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400 sbc???? (All assembled)

did you say opinions?
hmm....ok, here's one. if you change your oil and filter every 2K then it's a total waste of money to run synthetic. plain ol' dino oil is good for 5K if it's not a totally abused motor. if it's not running rich, has good compression and is broken in there is no reason to change at 3K either. modern oils have detergent in them, in the past they needed to change oil at closer intervals due to the oils they had, not the case anymore......a good synthetic should be good for 7-8K on a daily driver in good tune. use synthetic, it's better in the cold winter too. why waste it though? personally i like Castrol products.
i just figured i would change the oil at relativley recent points after the break in, then go longer.
 
if it's a stop and go, never gets hot kind of motor i could see a little sooner.....my truck is a NYC daily driver/work truck, hardly sees long steady trips, start and shut off, stop and go.......it's certainly going to have different requirements than a truck that drives a smooth 100 mile commute everyday. modern oils are good........just break your motor in properly. ask the builder guy if he assembles it "tight" or "loose" on the clearances. a motor built on the tighter side will take a bit longer to "loosen up"........and don't baby it either.
 
Dont treat it like gramdas driving. Just drive normally like you would anyday. Just dont beat it . You'll want to feel the power a little probably. But no 5000RPM burnouts either. It'll be fine:thumb:
 
Dont treat it like gramdas driving. Just drive normally like you would anyday. Just dont beat it . You'll want to feel the power a little probably. But no 5000RPM burnouts either. It'll be fine:thumb:

Ahh i see lol. Well ive never hit 3500 in my 305 so i wouldnt worry about that lol. Maybe a small burnout though.... I mean come on...... I cant even squeek the tires now.... Pweez????:dunno:
 
yup.......get on it every now and again, cylinder pressure is your friend. don't take a real long drive either....no steady rpms. you want to seat the rings and not glaze the cylinders.

if you take two identical motors and break them in differently.......they will run different. i don't care what anyone says....if you break it in pretty hard she'll run hard, the inverse is true too............completely agree on the no 5K burnouts at first :D.
 
We run a 15w-40 diesel oil in everything we own. We've done this for years and never had an issue.
 
Well i run 15w 40 Rotella in it now, but it sucks in the winter startups, i can just feel it grinding away on a cold start up untill the oil pressure goes up. Its gross lol. Im thinkin ill try the Royal Purple. See how it works in the longrun. Price doesnt bother me one bit. If it makes my truck feel good. I feel good.
 
Well i run 15w 40 Rotella in it now, but it sucks in the winter startups, i can just feel it grinding away on a cold start up untill the oil pressure goes up. Its gross lol. Im thinkin ill try the Royal Purple. See how it works in the longrun. Price doesnt bother me one bit. If it makes my truck feel good. I feel good.
Just my opinion here but after reading a few bad threads about Royal Purple I don't care for it. Seams they spend a ****load of money on marketing and I have yet to see any real world tests that proves its better than Amsoil and other high end synthetic oils. For an oil thats better in colder weather, check out Mobil1 0w-40. Great protection, high zinc, phos, and is one of the few thats Porsche approved. Beats the other Mobil1 10w and 5w oils for protection. Another good one is the German Castrol 0w-30, European blend, made in Germany (not USA).
 
is it still cold up there? try 10/30



that's cool.......my truck runs better after i clean the windows, no joke :eek1:.

Haha:haha:. I once washed my 01 silverado. An hour later driving 35 downtown the aluminum waterpump literally blew up. Like The bearing grabbed and ripped the housing in 2 pieces and the fan went through the radiator. Yah, so i never washed it again haha.
 
Just my opinion here but after reading a few bad threads about Royal Purple I don't care for it. Seams they spend a ****load of money on marketing and I have yet to see any real world tests that proves its better than Amsoil and other high end synthetic oils. For an oil thats better in colder weather, check out Mobil1 0w-40. Great protection, high zinc, phos, and is one of the few thats Porsche approved. Beats the other Mobil1 10w and 5w oils for protection. Another good one is the German Castrol 0w-30, European blend, made in Germany (not USA).

