Anyone ever run one? I am going to take a look at this one, think it is a deal? 406 shortblock cheap - $800 817 block .30 over, fresh hone, moly rings, clevite 7 bearings speed pro hyper pistons, 4 valve reliefs torque plate hone, align bore, balanced ***embly, cat crank std/std ***embled minus cam, can include a solid cam no lifters and timing set come inspect it, pop a cap off, bearing lube still on it Anything I should check for?
Ford 406 would be a big block. And an 817 is definately a Chevy. Sounds like a good deal to me. Is it a 2 bolt, or 4 bolt mains block? Put that, with the solid cam and some good heads, and you'll have a fun little Falcon!
Good deal... make sure you drill the steam holes in the motown heads. ( use the 400 gasket as a template ). Also, i recomend plumbing the intake manifold to vent steam/ water from the rear of the engine. some intakes come with 1/2 " npt fittings in place. if yours does not all you have to do is drill and tap an 1/8' npt hole.( again, use the intake gasket as a template).. a 1/8 npt hole and some -4 pushlock hose will work just fine..you do not need anything larger because all you are doing is venting steam, not trying to re route the coolant flow..run it to the front water p***age, under the thermostat. On the dirt track cars we have seen this drop temp as much as 25 to 30 degrees. it seems to help the 400 blocks live longer. works for all small blocks as well. good luck dave
#817 block is 73-80 400ci with 2bolt mains. Was low HP smog motor for cars/trucks................150/180HP. Take a good look at the clearances on the rods and mains with some plastigauge. Good luck
Sounds like a good deal to me! I have a 406 sbc in my ride & its a nasty sob. If you have never had a hot 400 before you about to learn what a great engine they are....jmo
Because the Cyl's are so large that water will boil between the Cylinder's sleeves. There is not enough room for enough water to flow around them.
do it but ditch the 400 heads they ****. run some 350 heads one of my good friends has one in 60 f100 and it hauls *** and has never really given him any problems.
A 406 needs a high volume oil pump also. Without good flow the front rod bearings (furtherest from the pump) will seize up if you wind it up.
406 is a good engine,don't try the 7000 rpm chit with them though. They need to stay below 6 if you want them to live.I've had 6 or 7 of them ,no problems at all. OHHH I forgot ,someone will correct me and say they run theirs 9000 on every gear change with 265 rods and a flat cam.
Yea, I would like to see one that will rap to 9000 also, they can pick the crank up on the track after the first run. The one for $800, what rods are in it? Check the length, a short 5.5in. 400 rod isnt very good, a 5.7in. 350 is better but it could stand a 6.0in. aftermarket. Still for the price it isnt bad.
Get the spec sheet for the pistons. It will show what compression ratio to expect with several combustion chamber cc sizes. You'll need this info before picking your heads. For the price it most likely has the short 400 rods. For about $65.00 you can get a main cap girdle that will help tie the bottom end together.
I've run several short (5.56) rod 400s like the ad describes. Awesome foundation for a pump gas performance engine that'll make 350hp and +400 ft-lbs on 91 octane. And it'll do it with a mild enough cam for power brakes and a low-stall converter. You don't need 5.7 rods or stud girdles, ya just need enough discipline to keep it under 6K rpm. Solid lifter cam totally goes against the nature of that shortblock's hard parts, even if it's free. Steam holes are real easy to add with a hand drill and some patience. A low-buck 180-190cc aftermarket head will let that 400 shine. good luck
Drill and tap your intake manifold where the rear coolant crossover ports are on the heads. Add fittings and pipe/hose to connect em. Because the heads are interchangeable side to side, there's cooling crossovers ports on both ends. But the factory only uses the front one. Fairly common in the circle track world to run a rear crossover, even with 350s. Helps eliminate hot spots by having more uniform coolant flow. I've never put em on a street engine, and never had a problem.
The 5.7 rods are a minimum with this combination. I built the first one around here and used the short 400 rods because everything worked out so easy. They hadn't started making the pistons with the higher wrist pin hole yet and it was a disappointing build. Never ran any better than a good 350. The next one had the the 5.7 rods and it was the difference between daylight and dark. My friend has had a '68 Chevelle wagon on the street for over 20 years and he always uses the 6.0 rods. He runs some aftermarket heads and a roller cam but that ***** will humble a lot of big blocks. Sounds a lot like a 327 when you hear it wind. I wonder if the 4.88 rearend and 8" slicks have anything to do with it. NAW!! Frank
I built a .030 over 400 sbc for my 40 ford sedan. I used the World products Sportsman II angle plug heads in cast iron,a mild cam and a 4010 Holley that is a wee bit too small for the maximum output that this engine is capable of,however,the driveability is fantastic,the low end torque is incredible...My ole 40 had a 283 and WAS qutie docile...the 406 made her run with the big dogs....
The water can't boil between the cylinder sleeves. Only because there's no water between them. The 400 blocks are a siamesed casting, there is no water between the cylinders because to get the 4.120" bore size unique to the 400 they had to join the cylinders together.
You could, but you wouldn't be able to take advantage of what the cam offers. Solid lifter cams don't experience valve float at high RPMs like hydraulic lifter cams do. Since the 406 is RPM-limited, you can't/shouldn't spin it fast enough to ever justify a solid lifter cam.
I had a 1970 Chev Impala 400 cu in with 350 heads that would scream. I also broke about six right hand motor mounts before chevy recalled them. I just chained the right side down and p***ed on the new arm type fix.
Just Gary's answer is right on the money. Solid lift cam will be aimed at a higher RPM range than the engine's bottom end will let you go. Thus you'll lose a bunch of torque, without being able to recoup the power up high. The engine you describe wants a hydraulic cam around 220 duration @ 050 and something like 450-510 lift. Hot rod or car craft recently did a dyno shootout looking at rod lengths and didn't find much difference power-wise. If you were scratch-building, I'd recommend a 5.7 rod because they're stronger and the same price, but 6.0 rods put the pin up in the piston's oil ring groove and opens a can of worms for a street engine. Can honestly say that none of the short rod 400s I've built ran like a 350. Good luck.
i built a 72 nova for a customer that had a mild 406 6" rod motor....170 or 80 ( can't remember which) cc edelbrock performer rpm heads....flat tops...and a small crane solid lift cam...( 518/536 lift...282/288 dur) made 496 or so hp...and was 400 to 490 ish on the torque from 2000 rpm to 6500....with a 3800 convertor ....that thing was a blast....lots of fun ...lots of torque... as for the guy and the intake and line deal....heres a shot of a bowtie intake i have setup like this.... brandon
Got to Chevy Hi Performance Magazine in their archives and look up an article ***led "The Impersonator" and the followup article "Impersonator II" about a street 406 buildup. Monster torque for a street engine.
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