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400 sbc

tarussell said:
I was gonna mention the whole "lean running" issue but I thought I'd stay clear and not start a fuss . This thread is entertaining !

Tom

The only fuss is when his engine blows up and then realizes that i know what i'm talking about and that it's too late for him.
 
4X4HIGH said:
The only fuss is when his engine blows up and then realizes that i know what i'm talking about and that it's too late for him.




Yeah , :rolleyes: How does the saying go ? " You can lead a horse to water but Ya' can't make em' drink " ........ Lots of info is given and much of it is real good - do some homework fella's and decide for yourselves what is the right way to do things and what is just a way to do things .


Tom
 
4X4HIGH said:
The 400 block is not set up to accept the spider hold down tray that holds the lifter bars in place and also the tops of the lifter bores are not machine flat to accept the lifter bars. The retro-fit roller lifters will have a horizontal bar connecting each pair of lifter to keep them from rotating in the lifter bore. For obvious reasons you cannot have a roller lifter rotating in the bore.

Also the pushrods are shorter on a roller lifter engine since the roller lifters are taller.


pushrod lengths are no problem for me. i can have custom ones made. about the lifters, is it possible, and would it be cheaper to have the flat spots machined? i really dont wanna spend 400 bux on lifters, but i guess i might have to.. :(
 
The lifter boss would have to be machined flat to a given height, you would need to weld in 4 drilled and tapped boss's for the lifter spider tray to bolt down and then you would have to buy the required pieces which consist of GM #12371042 and sells for $195.83 from www.gmpartsdirect.com

You will also need the pushrods which are GM #12371041 $24.02 once again from www.gmpartsdirect.com These pushrods are not for use with guide plates.
 
about the cam/rod clearances. ive red that you have to either have a small base circle cam or have the rods clearanced to clear the crank? anyone heard of this and is it true?

edit.. here is the cam that im really thinking about. ill have to wait to see what desktop dyno thinks about it, but how do you tell if its a small base cam with out it saying? if the picture is an actual picture of the cam, it looks like a small base to me..

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=EDL%2D2201&autoview=sku
 
Yes it is true. Basically if you are holding a rod in your hand looking at the big end of the rod and the side that is on the inside of the engine from the ID of the rod journal to the outside of the rod where the rod bolt is there needs to be no more than 5/8" (.625") of material otherwise the rod bolt will hit the cam lobe. This happens only on 2 cylinders though but for sake of keeping things balanced you clearance ALL the rods the same way.
 
tarussell said:
It appears the horse is starting to drink .........

:haha: They have to sooner or later.

When it comes to engines and pretty much anything automotive related i have probably more knowledge than most people and i'm willing to share it with others but sometimes it's hard to do it when i know at first they may not listen or like what i'm telling them. :crazy:
 
so it doesnt matter if you have a small base cam or not, it needs clearanced no matter what?

btw, ive pretty much decided to go carb because of the ease of tuning, and ill pay only alittle more for a good carb than i would for the 750 tb
 
It is very hard to find a small base circle cam these days. Regardless of if you can the rods will still need to be clearanced.
 
4X4HIGH said:
It is very hard to find a small base circle cam these days. Regardless of if you can the rods will still need to be clearanced.

straight up answer, you make it easy. :D thanks
 
Small base circle cams also bring other problems with. The shaft core diameter is smaller so the lobe can be smaller. This is because if you use a stock diameter shaft the lifters will hit the shaft on the heel of the lobe.

I don't think you have to clearance the pan rail on a 400 block for the stroker kit with 5.7 rods. Perhaps Scott would know about this.
George
 
The only thing that I remember that needed to be clearanced was the small end of the rod. That could have been from the dish pistons that I used. I vaugely (sp?) remember clearancing the rods bolts for the cam lobes.
 
tarussell said:
It appears the horse is starting to drink .........


I always liked the expression:

"You don't learn anything new when you're the one talking......"



So true.

When I'm hanging out with Scott, I make a conscious effort to do plenty of listening. :ears:



:usaflag:
 
I'll jump in on the TBI with a 400 plan here...... How about sourcing your TBI parts from a 454?

Seems to me that would put a guy fairly close with factory 454 injectors and throttle body. I've got two trucks with stock 454's with carbs and my K5 with a carbed mild 406. Power is higher from my 406 than the stocker 454's but fuel consumption is close to the same.

I'm curious to see what the opinion would be on the 454tbi setup. It's only 50cubes less and with a cam, heads, compression I'd think those items would use up an extra 50ci's worth of fuel, or at least get the fuel a lot closer than a 350tbi setup would.
 
4X4HIGH said:
Better yet, think about how much it's going to cost when his engine blows up and he has to do it all over again the RIGHT WAY. Engines run real good when they are running lean, lean means heat and detonation which leads to a big BOOM.

Not to burst ur bubble or anything but i had the motor built by a motor builder that was building motors for 20 some years before you even started. for bout 40years now. he built our race motor for the mustang (410 sbf that runs 9.60@ 139mph.) and we havent had to rebuild it yet. built 2 years ago. my motor was built 4 years ago (and i just put a new head gasket in it last weekend, motor looks like brand new inside!?). and by the way its not running lean. Now im not sayin i know more than you bout motors. im simply stating that my motor guy is top notch. builds some of the top motors here on the east coast for drag and performance. he knows his stuff. period. if im wrong and my motor blows ill let u know.
 
GM TBI is meant to be used on stock engines. If you head over to the third gen TBI BBS, you can dig through the largest stash of TBI tuning data on the web. You can modify TBI to work on many applications, but rest assured, to get your A/F ratio correct on even a mildly modified motor you are going to have to do some PROM tuning. Bumping FP is not enough, and will lead to other problems. The larger the cam, the more problems you will run into.

Yes, there are guys here, and elsewhere, that run built motors with factory tunes, etc., but I've never seen a single one of them post a A/F curve for us to look at. Assuming that it works because it doesn't blow up is foolish. The early 454 TBI trucks ran lean from the factory, and that lead to melted pistons, etc, using the factory tune on a stock motor.

Take your chances if you want. Or do it right and don't worry about it.

Aftermarket heads are the way to go, perhaps some Vortecs if you're on a budget.
 
I agree im not running a big cam or ported heads or any of that crap. i had it done right the first time. i was thinking of going to vortec heads and maybe one of the holley tbi units. then i might as well swap cams and then get a new chip for the computer. but ive got plenty of power for me right now. dont think i really need all of that. its just what i wanted. i wanted something that would have the power of a big block but the convience of fuel injection and decent gas mileage. (my 350tbi setup got me bout 8-10mpg on a good day)
 
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