Does any one know the most you can stroke a sbc 400. I know eagle makes a kit that pushes it to 434 but is that the most you can go with it?
A Chevy passenger car/truck block or aftermarket block??? On a GM block, a 434 is it. Aftermarket blocks with a bigger bore can go larger. Get a tall deck block and exotic components and you can push that to 472ci... or bigger...
(I see the problem is fixed for you) It all depends what you want to do with this engine.... and how much you want to spend... The Dart blocks are good as well as the World Products stuff. If you use a stock block, there is going to be some serious grinding to get that 4" arm to fit.
I think I am going to go with a stock bore 400 block and have the machine shop noch the cylinders to fit a 4" stroke crank in. Then I will have a 427 small block! yeah i like the sound of that "427 small block" hehe
Yea, tall deck Chevy 472"... Look for the word "Cadillac" on the valve covers and save yourself a couple grand.
umm er well......ok first the 400 SB has thinest block walls of any SB boreing them over 60 is not recamended i have built many 400 SB & have two of them right now a runner stocker in my 4X4 & a builder 1970 400SB 4 bolt main that will be getting honed & new pistons but i would suggest not trying to boor it that much hell most shops would hopefully tell you that wont do it .......
I wasn't planing on boreing it out. I just want to use the stock bore and put a 4" strocker crank in it to make a 427sb. then build off of that with a good cam and heads.and for that matter would stock 327 heads flow good enuff for that many ci?
Even 327 heads will come up short trying to feed a 427/400. the only way they would keep up is if you limited the RPM range you operated the engine. I suppose if you went for torgue instead of RPM (right cam choice) you could make a usable combination. Truth is your getting into territory that all but REQUIRES the use of aftermarket parts. Frank
How big do you think the intake runner volume should be? Somewhere around 215cc? I'm thinkin about going with a pair of dart iron eagles.
if your not going to bore the block you are throwing money away. Cylinders are most likely out-of-round from miles and probably have a slight ridge. You would have to run cast pistons and rings to get them to seat and seal properly in a stock bore motor (as cast has a greater expansion rate than Hypers, or Forged) I would highly suggest boring the motor to get the cylinders back in shape - not more than .030 or .040 max for a stock 400 GM block (as most machine shops/engine builders would recommend) sounds like your wanting to build a pretty potent motor....not cheap to do but rewarding when done correctly. 327 "fulie" heads are useless in that big of a motor. New Style GM Vortec heads flow better than the "fulies" and are just as cheap to by a new set as to have a old set done up. I would stick to aftermarket ... Dart, World, ProTopline in the 215cc Intake range. You might want to talk to you engine builder before doing/buying anything. ask yourself....what is my REALISTIC power goal. And then pick your components to achive that. what type of car is this going it- a '30A? how much does it weigh? you racing it or is it going to be a street terror?
I am shooting for 450hp on pump gas. not shure on what the weight of its is cause obviously it is not done. What do 30 two door sedans weigh when done? This is my first project. if i had to guess about 2000lb. Does that sound right? or close? It is going to be a street car but I will be racing it a couple times a year maybe as much as 4. I am not quite sure have to see how it runs the first time outat the track.
you really should look at a aftermarket block if you are going with a 4 inch stroke......you can stick one in a block with the stock cam location but it gets very tight.....some times it i easier to install the cam first on final assembly i would really look at a raised cam tunnel block, plus most of the aftermarket blocks are pre clearanced in the areas that need attention if you plan on trying to use a stock block I would find a shop with the expeirence to notch the cylinders as well as the clearance work on the pan rails...you can hit water in this area if you are not careful. a 200cc runner will work but i like the dart iron eagle's in the 215 as a minimum for the strokers, but thats just me....you have way more valve train choices if you stay away from the vortecs... Fred
for what your wanting to use it for.....heres a combo a customer had built for his nova......its a mild 406 (30 over ) ....true flat tops (je's) 6" rods ( left over dirt track kryptonites) lightweight callies crank crane 518/536 282/288 solid cam.....victor jr intake....edelbrock performer rpm heads (port matched) it had a holley 950 hp but was switched to a more useable 750 double pumper....1 3/4 headers (hooker super comps) the motor made 496 hp and topped out at 490 lbs of torque ...and had 400 lbs of torque from 2000 rpms but never hit 500 thru the rpm range......this car with a 3800 convertor and 4.11's should run probably easy 11.70's or so......minus a 1000 pounds and you start talking a pretty interesting ride.....especially in a model a.............haha as for stock blocks......i have been told by several guys to skip the 4 bolt mains...and re cap a 2bolt with splayed caps.....and after a buddy did a 434 ....i would probably just stick with a 406 ...or possibly a 415.....maybe a 421 ....brandon
What would be better in the long run? cheaper? and easier? I will say this right now I will NEVER sell this car or get rid of it. Now thats out of the way here are my options. Buy the complete 427sbc crate engine. Buy an aftermarket block(dart or world) and put a 4" stroke crank and what ever other goodies i want or do the same with a stock block and pay an engine builder to noch the cylinder walls. I am prity sure I don't want to buy the crate motor one; i want to actualy build my motor(for the most part), two i want to chose what parts go in my motor, and three when I am done with the car I want to take pride in the fact that I built a mean, bad ass motor!
