Destroked long rod 400 SBC

[ramey36]

Lat G friends:

I have a stock bore 400 block just waiting for a home. Has anyone done the long rod, short stroke engine lately? We used to build 377's all the time for oval track use.

With the advent of awesome heads and lots more rod choices I'm wondering if this would be a worthwhile engine to look into.

This would be for auto-x and open road course track days in a 3400 lb G-body.

ramey

[Bad94]

I built a 3.48 stroke x 4.125 Bore motor few years back and run it in my nova. Strong motor, pulls crazy from 3500-7000 plus. I have AFR 210 CNC heads and single plane intake with Holley EFI, all lightweight rotating assy, and very light clutch set up(26lbs with box)

If I was going to build it over I would go with more compression, and maybe bigger heads.

[Flash68]

My Camaro had a 377 in it when I got it in 2010. Ran it hard for 2 years and loved it. But it was not very well suited for autoX and more at home on a road course. It still really lacked the low and mid range torque. Once it woke up around 4500-5000 (mine had a pretty darn big cam) it was a fun thing. I had the rev limiter set at 7400 most of the time.

For an all around motor for both venues I would build something with more cubes and a little more stroke. If I was building something from scratch I might do what the 410 cube sprint cars run...... 3.80 stroke or right around there.

As you probably know those stock 400 blocks aren't very well thought of.

[Neil B]

I recently completed a 4.125 x 3.480 372ci motor. It made 580 on the dyno and it's going in my '69 Camaro. It's hard to beat this sound...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2O0ROhmUhU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVaFa7zLiSU

[Vince@Meanstreets]

If you can increase the cooling to stand up to sustained race use its a great block. 400's were hard to find so we started to use 392's alot. 3.832 stroke 4.XX X bore 5.7 rods made a great combo.

then the LS came out

[ramey36]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the responses.

I'll keep researching and learning.

LS of course is awesome but I have one car which I'll probably keep as SBC.

Thanks!

-- Ramey