Decided on my motor/trans combo, time to start buying parts!!!!!!!

[T Man]

Here is what I was thinking. I would like 300hp and 350lb/ft tq at the wheels.

My neighbor has a 400sb for sale for 200 bucks, all the parts are there (doesnt matter to me though) My intentions are this. 400sb with a 350 crank de-strokes it to 377, my step dad dragraced this motor combo in the 70's and 80's and said it was a frikin rocket. Not gonna go with expensive internals, im on a tight budget. Then I am going to take the intake and possibly the heads off of a TBI 350 (want the fuel injection), have the intake manifold machined to accept the larger bores of the Big Block TBI unit (2" over 1 5/8's) I figure the Big Block injectors will work as well, but will probably play around with all of the different injectors to find a good combo for me. De-stroked 400, with a mild cam, 1.6 rockers, TB Spacer, headders and pulleys should get me to my 300 at the tires goal I believe. Any constructive criticism is appreciated, but I already have the trans, so that aint gonna change, and I am sticking to Tbi because I can do the swap for cheeper than any other fuel injection setup as I am already setup for TBI.

[1993blazerlt]

you should consider going TPI it will support a lot more power than TBI and the costs are not to much different and it looks a whole lot cooler

[T Man]

Hmmmmm TPI 400. Im likin that a lot

[1993blazerlt]

yea TPI is a great system i am right now in the process of putting TPI on a 350 for my k-5 using a TBI s10 harness and repinning it

[Sparky2263]

The chip will be easy for someone to program. Heck, might even be able to stay with the stock injectors. Maybe just up the fuel pressure a tad.

[T Man]

Id rather run the Bigblock injectors, and not push them as hard. Ya know? Run at the bottom end of the useable injection rather than the top.

[Sparky2263]

True, true.

[Maximus]

The 454 TBI is almost exactly 750 cfm which with what you have in mind would be plenty of air flow.And watch out some 454 TBI's have high pressure high flow injectors.But the majority are the standard pressure injectors.

[T Man]

Oh my!!! Ive been playing around with this a little bit, seeing what minor changes will give me a little here and there. My desktop dyno currently says 489hp at 6000 and 477lb/ft tq at 4500. Here is my setup right now. SBC 400, ported heads with 2.02int/ 1.95 exh valves, 9:1 compressoin, 780 cfm TB with a single plane manifold, small tube headers with open exhaust (planing on cutouts of some sort), Crane CC280A cam. (280int/288exh) intake lift at valve .518, exhaust lift at valve .536, with 0.0 degrees advance/retard (played around with it, and either direction it will bump my tq up in the powerband

[1993blazerlt]

If you are looking at making that much power i would worry about using stock rods and pistions you are really pushing there limits with that amount of power

[Maximus]

Id bump that compression up a tad bit too.

[T Man]

Ok, making that big power on the computer is fun and all. But right now, 450hp isnt what im looking for. My goal was 300hp to the wheels. My major limiting factor here is budget. Im on a tight one, i mean like tighter than a 12 year olds......pony tail. Ive found some decent priced rebuild kits that come with everything but the rods. Can I reuse my stock rods with new pistons and a new crank? I decided im going with an eagle crank with a Fel-Pro Sealed Power rebuild kit (July August Summit, page 110&111) and set of eagle connecting rods. I know, i know, not the best parts i can put in there, but like I said, I wanna do it right (not re-use stock ****) on a tight budget, and im not exactly putting down huge numbers here.

[1993blazerlt]

you could reuse your stock rods but if you can afford new ones that would be better. Also if you are buying new rods you might want to look into floating pistion pins insted of press fit. Also remember you will need machine work done so buget for that to.

[T Man]

Ok, I flipped the page of summit and found a set of eagle rods that im gonna go ahead and go with. I figure with machine work, and rebuild I should have 1500 in the short block.

[Sparky2263]

I was gonna say, by the time you use ARP rod bolts, get them checked and re-sized..............

[biggd1884]

You know after all this is finished you are probably going to have to beef up the frame cause with that much muscle you are going to twist it.

[Sparky2263]

It would take 60' times in the 1.6 or less range to even begin thinking about twisting the frame on an S truck. He ain't going there.

Old wives tale.