your opinion on 400 smallblock?

Tim

Clint

I had a buddy that had the most potent naturally aspirated single carbed small block Camaro I"ve ever seen or driven down a strip...way back when. Was a "70, and he was twisting 400"s long before I"d ever heard about anyone else doing it. .030 over, 350 crank welded up and hardened to size, putting it at about 378 inches as I recall. A whole lot of good stuff when the Torker type of manifolds were new to the game with a single 1050 or 1150 Holley and before roller cams. That guy twisted that unibody pretty good and got the front end up about a foot, then would launch and dump you back through the trunk lid if you weren"t strapped in. That was a potent Camaro, that would snap your neck with every gear...back in the days when Jenkins was running big and small block Vegas and Camaros. Thanks for the memories.

From an older fatter Cummins Dodge guy these days, they were a great foundation for a real lethal motor. Grin.

• 400 photo

That's what I've always said.

Not a rat motor out there that will compare to a common old SB400 and the 350s are just plain "lame" in comparison.

Allan

I remember a guy back in the mid-70's named Kevin Rotti showed up in Denver with the smallest big block I'd ever seen. Huge bore, almost no stroke. Was in the 360+ or 370+ inch range. To look at it, and not confuse it with the truck block, which it wasn't, it looked like any other rat. There's no air to breath in Denver, so gotta run smaller motors, but that was a small big block. Seemed almost laughable. Everyone laughed. By Sunday afternoon we'd stopped laughing. I'm thinking that he was hitting the mid to high 9 grands with that thing, and he took the Pro-Stock trophy home for the Mile High Nationals that year.

I started to build a 400 for a street machine once only to find out the donor engine was a boat anchor due to a spun main. I went right back to the ever faithful 350 again.

The biggest problem with 400s is too many unique parts compared to the other mouse motors. The blocks and heads have significant differences, rod and main journals are sized different, rods are different length and sometimes the biggest suprise comes from the unique flywheels and harmonic balancers. Most people don't realize 400s are the only externally balanced mouse.

They were TORQUEY engines, but probably NOT the best for sustained high power output use, such as heavy towing, 'cause the siamesed cylinders tended expand unevenly, leading to oil consumption, and the "steam holes" in the block, head gasket, and head make the engine a little more prone to head gasket leaks than other SBC's.

Otherwise, a typical SBC, the best, highest production, longest production run series of engines ever.

Feel free to "flame away" as needed, blue oval guys and goat guys! Don't get TOO carried away, though, as I have a couple of Fords and a "token Mopar" in the fleet at the farm!

I beat the snot out of it, and it was still running well when I sold it in 1982 (got hitched and started a family).

The kid that got it beat the heck out of it, too, and it was still running when he sold it to his cousin. I lost track of it a sale or two after that. Gosh, I wish I had it back, now!