While you could make more power and have EXACTLY the parts you want in it if you built your own, the crate motors are pretty hard to beat, especially if you're new to engine building. They don't cost much (if any) more than you'd have into building your own, AND they come with a warranty! I'd easily give up a few HP for a warranty! That's my $.02 Steve
Thanks for all the info/help on this topic. It will be a while before we get started on the motor(cause of the f'n snow but i've already bitched about that) but it is always nice to jump on the hamb and get some info/ ideas. The reason I will never sell it, Here is the story: My mom bought it for my dad about 16 years ago. It was barn fresh. By my seinor year ing high school he had done nothing with it so when I gradgimatated my dad gave half of the car to me for my graduation present. That was 3 years ago and it is going real slow. So far I have bought a new frame and a 40 ford front end(still need to split the bonesand drop the axle) but I'm working on it as much as my $$ alows. When I get the chance I will post some pics.
Ok, reading that and hearing your age... you need to figure out how much you want to spend on this engine if you used all new parts (inc aftermarket block and heads) I threw some numbers together and have for the basic long block about $7,500. That is not including intake, carb, headers, ignition, fasteners, etc... add that stuff and you could be over $10,000 by the time you are done. I would look at what Brandon suggested or search the web. I'm sure you could put together a stout 406 with a solid cam and aftermarket heads for under $4,000 if you are thrifty about it. I would really pick the brains of Race Fab and Scotch... they both are very good when it comes to combinations.
QUOTE] With a car as light as yours though a 400 as described and built above for the Nova would be plenty to scare the hell out you and everyone else.[/QUOTE] in the nova it would scare the hell out of ya ....and to quote my kid......"it chewed up blacktop.." hahha if your going to build a driver the vortecs are a nice head.....i finally got my father in law to switch to them on his crate motor ihra stocker.....he had a 300 hp gm crate motor....the change to the vortecs are 30 hp ...and make it a 330 hp crate motor.....the car went from 12.40's.....to 11.50's.....(mind its a stocker motor....but it still has a 465 lift cam ....262 @50...) and has since went 11.00's after having the heads blueprinted....my nephew has a wore out 355 flattop short block with a pair of vortecs and a performer rpm intake ...750 holley ...and a cheapy summit 480/ 292 hyd cam ....with a leftover vega glide convertor i had laying around ...3.73's on 26x8.5 slicks ...it went 12.20's thru the exhaust....this motor with a different cam and converter would be a ball in a light hot rod.....for cheap money ....now if you want to start getting back in to "extreme".....you could always build a sbc "buick" .....hahah brandon
There are sooo many options when building a motor(every one knows that) but I will have to wait to talk to my dad about what we want to do. But after we figure out what we want my girlfriends step-dad races a 73 duster (runing 10.67s and wieghs 3010 with him and 13 gallons of fuel) and knows a motor guy (wheelerracingengines.com) and can help us rookies out.
Yeah, ask a LOT of questions and read read read. I would try to find a magazine buildup that has been dynoed and follow that. You can see proven results that way. They have tired the combinations and found out what worked. You need to watch yourself. There are a lot of people out there that are looking to make a fast buck and a young guy is an easy target. I'm sure you can find the reputable machine shop in the area by talking to the local gearheads. And keep this in mind... according to the Speed/Power calculator (which has never lied to me before ) a car putting down 300 hp to the ground (with optimal traction) would push a 2250# car to 11.00 @ 120mph in the quarter mile. Again... this is with optimal conditions. An engine making 450 hp should put down 300-325 to the pavement, depending on drivetrain.
http://www.musclecarclub.com/library/race/quarter-mile-conversion.shtml (something close but a chart that is hard to read) http://www.fantasycars.com/derek/hp.html (kinda gay, but gives you an idea) http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/4601/hpcalc.html (can plug in your vehicle weight and play around with ET and MPH) The calculator I used was a Moroso slide ruler looking thing that has been around for ever. Available at any speed shop.
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