I have a 78 f150 shortbed with a 400. The engine is tired and could use an overhaul or replacement. I plan to keep the truck for a long time.
Is this a good deal on ebay for a replacement motor?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...7667108&rd=1,1

The truck will be used to pull a car hauler a few times a year and trips to Home Depot. This ebay motor doesnt appear come witha carb or water pump or distributer. I plan to clean the truck up and make it pretty again, but not a full on restoration. I figure for between 5,000 and (hopefully not)10,000 dollars I can have a nice dependable truck for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of a new truck.

I'm fairly mechanical and can probably do a direct engine swap.
Are all 400's the same for all years manufactured? I don't want to find out the hard way that something doesn't hook up from the old engine to the new one.
Thanks

 

my opinion is it is about$1500 to much. i can have an engine built by a reputable shop down the road for around $1400

 

i would never spend 1500 on an M personaly.i got 400 out here with around 6-10000 miles on it come get it for 250 its still in a truck tho wouldnt take only a couple hour to pull

 

Welcome to the site Tim, don't forget to join the VA Chapter. For what you want to use the truck for, you might want to look into a "long block" or crate engine. Check our sponsors first,and maybe NAPA.(NAPA needs help with M. Waltrip not making the Bristol race). Most times you might find something local, for a better price.

 

I am in the middle of a 400 rebuild myself. I have about $900 into the rebuild kit and will have around $4-500 into machine work. I will be assembling the engine myself so I am not counting labor on that. I am not replacing the heads. TMI, one of our sponsors, has Aussie heads for around $900 ready to go. You can find used manifolds for around $100. Talk to Tim Meyers Inc and he will help you build your own the way you want to. Good luck!

 

Well, call me cheap if you want to, but I found a rebuild kit for not so much money, and intend to spend the summer rebuilding her in my friends garage. Should be under $1,000 to rebuild my 351M as a 400.

I can't wait....ohboyohboyohboy....

 

IMO, if you built this engine yourself (not too difficult to do) you could save some money. If you do not want to build one yourself, I don't think it is too bad. It all depends on how badly you want the aussie heads. I built my own stock head 400, and it is costing over a grand, balanced, and my block did not need to be bored. You might ask in the 335 forum, and get a price from Tim (sponsor, TMI) for a similar engine. Just my $.02

 

Tim, there are a couple decent responses above and a couple that are short sighted as to knowledge of parts etc. you can get a build for cheaper no doubt and it would be the typical low compression, american 2v open chamber head that makes the 400 far less than it was meant to be when designed. Unfortionately smog requirements meant the end for performance after '71..even the established motors like the 460 were dogs compared to their past.

TMI, a sponsor of this forum has had pistons etc designed for the 400 and uses parts and knowledge that no other commercial 400 builder uses. Including 'tuff dawg'. I know because i talked to the owner for some time and found out what he does to his 400 and cleveland builds.

Tuff dawg (d&J machine) is still the 2nd place builder that i have found imo and that aint bad. He uses the closed chamber oz heads and i think he puts out a good product...far better than you will get from a local unless you get the local guy the parts and a build sheet with the right instructions or he knows how to use other available parts to get compression up, timing advanced and airflow pumping. Tuff DAwg has done some research etc but does not have the potential that tim @ TMI has.

You can save some $ if you learn and do it yourself but unless you are really willing to spend a lot of time researching and scratching your head I'd buy thelong block or turn key. So i would price TMI and compare to include shipping. Tim will have some additional $ invested in parts - tuff dawg uses standard pistons as compared to Tim's special made KB's as an example. Also price a kit from Tim and see what a local, experienced with Ford builder would charge using that kit as supplied...and triple check everything he does with some of the experienced guys in this forum like Tim, Torqe1st, danlee, mark and a few i'm forgetting. If they have not personally built 400's using oz heads, badger pistons, cleveland pistons or tim's parts or something close i'd not give the post as much weight. The 400 is an incredible motor when built to '71 or better specs and a waste of weight, imo, when not. You can expect much better power and somewhat better economy with the right build.

I haven't built a whole bunch...(yet) but have spent dozens of hours investigating, planning and pricing kick butt 400 and cleveland builds. I've got over half a dozen 335 type builds to get to after my 400 is done.


search this forum using the advanced search for:

+400 +build

and you will get a ton of info.

 

sorry...cant 'edit my post on this computer...

didn't mean to bash other posts...but the info is important and there aren't a lot of folks who have done the work to know how to 'Properly' build a 400 and what it takes to make it run the way it should. You must address compression and the oz heads are, by far the best way to do it...use tims matched pistons and you have quench up the hiney and potential you cannot get any other way. Badgers are ok...tim's kb's designed for stockopen chamber us heads are better and research shows that closed chamber and tim's matching pistons are the best...period....except his stroker or maybe kb's cleveland pistons that require bushing etc.

yada yada yada.

 

Thanks guys. Very helpful. I like the "crate motor" idea for ease of swapping out and swapping in the same thing. I need to research local builders and see what they can do, and maybe have my original motor rebuilt. I don't mind stepping up to a quality, better performance(350-400hp?), motor instead of a NAPA/AutoPartsStore standard remanufactured engine. I've priced them from 900-1200-1600 for good-better-best lines. thanks again.

 

yea...and thos 'best' ones won't give you the parts you need.

 

i bought a 400 from advance auto for like 1300 and with a 600 cfm edl 4bbl with a 2" spacer and flowmaster headers it runs good and strong. i have a lot of power in take offs and passing.

 

I don't doubt that for a minute clunker...you should drive one that has the right pistons etc...