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My donor engine
Bought off craiglist about 8 yrs ago, slapped timing chain gaskets and carb and acessories and drove off road a few years . Guy claimed had mild cam. It would livht up spooled rear woth 33's off start of dry pavement had great power but something happened inside to make it start loading up on oil, BAD. So she got parked.
I dont remember what pistons looked like with heads off but i know i verified it was a 400.
Looked tonight and heads have "m"cast on them. Too filthy to id anything else
Next step is to pull and dissassemble
plans changed
sold the 87, selling the 78. once thats done it begins for this truck to make budget beater. plan to sink more $ into motor than truck worth. Next build rock buggy
Looking forward to your build, looks like you've got a solid vehicle to start with. Awesome tot see you building an M motor.
I've just started to build a 400 to shut the "351M/400 are complete junk, but I know absolutely nothing about cleveland based engines" idiots mouths permanently. My work trucks are diesel,, I'm not a fan of the stench, long warmups and weight, so I'm not doing that. I've owned my fair share of big block Ford's,, and I considered a 460 build, but I already had a ton of Cleveland and M block parts laying around. My first few musclecars we're brutally fast 4v quench head clevelands, so I'm partial to 335 series. The same tricks that made early clevelands fast apply to M motors.
The motor I'm replacing is amazing in itself. A mostly stock (did cam lifters intake and timing chain around 200k) 351m with far over 300 thousand miles. It's a daily driver in a 78 supercab 3/4 ton 4x4 and it gets beat HARD. It's a smoking, clattering, no oil pressure or compression mess, bit it starts in any weather, runs idles and will smoke 31"s effortlessly in 2nd or pull 1.5 tons of firewood without issues. Honestly, I don't know how this engine still runs.
My 400 build is a late 79 D7TE cleveland foundry block, and my 400 crank is a 5MAB casting turned 0.20 under, fully balanced rotating assembly. I'm going 0.30 over on the block, align bored honed then ARP hardware all around. I'm going with a slightly dished piston and a set of mildly worked and milled open chamber 1970 cleveland 2v heads with stainless one-piece valves to keep the compression at a pump gas friendly 9::0 something ish. I had originally considered Aussie 302C 2v quench heads, but my machinist talked me out of them, stating that I'd end up with too much compression with a 400 build. Im looking at a custom cam grind, similar to comp 268 DEH. My goal is about 365hp 425tq with a broad flat torque curve from idle, being all in around 4500 RPM. We will see. Numbers aren't specific yet, every aspect of this build is for a low RPM grunt monster that will live through another 4 decades of hard work and abuse.
Thank you for the advice! Do you have a build thread anywhere you could link to?
I plan to build very similar to yours. Im like you, ive had 3 460's(really u could call it 5 since one had 3 different builds), from mild to wild, and a 70' 429 in my 76 & 79's previously. I love the power and torque, but it doesnt make sense for a budget build like this with the cost of all the swap parts factored in. This motor with straight up timing chain and "rv" cam made great off idle torque, much looking forward to that.
Over the last 2 yrs i slowly have Put lift tires wheels on it, lots of front end and brake parts, master, booster etc. man i forgot what turds these 351m are stock! This is original engine with less than 97,000 on it, few exhaust valves are struggling to seal. Smog stuff was gone when i got it. Retuned the motorcraft and dizzy best i can for lack of egr.
Having all those 460's in my other dents spoiled me! Got a parts truck im going to use the 400 to rebuild and put in her place. Thought i might share with you guys, pulled her out of the garage today to do a little tweaking.
This picture just reinforces my opinion that the 70's fords are the best looking trucks
kubotaorange, I am using speed pros, (see pic) Dished, but doesn't look to be as much of a dish as a stock piston. To be honest, I am in uncharted territory with this build. I have literally built over a dozen clevelands, so I went full-bore into this 400 build as I did my past clevelands. I studied everything TMeyer was doing, Read a few HR builds and poured over different forums trying to see what works and what does not. I had a solid build plan in mind: Until I dragged everything to the machine shop. Then everything changed. My machinist is a ford guy, builds pulling motors and stock car engines, and actually had a few early F-350 ford wreckers with built 400s and 460s that ran really well. Long story short, my machinist completely shredded my build plans, insisting that I did NOT need a lot of compression with a 400 (vice a 351M) and that stock 2v heads with slight milling would work (flow) fine, stating that a decent cam would help build the proper cylinder pressure, he insisted I did NOT need a fully rollerized valvetrain,, and that with proper bearing clearances and a blueprinted high volume oil pump, I would NOT need a bunch of oiling mods..........this goes against everything I had read on 351M400 or anything Id ever done previously with a Cleveland. His plans actually forced me to put parts that I already had laying around and planned to (re) use, and a few Id already bought for this build, back on the shelf. I am apprehensive, but he seems to know what hes talking about, been doing this for 35 years, lots of satisfied customers. The work he's done so far on my build has been top notch. Its a gamble, but he's guaranteeing a laser smooth idle, acceptable MPG, a TON of off idle torque and locomotive-like pull through 4000 RPM, long, dependable engine life, all while running on cheap 87 octane pump gas. He's got my gears, vehicle weight, tire size, elevation (I live on a mountain) and intended use all factored in, something I'd never done before. We will see. I'll get more specifics (pistons, cam specs, valvetrain etc) when I stop by his place today. Fingers crossed, wallet-weary. Wish me luck.
[QUOTE=hail destroyer;18396012]kubotaorange, I am using speed pros, (see pic) Dished, but doesn't look to be as much of a dish as a stock piston. To be honest, I am in uncharted territory with this build. I have literally built over a dozen clevelands, so I went full-bore into this 400 build as I did my past clevelands. I studied everything TMeyer was doing, Read a few HR builds and poured over different forums trying to see what works and what does not. I had a solid build plan in mind: Until I dragged everything to the machine shop. Then everything changed. My machinist is a ford guy, builds pulling motors and stock car engines, and actually had a few early F-350 ford wreckers with built 400s and 460s that ran really well. Long story short, my machinist completely shredded my build plans, insisting that I did NOT need a lot of compression with a 400 (vice a 351M) and that stock 2v heads with slight milling would work (flow) fine, stating that a decent cam would help build the proper cylinder pressure, he insisted I did NOT need a fully rollerized valvetrain,, and that with proper bearing clearances and a blueprinted high volume oil pump, I would NOT need a bunch of oiling mods..........this goes against everything I had read on 351M400 or anything Id ever done previously with a Cleveland. His plans actually forced me to put parts that I already had laying around and planned to (re) use, and a few Id already bought for this build, back on the shelf. I am apprehensive, but he seems to know what hes talking about, been doing this for 35 years, lots of satisfied customers. The work he's done so far on my build has been top notch. Its a gamble, but he's guaranteeing a laser smooth idle, acceptable MPG, a TON of off idle torque and locomotive-like pull through 4000 RPM, long, dependable engine life, all while running on cheap 87 octane pump gas. He's got my gears, vehicle weight, tire size, elevation (I live on a mountain) and intended use all factored in, something I'd never done before. We will see. I'll get more specifics (pistons, cam specs, valvetrain etc) when I stop by his place today. Fingers crossed, wallet-weary. Wish me luck.
Forgot what a pleasure these are to work on. About a liesurely 2 hours to yank motor
my engine stand is about 2 hours away. As soon as i aquire one its teardown time
02-13-2017, 06:51 PM
