So I've been working on getting a 400 rebuilt for my truck and have had some good luck and false starts.

The current engine developed a knock, so I got a $75 400 off craigslist from a 78 Lincoln. Tore it apart, and one pushrod was bent, and two cam lobes were wiped out.

So then I went about finding a machine shop. The first was a auto parts store with a machine shop attached and they wanted $750 to do all the block work and rework the heads.

I wasnt that impressed, and being in the Detroit area I figured that I could take advantage of the well known shops in the industry here. So I took the block to a well known shop, and after two plus weeks finally got a quote for the work. It amounted to about $2000 for the block, plus about a $1000 to redo the heads. The bores were pretty good, and just needed cleaning up to 0.020 over. The mains needed an align bore, but other than that no real work was needed, just the standard stuff.

So the thought of $3000 in machining shocks me, with no parts involved other than bearings and stainless valves.

So thats were I'm at, looking at a quote and going ow ow ow ow, $3000 ow ow ow... I dont know if its reasonable to pay $1000 for reworked heads if I can get Aussie heads ready to bolt on for that.

So I'm contemplating other options, even if it means a road trip to TMeyer.

So far I have amassed a good pile of parts. I have TMeyers pistons for open chamber heads, along with a XE256 that he recommended. I wish I lived down the street from Tim, cant say enough about how refreshing it was to call him and ask for advice on what to buy.

And thanks to the clearance section on Jet Hot's website, I have a set of ceramic coated Flowtech headers that I got for $119 + shipping. Other than that I have a set of FRPP roller rockers off ebay. Hopefully a lot of the non wear stuff will be transferred from the old engine, as it only has about 5000 miles since we upgraded the cam in the 351m. So the waterpump and other stuff is barely broken in.

So to sum up how the engine will probably go together parts wise.

Block at 0.020 over
Tmeyer pistons
Comp Cams XE256
FRPP Roller rockers
Edelbrock Intake
Edelbrock 1406 carburator
Flowtech 1 3/4 headers

Hopefully I'll have updates as it progresses, and maybe photos.

 

Nice parts list...
$3K for block machining? I guess they don't want the job that badly at all...

Head work can easily get to $1000/pr depending on what's needed.
Keep us informed of the assembly progress!

 

It will be worth your while to take that road trip to TMeyer. Detroit is 1/2 way there. I did it from Delaware twice.

 

Considering that the heads are a critical part of the engine, I wouldnt mind paying $1000 if that was what was required. I was just slightly shocked since I had told them that I could get Aussie heads for $1000 and they told me that it wasnt necessary to go that route, and overkill to buy different heads.

And Tim can be so modest when talking about his abilities, but all you have to do is read through his posts to know that you cant go wrong by getting an engine from him.

If I do go that route, I have to price out whether it would be cheaper to ship it or drive both times in person. Probably depends on if there is any other attractions in that region that I can combine the trip with. Every time I've driven through there I've not even slowed down on my way to the northwest.

And I realized that I havent mentioned the vehicle.
79 F150
351m w/knock
C6 & Part time NP203

 

A $1000.00 head job should include new Stainless Steel valves, as well as new guides and springs etc. What is this shop going to do for $1000.00?

Aussie heads are not overkill, they will provide quench. You can't get quench with your open chamber heads no matter how much you spend. You should talk to Tim about a set of Aussie heads.

 

Okay, time for an update. Things have been moving pretty slow, but with the weather outside I havent been in a hurry to swap an engine.

I decided I just couldnt make a trip out to Tim's shop in winter to pick up an engine, so I did the best of both worlds. So I have a shop around here making me a shortblock with piston/rings/cam/lifters from Tim. I just couldnt spend that much for a set of rebuilt stock heads, so Tim is making me a set of Aussie heads for just a bit more. So once I get the heads and the shortblock back, I'll put together the longblock and the rest of the pieces.

And I've been playing around with Desktop Dyno, but I'm not quite sure I believe its numbers. Using:

406.2 ci (4.020 x 4.0)
Aussie head flow numbers I found from strokerengine.com
9.43 compression ratio (Tim's chart)
600.0 cfm carb / Dual-Plane High Flow
Large tube headers w/muffler
XE256H camshaft

This ends up with 479 lb-ft at 2500 rpm, and 321 hp at 4000 rpm. So it seems a bit optimistic on torque, but maybe a bit pessimistic on hp. Any opinions?

