New guy with a question

[butterbean]

if I was building a 400 sbc I would buy that block and crank in a skinny minute, man that thing looks clean, the 2 bolt blocks are stronger than the 4 bolts, if you look at the main caps 2,3 and 4 they look like Big Block main caps and thats why they are stronger, ask the seller if the crank has the letter N on it??? it will be kinda large so easy to find and thats the crank you want, you can have it offset ground or just use it like it is and build a 406 CI with good rods and pistons or do the 421 CI deal with a crank, my guy charges 400 to offset grind but for 300 more dollars you could get a forged crank, either way it will make 600-650 HP with a soild roller and your heads and intake and at least a 950 cfm carb, i'll look up a stroker kit and let you know, also I would get the heads ported and polished while building the bigger engine, my guy charges around 500-600 to do them.

[s10gramps]

Yeah I thought that block looked pretty good in the pics, I'll give him a call and see if he still has it. The nice thing too is that it's still stock bore. I'll be looking at stroker kits too, Ohio Crank has pretty good prices as does CNC Motorsports. Thanks for your help here Bean, I appreciate it.

[s10gramps]

If this guy still has this block I'll try and get it for 450 or less, we'll see. But I was thinking of having the heads ported and polished anyways, and they'll need the steam holes drilled in them too. If I end up getting this block and crank and the crank is the good one which I kind of have my doubts it will be, the 74 motors were way down on HP from the factory, but if it is I'm not opposed to doing the 406, but if the crank isn't up to snuff I'll do the 415 or 421. There's another place I looked at that does stroker kits with a 3.80 crank and your choice of three different manufactures, most of the other places use 3.875 and the bigger the crank the more chance of having to do more clearance work. I'll find that place and post it here to see if you've ever heard of them, I haven't. And yes the manifold I'm covered there and the carb I bought from Justus is a 1050 dominator so I'll be covered there too.

[s10gramps]

Ok I talked to the guy with the block and I'm going to look at it tomorrow afternoon, or should I say pick it up LOL. It's a real small world sometimes, sometimes you're the pigeon and sometimes you're the statue, today it appears I'm the pigeon. I call this guy and we get to talking and come to find out it's a guy that races with us on Sundays at the track, and even better than that we get to talking about machinists that we use and we both use the same guy!!!!! He's been going to Matt for all of his machining for 15 years, I couldn't believe it, so you can guess who cleaned and inspected that block, and crank, yep Matt the machinist we both go to for our work. As soon as I hung the phone up with him I went up to Matt's shop to see if he was still there and he was just leaving but I talked to him about the block and he said he didn't remember too much about it which like he said is a good thing. He said if there had been anything wrong with it he would have told Dan the guy with the block, he also said that Dan had been coming to him for years and that he was a straight shooter. So I'll head out there tomorrow and see if he'll take 450 for it and I'll let you know. Thanks for the advise BB!!!!!

[s10gramps]

This is the place I've never heard of before.
www.rpmmachine.com/400-411-chevy-stroker-sb.shtml

[butterbean]

I think if you are going to stroke it then go at least .100-.125 more stroke not just .050 but thats me, I do like the 406 combos but only if you get the good/better crank but if not then stick to what you want "421" and if you get it go ahead and get it balanced but I always have my machine shop re-check the balance, sometimes they just get it close enough and that's not good enough for me, I like Aluminum rods in my engines but most people get steel H-beams, the Aluminum rods let the engine rev much faster and have less rotating mass/weight=more HP, but like I said thats me, I'm putting my engine together today and can't wait to get back to the track, TTYL

[s10gramps]

Cool, have fun with that!!!! Yes I'll more than likely go the 421 route. For now I'll just worry about getting a block LOL.

[s10gramps]

B B you asked about whether the crank had a letter N stamped on it , yes it does. And yes I bought the block it looks to be in GREAT shape. Let us know how your engine assembly went too.

[triplenickel]

The Bean got you hooked there gramps!

You got that FoMoCo together Bean?

[s10gramps]

Yeah he sure did, it's nice finally finding a forum where the guys actually know what they're talking about instead of like most forums just talking out of their a$$es. I really do appreciate yours and Beans input!!!! Using this G M block is going to save me some good money even with the machine work I'll get done to it.

[butterbean]

nice score Gramps, what a lot of guy's don't know that some/most of the last run production block's and crank's were the best ones, why I don't know but they learned that the early run blocks were not good in the main cap area so they changed that in later runs, if you look at the caps #1,2,3 and 4 they don't look like small bock cap's but they look a lot like big block caps don't they? and the crank with the "N" casted on it is good up to 600-650 HP N/A with no problems, just need light pistons and rods and a good balance job, but I think you said you are going 421 CI so thats going to be bad azz too. keep us posted

[s10gramps]

Hey Bean, what do you consider an early run block? This block is a 1974. I'm not locking myself into any size C.I. build at this point. I'm looking to make my 3100 LB truck go 10.05-10.10 consistently, I'm thinking 625 HP should do it. So if I can do that with a 406, I'm open to that. One nice thing about using a crank of stock specs is I know there wouldn't be any clearance problems with the block or the cam. Would you think 5.7" rods or 6" rods?? Do by chance remember what rods and pistons you used in the build you talked about earlier for that buddy of yours? Now that I have the block I'm just going to take my time and get everything checked before I decide exactly what the final build will end up being, like I want to pull that crank out and have the machinist go over it to make sure it's useable.

[butterbean]

the early run blocks were late 69 through 71, so you have the block to have and its the latter run block, also called the 2 freeze plug 400 block, anyway you can make that power using the stock crank but you can make that power using more CI easier or with less compression or a milder cam anyway what I'm trying to say is it will be easier with the larger CI and you will not need to turn it as had as a 406 combo, but it can be done either way, the 406 combo will need 12.5 compression and around 650/680 lift solid roller and the 421 will only need 11.5 and around 620/640 lift soild roller so the 421 will be a milder build as to the 406, does this make sense??? in bracket racing we don't want to be to radical because it need to be able to make round after round but the 406 combo will work, I sound like I'm chasing my tail, anyway you get the picture and I hope I did not confuse you

[triplenickel]

HUH???

[s10gramps]

Yep that makes total sense Bean, that's EXACTLY the way I'm looking to go. That's why I said I'm not locked into any C.I. numbers, I can go either way with it. But I would much rather have a consistent engine that doesn't have to work as hard for sure, like you said that's what we're looking for in a bracket engine. I'll work up a budget for a 421 build, what do you think of these rods,I'm looking at the 14606 billet rods www.flatlanderracing.com/manleyalum.html I'm trying to piece together a rotating assembly myself and then compare it to the kits available.