400 small block swap

[Birdie2000]

I have looked into this as well, except I would be retro-fitting my LT1 heads/intake onto a 400 block. It was possibly going to be cheap displacement due to a deal I could have gotten on a sweet 406 bottom half. As far as the distributor, Brady_Z28 on camaroz28.com has been successfully using a MSD Crab Cap distributor with his BBC motor and says that there is enough clearance under the cowl to lift and rotate the distributor 180 degrees. Looks like it's a good solution to that problem from what I can tell.

[njspder]

i thought you said it was a pontiac 400 motor??? that is way different than a chevy 400 small block. a 400 sbc would be an easy swap in since the LT1 generation retained the same motor mount configuration. a 400 poncho is a different beast, motor mountswould have to be fabbed up for it. it is not hard to do really, just take a few hours prolly.

later
tim

[white96six]

I have a 400 pontiac and it is bored .060 over and doesnt ovewr heat in the 100 plus summer heat here in AZ. the 400 is awsome I have a 68 firebird ram air and it is fast. the only reason I dont likke the pontiac motors is that things are cheaper for a SBC. But the 400 pontiac is an awsome motor mine only has a mild cam in it and it is supper fast. good luck.

[Red94Camaro]

If you want so much power, why go with turbo, go with a supercharger and you'll have more power and not just at high rpms. The one I have can go up to 32 pounds of boost and hit 900 hp. Thats if you go with injection. If you go with a carb it would look cool. I love the look of the supercharger sticking through the hood, thats the classic drag car look.

[T-Punk]

i agree a roots type blower always turns the heads when it shows its face through the hood but the reason i desided turbo was the price for a nice whipple is just so much more, than if i did a whole turbo system, that i just couldn't ignore it.

[njspder]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Red94Camaro:
If you want so much power, why go with turbo, go with a supercharger and you'll have more power and not just at high rpms. The one I have can go up to 32 pounds of boost and hit 900 hp. Thats if you go with injection. If you go with a carb it would look cool. I love the look of the supercharger sticking through the hood, thats the classic drag car look.<hr></blockquote>

superchargers are far less efficiant than turbo's. not jsut because the engine has to spin to a certain rpm to create teh boost, but because the supercharger takes power to turn when producing the boost. at equal pressure levels a turbo motor will dyno higher and be quicker at the track.
roots style blowers are definately off the chart for cool factor though. my buddy has a 72 GTO with a 6-71 dyers on it. meanest lookin/soundin car in town by far.

later
tim

[pgriffith]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by njspder:


superchargers are far less efficiant than turbo's. not jsut because the engine has to spin to a certain rpm to create teh boost, but because the supercharger takes power to turn when producing the boost. at equal pressure levels a turbo motor will dyno higher and be quicker at the track.
roots style blowers are definately off the chart for cool factor though. my buddy has a 72 GTO with a 6-71 dyers on it. meanest lookin/soundin car in town by far.

later
tim<hr></blockquote>


This is not entirely true. yes superchargers take more power away because you have to turn them with the engine but what about turbochargers? They also loose power because you have a way more restrictive exhaust. They both have there ups and downs and I dont think your qualified to say which would be better on a 400 SBC.

[T-Punk]

i personally didn't find much of a performance difference between the two. they will both put the car over the top and will make more hp than i can handle so turbo it is simply because of cost.

[Mr. Spock]

BMR makes k members for putting small blocks into fourth gen f bodies and even for big blocks . . I know what I wanna do oh yeah. They also make tranny mounts for such swaps. As for putting the old pontiac 400 in . . shouldn't be too much more work.

[T-Punk]

wait a minute i have never heared of an easy way to fit a big block in. the reason i was goint to use the 400 is i didn't that my 454 could fit without some MAJOR fabbing. has anyone else heared of this cause there is no replacement for good old fashioned displacement and i have access to a free 454 that i could rebuild.

[Mr. Spock]

go to bmrfabriction.com to check it out. I too am seriously considering doing this.