i, like most gear heads, became a "car guy" at a very young age by helping others on their cars and then getting hooked myself. when i was 16 and just got my liscence i purchased a 75 4 door nova with a 350 that had one cracked head on one side of the engine and a blown head gasket on the other side. i bought it cuz it was cheap and all i could afford. i rebuilt it and it ran great and i was the envy of many fellow high school kids cuz my car was fast, although ugly. after awhile i wanted more power, but of course big blocks were way out of my price range, so i did research on the chevy 400. everyone i talked to said they sucked and to stay with the 350 or go with a 383. well im 27 now and have had all 3 engines and the 400 is my favorite by a landslide. ive had no problems with overheating, blown headgaskets, cracked blocks, or anything else. its as reliable as everyy other small block ive owned. GRANTED, i run an aluminum high flow water pump as well as an aluminum radiator, BUT i also run aluminum heads which should only hurt the head gasket sealing. so then why is it i hardly EVER see car mags using these engines? i know theyre getting rare, but it would seem to me that if you can find one in useable condition that would easily be the way to go over a 350 or 383 with the same parts. im glad car mags dont use them in a way cuz alot of less knowledgable car guys just do whatever the car mags do and that leaves the 400's for those of us willing to work around the so called deficiencies of the sbc 400 in an effort to get more power. 

im just interested to see what everyone else thinks.

chooch 

At one time, when fuel quality sucked and the cooling systems in our cars were at best questionable, the siamesed block would run hotter than a 350. Many problems can be traced to weak cooling systems or improper assembly or even wrong head gaskets used. I personally have built many of the 400's without one issue. One of them I built back in 88, just won a local circle track championship(again) last fall that has only been freshened up every year. It really is the energizer bunny of an engine. Besides, there's no replacement for displacement.  

Yeah I know what you mean I'm putting together a 406 nitrous ready street moter and I'd like to hear about a few other rides out there and maybe employ somebody elses insight & tricks.Your 400 sounds nice what brand of heads are on it I'm considering the Edelbrock E-Tech200s. 

That 75 Nova sounds like it was a nice sleeper.  When I was in high school, all I could afford was stock parts from the junkyard.  Luckily 350 chevy powered cars were common back then.  I bought a 71 Impala with a 350 2bbl and swapped it into a rust bucket 78 Monza with junkyard v8 monza parts.

A local built a 377(400 block, 350 crank) and put it in a non-tubbed, steel bodied Monza Spider.  His cam was huge, over 250 duration at .050, but he drove it an hour each way to the track with race gas in the tank, unbolted the street tires and mufflers, and ran 10.3 with 1.3 60' times all motor.  He shifted it close to 8,000 rpm.

I got a kick out of Freiburger's comment recently in the May issue that the only reason to build a 377 is because you need to fit a cubic-inch rule for racing or because you have the parts sitting around and don't want to spend any more money for a longer-stroke crank.

Is your 400 still in the 75 4 door Nova?

My bodyman has been collecting 400s for a while now.  When the junkyards he deals with would get a 400 powered car or truck in, they would call him and he buy the motor.  I think he has about 15 of them.

My mom bought a used 73 Caprice with a 400 shortly after I pulled the 350 out of the Impala.  The Caprice must have been down on power because my 71 Impala 350 was much stronger in comparison.  The 400 could have benefitted from a rebuild.

Tom

Hey Chooch. I'm with you on this one. I believe that all of the negative comments about 400's are from the mouths of the less informed.  Ya ever notice that every negative 400 story starts with, "I knew this guy who had a 400".  All of these stories of overheating and blown head gaskets seem to be spread by guys who have never owned or probably even seen a 400.  Built properly, (steam holes in heads and gaskets) 400's are no more prone to overheating then any other sbc.  my 406 in my 75 nova with all stock cooling system components peaked at 180° on a 96 degree day and typically maintains 160°- 165°.  So Chooch, you get that 400 in your nova yet?? I'm still waiting for some pictures.