Also, since flow numbers seem to be hard to come by, does anyone have some for the aussie heads after a valve job? Every source that I've seen for them have been comparing before and after their porting work, and I cant help but wonder if the stock flow numbers are completely stock and not really comparable to ones that have been rebuilt. Food for thought.

So now I'm thinking about how long the rest of my driveline will hold together with all this power. The C6/203/9-inch have never been touched in its 150,000 miles, so I'm wondering what will go first. I'm thinking that a shift kit will be some good insurance, but I'd appreciate some suggestions on brand. I dont care about chirping tires, just getting the shift done cleanly and quickly. Right now the transmission has had absolutely no inclination of problems, but the shifts have been pretty soft.

Sorry for the long post, but a new engine can be so exciting

 

You got some pretty expensive machine shops up there. Down here, i had the block cleaned, magnafluxed, bored out, decked (heads decked too), new bronze valve guides put in the heads, new stainless steel valves, 3 angle valve job, and probably a few other things i'm forgetting, i only paid $750. Of course...i had to wait about 6 months for it to all be done...

As for the power, it seems like a reasonable estimate. The 400 has a very long stroke, and small bored compared to other engines, which makes it pretty much a torque based engine, and not so much a horsepower one. The ford 400 has a 4" bore and 4" stroke, while the chevy 400 has a 4.125 bore, and 3.75" stroke which makes it more of a horsepower engine. Even the ford larger ford 460 has a smaller stroke than the 400. So...i guess my point is, you're definitely going to expect to see higher torque numbers, and lower hp numbers on the 400.

You engine is similar to mine, i'm using the same camshaft. Mine is bored .030 over, has 1.71 rocker arms, dual plane with a 650 holley, i'm running stock heads with tmi step dish pisons, and i run open long tube headers. It's definitely a low revving, torquer, i never even had the need to take it over 3 grand. I wonder what the power difference between the two would be...

 

I guess part of my skepticism comes from seeing numbers from builds like the original Hot Rod article, where they only made 375 lb-ft at 2000, where d.dyno says ~470 lb-ft at 2000. Did their cam choice really affect it that much? I have to keep remind myself that this thing will make more power at 2000 then the stock engine could ever achieve.

I hope that one of these years I'll be able to throw it on a roller dyno and get some rwhp numbers. I was disappointed that my engine went when it did, because I was wanting to get some baseline numbers with my brother's GTech, but I'll still have fun seeing its tq guesses.

 

I dont know which specific article you're referring too, but if they were only making 375 ft/lbs at 2 grand, they were doing something different. Maybe they built it up to be some kind of high rpm rever, i dunno. A different cam can definitely make that kind of difference, it's just all about what rpm you want the power at.

 

The Hot Rod builds used longer duration cams with later IVC, more overlap, and lower dynamic compression. These things will reduce the torque @2000 RPM. They are meant to produce Horsepower at higher RPM.

 

He he, as I was typing the question, a voice in the back of my head was saying "I bet danlee will stumble by with the answer". And yep.

I love this project as I'm learning so much about engine combinations.

 

Well I finally got my short block back from the machine shop. I think the build specs are still the same from way up in the Nov 07 post except for being bored out to .030.

So far this weekend we finally got the old engine yanked, and are in the process of cleaning up brackets and other bits and powdercoating them. Hopefully next weekend I'll be putting the new engine in.

But I have ran into one question that someone might know the answer to. Both my original engine and core had metal pieces on the head gasket around the lower outside cylinder head bolts. So it appeared to be the alignment mechanism. But I dont have those on my shortblock or heads, and the felpro gaskets didnt come with anything similar. So is this required or can I just align everything with the head bolts?

Thanks!

 

Alignment dowels, 2 per head. these are required.

If you can't find some locally, let me know. They are so cheap the freight may cost more than the parts.

 

Your problem here would be you head flow numbers, im getting 443@2000 flat to 3500 with a peak 446@3000 and horse power peaks 347@4500..

Anyways yeah I disliked the cam choice of the down and dirty built, besides it has the same exaust and intake duration, a ex256h or ex262h wouldve give them WAY better results, they also made a mistake asuming a .030 overbore would get them a 406cid....

 

Okay, you cant hint at my flow numbers for Aussie heads being inaccurate and not provide better ones! Care to share?

Well no problem there, I'm already going to be calling you tomorrow for some odds and ends. I gave up on explaining to NAPA how I needed a coolant pipe nipple that you hammer into the block...