Technical Best heads for A sbc 400

Yepper!
I had a neighbor many years ago that had a 70ish Chevelle with a 400 he built, he was a dealership engine mechanic so I'm sure there were a lot of "back door" warranty pieces, nothing real exotic but the right combination of parts.
The oddest part was the 3.08's and turbo 350 but the thing was a rocket.

 

Choosing heads on a 400, when in doubt go big. The 400 small block and the 402 big block share the same bore and stroke. Small block heads are small compared to the big block heads. Run big heads, 200 cc or larger, with 1.6 rockers and a civil street cam and you will love it.

 

I spoke the guys from Edelbrock and found out why they only drill the lower holes when mounting their heads on a 400. The water jackets are different between their aluminum castings and the factory. According to them, the Edelbrock heads don't have a water p***age in the area of the upper hole from the factory and as he said " you can drill all day and never hit the water jacket on our heads". They did recommend drilling both upper and lower steam holes when mounting non 400 heads on a 400.

 

Here’s how I drilled my heads recently. I wouldn’t try hand drilling without a jig,radial drill press, Bridgeport etc. The 3 holes that are strait in I used my drill press. Since I don’t have a radial drill press or Bridgeport, I made a jig as shown in pics for the 30 degree bores and had good results. I made the jig on my table saw. The holes were marked with a new head gasket and center punch.
I tapered the tip of the center punch so it would touch the head gasket. This made it self centering.


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Great idea!!!!!!.....

 

Good job Rich, there's nothing you won't try doing.

 

Thanks!


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I went to my local machine shop yesterday and A buddy there had A set of GM bowtie heads 14011034 and priced them ready to bolt on and the way they were. With Christmas coming up I bought them as is,and going to get him later on to do A valve job ,they have had some porting and polishing done already.
He said they came off A 400 that was in A pulling truck.I know there probably out dated and lot better heads out there to choose from, but I like this because there GM ,and from what I've read about them ,there A pretty good head.