I finally finished my 400 build. I wanted to say a quick thank you to DanLee, Beartracks, and all the other users who posted replies to my questions during my build up.

The end result is fabulous...I love my new engine. It is smooth and has plenty of torque. I have a couple hundred miles on her now and she is running really nice. I have been getting around 13 miles per gallon, which is fine with me (It used to get 6-10 before the rebuild, when the tired old motor was running on 7 cylinders and had a cracked head at 178,000 miles) and she does not seem to be having any detonation problems.

I added a whole bunch of pictures to my gallery if you want to check her out. Yes, I know she doesn't like a truck, but she does have a 400!

For those of you afraid of the Aussie heads, my build appears to be successful so far, although long term is unknown, but here is what I used:

Engine: Ford 400 bored .030 over (408 cubic inches)
Carb: Edelbrock Performer #1405 (600 CFM, four barrel, square bore)
Intake: Edelbrock Performer 2171 (dual plane, mid-rise, high torque design)
Cam: Edelbrock Performer Plus #2172 (Good low end torque and drivability, with good idle).
Pistons: Federal Mogul 427P / Sterling STL-427P30 (same thing) 4.030 diameter, 10CC dish
Molybdenum Piston Rings
Heads: Aussie 2V "quench" heads (59CC) (Quench is Ford’s version of Chryslers “HEMI” – these are from Ford’s legendary Aussie 302 Cleveland Engines which featured closed combustion chamber engines – Roy did a complete rebuild of these for me, along with new brass valve guides)
Timing Set: Edelbrock Performer #7821 (Double roller)
Water Pump: Edelbrock Performer #8844 (High flow / one way flow)
Oil Pump: Federal Mogul / Melling High Volume
Fuel pump: Summit racing “street” 351M-400 chrome.
Brass Freeze Plugs
Fel-Pro Gaskets
Fully Balanced (Pistons, connecting rods, crankshaft/damper…everything…again, Thanks CWT!!), bored, honed.

DanLee calculated the following dyno numbers for me:

HP: 345@5000 RPM
Torque: 424 ft-lbs@3500 RPM

If I could only find a way to fit headers onto her, I'd be set. Maybe I'll go with a set of custom headers someday.

Thanks again to everyone; I'll try to give back as much as I have received on this fine forum.

DiMora

 

What did you put the 400 into?
And why can't you put headers on it????

 

nice ride! headers should be available? would be really awesome if.. http://www.gotflames.net/

 

CoolMint...It is a 1978 Ford LTD Landau 2 Door Pillared Hardtop. Check my gallery, and I am at cardomain.com as well. Yeah, flames would be really cool. I'll do that down the road.

Best regards,

DiMora

 

we should shove a 400 into a 67 Galaxie.... *drool*

it doesn't matter if its not a truck.... its about the motor....

 

Looks like a nice cruiser!

 

Thanks, Bear Tracks!

It does cruise nice...smooth and steady, with lots of Torque.

 

Hey dimora...was wondering what was the cause of your dead cylinder before your rebuild.

 

I had a cracked head on the passenger side...the crack was right at the valve guide and the compression loss was so bad it wouldn't even fire. The engine had overheated...and that whole head was trashed. It killed most of the valves in that head, and one was sucked right into the valve seat. Overheating is bad!!!

 

dimora,

If someday you decide to put your car on a Dyno, post the results here. I know that the rear wheels will not produce the results that an engine Dyno will, but it would be interesting to get those results.

 

I'll do that, DanLee. I live in Atlanta, GA, so if anyone knows of an inexpensive place where I can have a dyno run done, please let me know.

Regards,

DiMora

 

What kind of air cleaner is that? Nice ride by the way.

 

Check with the guys in the Georgia forum to see if they know of a dyno around.

 

Here is a site for a Dyno manufacturer. They have links to Dyno centers in all areas.

http://www.dynojet.com/ldynocntr.shtml

Here is one of the links. They are having a Dyno Day on May 30th. It looks like it would be worth the trip, if I lived near Atlanta.

http://www.batlground.com/

 

Tonyb7,

The 14" diameter Air Filter is a K&N 2.5" tall reusable element in a Mr. Gasket Chrome Air Cleaner Bottom, with a Summit Racing Re-usable Air Cleaner Chrome Filter Top.

DanLee, thanks for the links, I'll see if I can make it to that dyno test. For $30., you can't go wrong!

DiMora