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CHEVY 400 CUBIC INCH SMALL BLOCK CAST IRON MOTOR

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 PostPosted: March 13th, 2014, 10:44 pm   
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1 I Bandit wrote:
Hi Hounddog
I would be intrested in this we used to take the crank out of the 400's and put them in bored out 350's change the pistons to 327 pistons so the skirts didn't hit the throws on the crank and you had a 383 stroker. Do you have double bump heads on it? Do you know the compression? Cam specs? I am about to get started on rebuilding my car I have had sitting for to long I do have a 383 stroker for it but it is nice to have some options or a spare in case something blows up.


Now here is someone that knows the old tricks.
The 327/375 hp fuelie heads are the BEST ever double bump heads
The cam is a solid lifter cam. If my memory is right it is a 310 with specs close to the original 302.
Motor would be 10.25 compression. The 302's and 1970 LT1 were 11 to 1.
I had both motors. My 1970 LT1 Corvette I purchased new in 1970.
I ran an original 1968 Z28 302 motor in my 1957 Corvette. I sold that motor because I had to rev the hell out of it to get a good start at the light and it was a dead give away. I replaced it with a SLEEPER 400 cubic inch, the twin of this motor. The motor mentioned in this post was the back up motor. The original 400 never broke. Young people to-day don't realize how fast the old Vettes were. The 1957 Corvette only weighed 2300 lbs. We would run the 400 motor with a M22 4 speed and a 411 rear end. A solid lifter cam motor has a wonderful sound. Thompson and a few other performance tire people made street race tires. The Corvette had a strong solid frame and they would hook up well with a good street race tire. The late 60s and early 70's muscle cars didn't stand a chance when they raced one of the sleeper Vettes.


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 PostPosted: March 13th, 2014, 10:50 pm   
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Very cool. I love old Vettes and Camaros. I would love to see pics of these old cars!

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 PostPosted: March 14th, 2014, 7:01 am   
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I love 'vettes too. I built an '80 with a 383 (from the original 350) with a 700r4 trans swap. Was deadly quick, until it burned to the ground... I had a 400 block I was going to build years ago, ended up sitting on it, then it sold in the trunk of a '72 Nova I had rotting. Since I bought my boat, I haven't had time or motivation to mess with cars. But some of the ideas floating around in my head might have to come to fruition eventually... But on the topic of your motor, you say it has been sitting a long time, assembled, but never fired. Was everything well oiled upon assembly? Just wondering about the possibility of it needing all new bearings and a cylinder honing after all these years. When I built my last motor, the crank came in a bag, oiled. I opened the bag to check the bearing surfaces, then left it on my workbench for about a month before I got around to starting the build. When build time came, I had to clean up every surface I had previously touched because they had started to rust. It doesn't take much!

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 PostPosted: March 14th, 2014, 7:54 am   
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Small block 400, 327/350 hp cam, Holley carb, double bump heads..........
Man, it's high school all over again!!

I built several of these combinations, back in the day, myself.
Great working units providing your cooling system works well.
Siamese bores in the 400 block can build up a lot of steam.

Hounddog, did you drill the 6 coolant holes in in each of those Camel Bump heads?!?!? :D

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 PostPosted: March 14th, 2014, 8:47 am   
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Nice to hear from some old school guys.

To answer some of the questions.

Yes it was oiled on assembly. I would work with the buyer and take it apart before hand. If I sell it as parts
I will take it apart. It has been stored a long time.

About the 400 block having stream/cooling issues totally correct and yes the heads are drilled.

You mentioned about a Nova. Oddly enough when I decided to put the Vette back to stock form. We put the 400 motor and transmission in a 1966 Chevy Nova. The top SS model could be ordered with the 327 solid lifter motor. That was a very strong combo. The 400 made it even better and it looked and sounded the same. There were a lot of fellows that made that change.

Even to-day drag racers use 2 speed powerguide transmissions in their cars. The nice thing with the 400 in the Vette was the ability to leave in second gear. The motor would light up the tires in first for the show. But, the go was to leave the light in second gear. Normally the guy would run you after a few feet. The 400 has so much torque that you could stand on it and it would jump all the way to 6500 rpm in no time. You could almost run 100 mph in second gear, so most times you never had to change gears. Tough combination be beat.


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 PostPosted: March 14th, 2014, 10:31 am   
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DoktorC wrote:
wetsidedown wrote:
Many of us were doing things before Boomer was born, O GOD, WHOS KID IS HE????????



Hahahahanahahaha...



:lol: someone call that kids parents. :oops:

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 PostPosted: March 14th, 2014, 10:48 am   
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Didn't know you were a car nut too Don. Dad is just finishing up a restoration of his 1967 camaro as his last car project likely. A nice job, but quality at a level so he can still drive it. He ordered a yellow one at the Chev dealer in 1967, thankfully it didn't show up and they gave him this red one with the deluxe interior and manual trans from the showroom. Original owner. It's been to hell and back... in the late 70's it was a rusted out beater. Was fixed up (not really restored). In the 80's it had a basic restoration. Now it gets the works. He turns 70 in 3 weeks. Birthday gift for himself I guess. He's had most the work done by others, but done some himself and been critical of the work that is done. It's being restored as it came from the factory except a few minor things and some hidden HP tweaks inside the engine I believe. I'm not sure it will be 100% complete at the Swap Meet, but very close and I'm sure parked on the lawn. Some pics I took over the last few weeks below. Engine gets fired on next next warmish day.

DOH, sorry, my pic quota has been reached.

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 PostPosted: March 14th, 2014, 2:34 pm   
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Pictures of 1957 Corvettes..Mine car is solid black with a red interior.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=1957+cor ... 84&bih=612


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 PostPosted: March 14th, 2014, 5:21 pm   
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Thanks Hounddog good to know some other guy did the same thing in high school I did. I had a 327 Vega when I was in high school what a stupid thing to do but lots of fun :D. So here is the plan strip down the Camaro get a Art Morrison chassis put the 383 stroker I have in it and a Richmond 6 speed trans and drive the wheels off it.
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o265 ... 694c7c.jpg


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