Hmm, well i definately want to go full synthetic, see how that goes. Well i got 6 weeks to decide. So keep layin it on me lol.
 
HIJACK engaged.

I got a 400 SBC in my k5 and plan to race someday. I have an idea in my mind and i'd like to hear some opinions from the engine builders on here. Im thinking 350 vortec heads and wiring harness onto it. Total bottom end rebuild with a cam and crank picked for this application and run the vortec intake for full EFI. I've heard it will raise compression to a point possibly beyond pump gas range so i buy higher octane fuel? Block is currently stock and runnin great at about 178k miles. Also im guessing i'd need a custom ECM for this kind of use?
 
HIJACK engaged.

I got a 400 SBC in my k5 and plan to race someday. I have an idea in my mind and i'd like to hear some opinions from the engine builders on here. Im thinking 350 vortec heads and wiring harness onto it. Total bottom end rebuild with a cam and crank picked for this application and run the vortec intake for full EFI. I've heard it will raise compression to a point possibly beyond pump gas range so i buy higher octane fuel? Block is currently stock and runnin great at about 178k miles. Also im guessing i'd need a custom ECM for this kind of use?

Read this-
http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/148_0306_chevrolet_406_big_block_torque/index.html
Shows 400sbc, Vortec heads with dyno. The only problem you may have is CA smog BS.
 
Read this-
http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/148_0306_chevrolet_406_big_block_torque/index.html
Shows 400sbc, Vortec heads with dyno. The only problem you may have is CA smog BS.
Smog wont be an issue, Green stickered :deal: . That popped up on my google search as well as a few other forum post. Im just wondering if theres any unforeseen problems for offroad racing applications. I only plan to bore it out enough to rebuild it. The main reason this is attractive to me besides EFI's advantages and its monster torque numbers is because of its affordability since i already have a perfect condition 400SBC core in a running vehicle. Im thinking i can get this motor built the way i like for 2000-2500 if i assemble everything myself. unrealistic or possible? Any EFI components that need to be changed for the motor to produce those numbers with efi as far as injectors or sensors go? I know they spent 5500 bucks but i already got a full running motor so i figured i might be off to a better start than them or at least a cheaper one :dunno:. Also they are running a carb so it should be interesting to see what kind of numbers come up with a EFI set up similair to that.
 
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look into AMSOIL:whistle:

Thats my plan on my new 454, hoping to get a bypass filter and change the oil every 20-30k at the worst

The main reason this is attractive to me besides EFI's advantages and its monster torque numbers is because of its affordability since i already have a perfect condition 400SBC core in a running vehicle. Im thinking i can get this motor built the way i like for 2000-2500 if i assemble everything myself. unrealistic or possible? Any EFI components that need to be changed for the motor to produce those numbers with efi as far as injectors or sensors go? I know they spent 5500 bucks but i already got a full running motor so i figured i might be off to a better start than them or at least a cheaper one :dunno:. Also they are running a carb so it should be interesting to see what kind of numbers come up with a EFI set up similair to that.

Building power is not cheap, wanna know why. Cause no matter what you do to the bottom end, an engine is still an air pump. Get air in, get air out. Boiled down thats what you are trying to do. Heads is where power is made. Doing heads tends to be expensive.

What EFI are you talking about. TBI is about as old school as you get. A multiport injection would make more power than a TBI
 
Thats my plan on my new 454, hoping to get a bypass filter and change the oil every 20-30k at the worst



Building power is not cheap, wanna know why. Cause no matter what you do to the bottom end, an engine is still an air pump. Get air in, get air out. Boiled down thats what you are trying to do. Heads is where power is made. Doing heads tends to be expensive.

What EFI are you talking about. TBI is about as old school as you get. A multiport injection would make more power than a TBI
Well i figured i'd use the vortec heads and intake off a Vortec 350 since the Vortec motors are full EFI i figured i'd use their wiring harness and modify the ECM to accept the completely different motor its going on. Not exactly sure how it would work but thats why im posting here :dunno::popcorn:
 

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