I was sitting at a red light last night (X mas) and all of the sudden, my 400 went to running rough. I can pull the plug wires off of the front and back 2 cylinders on the passenger side and the engine doesn't change how it runs at all. I haven't checked all of the driver side yet. It is running an MSD 6A ignition there is spark all the way up to the plugs. I haven't checked the plugs themselves yet. I can only do so much on my lunch hour. I plan to pull the plugs tonight when i have a helper to turn the engine over and make sure they are firing. After that, I'll turn to the fuel system and see if i clogged something. Any ideas on what else to check would be greatly appreciated.

 

Well I would check the module in the distributor if you still running the fomoco dist. I've had them go to hell on a couple of my trucks in the past.One truck just quit running and one would just started missing on a moist(Lite rain)night.

ShaZam

 

Hey Shazam, would you mind listing what all youve done to your engine. Did I read that right? 700+ HP? Yikes.
Thanks
TrackStar

 

Well, the verdict is in, BLOWN HEAD GASKET. Cylinders 3 and 4 are building about 5 PSI each. Looks like my weekend schedule just got filled up.

 

Well sure but if you want to duplicate it you better have a really thick wallet.
I start with a good 400 Block and have the machine shop go through it to make sure it's sound. Then fill the block with hard block to just below the water pump outlet. Then line bore the mains, Install oil restrictor in the block, Bore the block to .060 over and deck the block to 10.275 height, That will give me a Zero deck height when I put it together with my rotating assembly.
My rotating Assembly is a Drop forged steel crank from Scat that was finished off by Paul's Crank shop out of Texas. Paul off ground it to 4.200 stroke with the journals ending up at 2.200 BBC. My rods are Eagle ESP Rods 6.800 BBC, They have to be clearanced .050 to fit the Ford crank journal, The Pistons are special order JE piston with 14.5 Comp. .990 pin. and the dome to fit the Cleveland head Style, the piston's edges are chamfered and the tops are hand massaged to relief any sharp edges and a flame path is machined in the dome to aid in the combustion. Eveything is checked for clearance Piston to valve clearance is Close, Intake .080 Exe..110 Without head gasket, add .035 for the head gasket and you have lots of room. I run a Fluidampr out front and a SFI specs. Steel Flywheel with a McLeod double disk Slipper Clutch in back.
I have two cam choices I run, One is a Crower 15481 which will give
this motor 788 H.P. 658# T.Q. And Engle RJ-38 Which gives me 799 H.P. 667# T.Q. Both cams are Rollers as is the whole valve train Assembly. All the good stuff Crower Rocker, Comp Cam Roller Lifter, and
Comp Springs. To top this off I have Jarmar Stud Girdle to help keep
things straight up here.
To help with the oiling problem that's been associated with this motor I prep my main bearings a little by marking where the oil holes are and then using a drimmel tool and grind the bearing to match the oil holes in the block. I try to keep the restrictions to where we need them and let as much oil get to the mains as possible.
And to top the bottom end off I've made a stud girdle for it using one from 351W and filling in the holes that are 4-1/8" apart and redrilling them to the 351M/400 4-7/16" spacing.
To help with the oiling I have a 4 Stage Dry Sump system and
4 Gal. oil tank so I know I'll never run out of oil. I pull oil out of the pan on 2 lines and out of both valve covers.
On top is a set of Boss 351C 4V heads with High port plates added and alot of porting work done to them by Price Motorsports out of Indiana, These Puppies really flow Big time.
On top of the heads I have a Jack Roush SVO Nascar intake I picked up off of Ebay. It supposedly will fit 351W or 351C I had to have the runners milled .350 to get it close and then I had to have the Adapter plates on the heads milled .300 to get everything to line up.
This intake is as close to a Tunnel Ram as you can get and still call it a High Rise Intake.To finish this off I have a 850 DP Holley with a little work done to it by Woodruff Carbs. on top Flows close to 1050 cfm.
On the back side I have a set of Headers I built myself, Cuz You can't buy none for this set-up. 2" Primary 3" Collector Custom fit Wheelwell Exit headers and Crankcase Evac system.
I use the FoMoCo Dist. with a little tweaking done to it. I have a
extention from Price Motorsports added to it so it won't hit the intake, and MSD6AL Box and Blaster Coil And a really good set of plug wires.
Well that's my set-up what do you think.

 

Shazam
All i can say is WOW. :-staun Well, needless to say, being in college I wont have the money for ALL of that. But of all your mods, what might you say would get me up to 500HP. I have a pretty heavy car, so it'll need quite a bit of power to get it rollin like I want it. If I would have known you had to type so much, I wouldnt have asked the question. Sorry bout that.

Thanks for your time.
TrackStar (amateur with engines)

 

Hey: that's ok sometimes I get going and I just lose track of time.My Wife says I have a gift for writing short stories about the Motors I build.But to answer your qestion I'd Say Heads,and then Cam.
As Martinb Says:
The issue of open chamber vs closed chamber heads. AFAIK all US 2v Clevland heads are open chamber (~78cc), whereas 4v heads are available in both open and closed versions. With 4v heads the intake volume is so large flow velocity suffers at low(er) RPMs giving (relatively) low torque output. If I were head shopping again I would watch Ebay for a set of Austrailian 2v heads which have the smaller intake ports of the US 2v heads, and the closed chamber design of the 4v heads ( maybe 65cc). This greatly improves the quench characteristics of the chamber, provided you reduce the deck height which is ~.120" on a 400 and gives a useful compression boost even with the stock dished pistons. At the same time get a set of single groove valves/retainers and a decent set of valve springs and you will have a set up which rivales the aluminum heads, available for other Ford engines, at a fraction of the cost.

You can make all the H.P. you want but if your heads don't let it flow then you lose.Next is the bump stick there are lots of really good cams out there, it's just finding the one that will work for you. most of the cams I use are from the 351C and are Drag Racing appalcation but sometimes you can find a road racing one or Nascar ones Are good to.
Well another short storie.

 

I appreciate all your helpfulness. I really want to work on my own engine but I lack the tools and enough know-how to do it myself.


Thanks for all the insight.
TrackStar

 

Okay, engine is running again, turns out that i broke an exhaust valve spring on the number 4 cylinder. So i spent $2.25 on the spring and 2 hours fixing and reassembling the valve cover and distributor cap. Back to all 8 cylinders firing and running smoothly.

 

Lucky No bent parts ......