversation piece, but where the vehicle is would take a helicopter to get it out. And I'll have to look the bores over; it has sat without one head for a while, and I remember some rust. If it isn't bad and could clean up at .030 or less, it might be a keeper. One rumor I heard was that that particular block may have thicker main webs, but that was from what a guy on another board could remember from a block he had years ago.