          :-)JH

my 4 door 75 nova had a 350 with 2 diff head casting #'s in it, not a 400. one was an 882 and i dont remember the other number. like i said, this thing was built low budget(i was a dishwasher at a resteraunt then, lol). the cam was a summit 224 @ .050 with stock stall and stock gears, carter afb 600 and performer intake with headers and dual glasspacks. i couldnt even tell you what the timing was cuz that was before i started using timing lights lol. i just turned the distributor til it sounded right.

and the 400 is still in my malibu cuz i dont have a place to swap it into the nova yet. ive been thinking about sending them pics to you Silver75 but just havent done it. i promise to do it tomorrow if its nice out.

this is my first 400 and out of the hole it doesnt feel diff than the 350's and 383 ive owned, but at about 2500 RPM that changes and im positive it sweeps through the RPM band faster. my malibu ran a 13.10 at the track with its 400 and my s truck (FOR SALE) has a 383 that runs the same time, but they each have power in different parts of the rpm band. i just read somewhere that the bigger bore of the 400 makes the heads flow better than they would on a 4" bore.

and yes thats true that most people who talk bad about the sbc 400 have never owned one. they ARE rare and a little more expensive to build, but since driving the one i own now im done with 350's. from now on its 3.1's for daily drivers and 400's for power.

There's nothing wrong with a 400 except trying to find one.

DF

It has ported dart sportsman II's, were state of the art then. The rules in that class dont allow aluminum heads.

heres my point guys. as ive already stated i own a pretty 75 nova and

I am with you on the 400.  I have a 1962 Nova and with the old motor which was a 406 it ran 12.8 @ 101.  That motor had a few problems, not the motor I guess, but the person who put it together.  A good engine builder is sometimes hard to come by.  So I just put in a 377 about three weeks ago.  Let me tell you that this thing is ready to go to the track.  I put Dart Pro 1 heads on it with a victor intake, demon carb, all forged internals and a pump gas friendly 9.5:1 comp ratio.  Hope to go high 11's.  We will see.  It hard to make it not churp second.  

wow i thought the 8 cyl 350 vs 7 cyl 400 would get more responses.  

I'm sure a few years back but with all of the newer tv show people are really learning the value of displacement.  See that twin turbo 400+ cube 1500 hp corvette Boyds crew put together on American hot rod.  Ihad a 78 blazer with a 400 and I will be kicking myselfe in the but for letting it go probably forever, but it was a fair trade.  

yes i seen the boyd vette. i think that was a 434 they said. and i also seen a blue 80's vette that was twin turbo 400 that had something like 1200-1500hp depending on octane available. rad rides by troy built a twin turbo 400 that was basically the same engine specs as the blue vette one. i believe they called it chickane(spelling?). ive been reading car mags for over 15 years now and ive never seen any of them embrace the 400 sbc. and i know freiburger says they are rare, but they were more available 10 or more years ago and even then they didnt get mcuh coverage at  all. AND ANOTHER THING, YOURE CARCRAFT. YOU HAVE PULL. USE IT TO GET SOME WORLD OR BRODIX BLOCKS OR SOMETHING. ive already admitted 400's are rare, but they are out there if you look. personally, i think big blocks are just as rare as 400's and i see quite a bit of coverage on them.

i just see no reason to build undriveable 350's if you could get the same e.t. out of a bigger *** engine while being alot more driveable.

I compleatly agrea and if I had a job instead of being a stay at home dad I would be collecting everything with a displacement above 283, Especially the big blocks theres a nice compleat 454 on colorado 4x4 org thats only 750 bucks running, and a 400 powered 70's 4 door malibu for the same price, I think mags try to stick with what the majority of people have so the #'s add up with the bolt ons an people say hey I can do that.  

heres another method of persuasion. if 1 point of compression adds 3-4% power on lower comp engines BUT also diminishes after about 11:1, then a 9:1 400 should make the same OR more power than a 12:1 350 assuming the 350 makes about 500 UNSTREETABLE hp at about 7000 or so RPM on turbo blue(over $5 per gallon) or similar gas. id think most of your readers would take the bigger *** engine that could run on 87 octane and only need to turn to 6000 RPM.

ive been praying every night CC will use one of those 400ci engines they said they recently scored as the engine for the disco nova. put some AFR heads on that sucker and a flat tappet cam. please?