I know everybody here is going to be a little bias toward the 351/400 motors, but I was wondering what engine you think is better in stock form? 390 or 400

 

But I only voted for the 390, cuase the factory hot-rodded them and left the beloved 400 in a hott-rodding hell of emissions era crap! I truly beleive that with comparable builds in identical vehicles that the 400 would win hands down. The added weight of the FE and well the low end torque of the 400, being deciding factors. Fear begins with FE, but the under dog wins the show. And I only replied to such a biased thread, cuase well I reply to anything! thanx.

 

Depends on which year you want the stock engine to come from.
Ford built a pretty mean 400 way back in 1971. It was built like it should have been, well over 300 hp and over 400 ft-lb of torque. Every year after that just plain sucked. If you do that year stock and the best year for the 390, that would be one tough choice. I would have to go for the 400 just because thats what I have and am rebuilding.

 

I have owned both like I replied in the FE forum.The 400 was made for a different purpose but never succeeded the way Ford had hoped. All engines if in good shape are 'good engines'. Some will just be remembered more than others.

 

Apples and Oranges. the 390 is a design that also got used in Big trucks, Dump trucks, busses (in the form of the 391), and anywhere you needed hard power for thousands of hours of running time. it has a long skirt, big bearings, and a near bulitproof bottom end. Ford took this low end torque monster and stuck it in a light truck, retuned for higher rpms and horsepower. The result is a nearly indestructable powerplant. Then ford racing came along and discovered that a motor built for torque could withstand the riggors of running at max power for hours and hours on end. The bottom end would hold up to the punishment, and the long skirt of the block could handle the stresses of the higher RPMs

When ford desined the 400, they wanted a luxury car engine that ran smooth and could pull there big cars. It was designed to run smooth and so it can handle high rpms and horse power realy well, but it's a lighter weight engine than the 390. you can tune them to blow the doors of Chevys, but you can't build one up and stick it in an F700 dump truck and expect it to haul gravel for 300,000 miles between rebuilds.

This poll is on a truck site, so I have to vote for the true truck engine, the 390. 400 is nice and big, and can probably be made to make more ponies than the 390, but I'd rather haul a trailer than haul ***

 

Well said!

 

The 400 is more of a torquer than the 390 due to the longer stroke. It was not made to go high rpm. Quite the contrary. It was built for low end grunt to move those heavy pieces of Detroit iron around. If you want an engine that is probably more reliable as an upper rpm machine, the 390 is the way to go if using the proper parts. They used the 390 and it's derivitives to power their Nascar endeavors cause to could sustain 7000-8000 rpm. I don't know of anyone who has tried to build a 400 to hold up under that kind of use. There have been a few straight liners but those engines come apart alot any way.

 

390 390 390 390 390 390 390 390 nuff said