400 chevy in a traditional rod?

I have a 400 chevy that I am pulling from my stude and replacing it with a 350 crate.

I am seriously considering rebuilding the 400 and using it in my 37 chevy truck project. I guess I am wondering the pro/cons. Small blocks are vintage....but not 400. Does it distract from the overall appeal of the rod? I am not debating the 400 as a engine, just as applied to a tradtional styled rod///......I mean it looks the same....does it matter? How pure should I be?

I have the engine, it has goodies: roller rockers, cam, etc.....and it will be easy/cheap to maintain and I plan on driving it quite a bit.

What y'all think? I'll bet this has been debated here before but I couldn't find a thread........

 

dress it up to look kind of old and say it's a 283 or 327 and most folks won't know (or care)

it's all about appearances

 

who would know if it's a 400...or a 350 , 327 , 283 if it was dressed correctly?

 

Hell Yes....Best power in the same "package" offered in 55......

 

better yet, put that 400 crank in your 350

 

You KNOW that we talked about that....of course.......

 

I love 400's. More bang for the buck. Lots of low RPM "grunt" (needs less gear/converter). Keep in mind more cubes/power=more heat. I've never had a problem cooling one, but keep that in mind. Whenever someone removes a 6 cyl and adds an 8 cyl, they increase the cooling. NOBODY remembers this when going from 327/350 to a 400. Thus giving them a bad rep. Anyway, here's mine. Haven't had it to the track, but i'm confident it'll go deep in the 12's if it "hooks". 3.50 gears and it'll be shifted UNDER 6000 RPM. Also, i drove it 300 miles to the CHRR @ Bako a few months ago. I used an old Edelbrock C3B-X for the "look" but i'm sure it killed a bunch of power over a Victor Jr or something. But it still rips pretty good.

 

Go for it! I orignally I had a 327 in my 37 chevy pu, but after loosing the cam and did not want a lot down time from driving, I place a 350 with bowtie heads no one noticed or just did not care. You could always put an intake with oil tube on it.

 

I have heard that they can go through head gaskets.

 

The only visual difference would be the harmonic balancer. If some one give you a hard time about it, just remember the bottom end torque you are getting out the motor and quickly forget there protests.

Build it the way you want and can afford.

 

isnt a small block chevy a small block chevy? Run the 400 and enjoy the added torque!

 

So far, that's only been a problem for me with Nitrious. But a spark retard system that kicks in when you squeeze it helps a bunch. I beat the snot out of one i did years back forever. After months of killin it on the street and every Saturday at the track, i squezzed it with a small unit (100HP) and got BOTH head gaskets. But it went from 11.70 @ 114 MPH to 10.70 @ 131!!!!! Again w/3.70 gear and shifting that one right at 6000

 

I'd do it man! I'm plannin on pullin my worn out 327 out of my coupe and puttin in my 406 I've got sitting in the garage. Just gonna dress it up to look traditional.

 

I won't be needin' any nitrous....it is gonna me a cab and a frame, so the thing is gonna be light as hell....I am gonna put a rail in the back to haul my panhead......I may need to keep the bike in back so there is some weight over the rear end!! Ha ha

I am getting excited, this will be my first ground up build. My studebaker was (shutter) dare I say it...bought.

 

they can, also prone for head craking were the steam holes
i have 2 of them and both of them are cracked,

 

I use 400's EVERY chance i get

 

The reason they "went through head gaskets" is people didn't drill the steam holes in the heads when replacing the stock 400 heads with 1.94/2.02 intake heads for added performance. Drill the heads using the head gaskets as a template, use composition gaskets with a light coat of rattlecan aluminum paint, use premium head bolts torqued in the proper sequence with washers on the bolts and some sealant on the threads. Problem solved.

Frank

 

Use the right gasket and forget it. Did it have problems in the other car? think about how many of em logged over 100K in truck and pass car duty. Fuck them head gasket worries, run it!

 

I've been told by a bunch of older men that the main difference in the cooling is that the center cylinders are considered saimesed because there is not room for a center water jacket with the larger bores. I have been told this also true with the ZZ502 which probably doesn't matter here.

I would use it but would be on the lookout for a killer radiator.

 

Actually, it's NOT that easy. After using the gskt to mark where to drill the hole, the hole's gotta be drilled on an angle to find water! So far, i haven't drilled the steem holes and never had issues. OK, come get me (u know who you are)

 

I bought it with multiple probs, bad rings (oil fouling the plugs) and bad compression. But I said, "what the hell" and nursed a year/10,000 miles out of it. But last month it was time to call it off. It was creating its own smokescreen!! So with a freshen it should be a strong engine...in fact it ran fairly stong with bad compression so I can't wait to get it going as a fresh build!!

I had been worring about the "pure" factor but it seems from these resposes that I had nothing to worry about. I guess I just want to do it RIGHT...you know?

 

Is this going in the Chevy truck your grandfather had? I would do it if you already had it. I have 400 small blocks in my blood. Thats all my dad runs. Just so you know it would be more of a "traditional styled rod" rahter than a traditional hot rod. My 97 cents!

 

Granddad's truck? YES! Can you tell that 1) I have the day off.....and 2) I am excited about the truck!!!

So the only difference is the "-ed" in the style? Well that is perfect my graddad was "Ed!" HA HA

I have a great group of club memebers who are gonna help me make this thing a great truck.

 

I wish I could restore my grandads truck but I cant. So I am gettin one just like his and doin it up like he would have it could have afforded it. Happy roddin!

 

I have been running a 6-71 blown 400 in my 39 chev for about 15 years. I did a backyard rebuild on it with the gm"service package" head gaskets.I think everyone makes the gaskets with the stainless O ring now but i am not sure. If somebody is looking close enough to see the damper tell them to mind their own F ucking business.

 

I just finished a 406 in my 58 apache.bad ass... loads of torque..super strong to 6000 pulled 6500 a few times. truck is 4x4 and very heavy. but soooooo much torque in the low end it dosnt matter. i did alot of research and i would definatly do the steam holes or better yet let a machine shop do them. it very easy to snap off a bit and then theres trouble... i used a fel pro mls head gasket to alleviate my fears of the head gasket stories so far so good.. hopefully you are building this truck for yourself ,if so fuck what anyone else thinks about anything and build what you like....good luck

 

If I had one I'd do it.

 

Ran my 400 after cracking heads between steam holes & mig welded em , made round trip cailf. to N.C. in 68 black EL CAMINO SS no air hottest day on record with a flex fan had elec. fan never turned it on! car better faster & way cooler than the 427 BB

 

We used 400 head gaskets in the 6-71 blown 350 ... drilled the holes to match the gasket in the deck (?) and heads and never had a problem ... of course this was roughly 30 years ago and we were just stoopid kids.

Nobody told us not to do it and we figured it couldn't hurt.