Thread: Making a Ford 400 Crank spin high RPM's

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Ok Guys & Gals; I'm starting construction on a Ford 400.
Pretty much every thing that pertains to the 351 cleveland,
will work on the 400. And most of the parts will Inter change,
with the exception of the Intake manifold, Crank and rods.
The piston pin height on the 351 cleveland and the 400 is also the same but the pins are different so the 400 rod end must
have bushings installed. The main bearings are much larger on
the 400, plus the Block webing is thicker there so they don't tend to crack like the 351 clevelands do. Now the oiling system has to be worked or beefed up just like the cleveland. And with the cleveland you would turn the crank journals down to the smallblock chevy size. But I have not heard what to do to these 400 cranks to make them spin some good RPM's. These motors
put out 400ft.pounds of torque with only 165 HP and a two
barrel carb with 8.5 to 1 compression and 2V heads.
Now think what a ford 400 could do with 4V heads a four barrel carb, nice intake and 12 to 1 compression. Just need some advice or experinced Info on working a 400 ford crank over please.
Thanks for all of your help with this!


~ Vegas ~

Man I thought one of the ford lovers would come to my rescue.
Maybe I should write a book on these engines, if no one really
knows any thing about them!!! After some trail and error.


~ Vegas ~

I used to play with the 400 cranks and never had much luck getting them to stay together. I went back to the 351 Windsors, lots of good stroker kits out for them. If I want a torque monster I either go with a 460 or back to my trusty FE engines. Can't give you a lot of input on the 400's. Sorry

Thanks Dave; What do you think would be a safe RPM range
for this Engine. And did You find any one that makes a steel crank for this motor. Probably Going to have custom pistons made for it,
since no one makes a piston especialy for this motor that I could find in a good compression. And the guys at summit are trying to sell me rods for the 351c { 5.78 } instead of the right length of
{ 6.58 }for the 400.There are thousands of these engine some one should know how to build them, right.


~ Vegas ~

http://www.network54.com/Forum/119419 This will help with the 400!!!

if you took your crank to a good crank shop... they could have it hardened for you, which would make the crank a little tougher... and then have the block bossed for 4 bolt mains... that would cost you a pretty penny though.... there are some stroker cranks around for 400s... i think eagle makes one... that'll cost a bunch too

Vara u dont need to go 10 grand to get a job done. The 400 is a torque motor for heavy cars when gas was cheep. U might make a better engine by use of a better cam profile, and roller rockers. Those huge main bearings wont like hi revs without lots of oil. At any rate engines that are specific purpose built will likely do the best job.

I agree with you Ives, But what would be a good RPM range
for this motor? I know that I want to set it up for torque, but I still need to know what RPM's I can expect from this motor so I can order the right cam for it. Thanks


~ Vegas ~

Idle (500 rpm) to about 4500 is a good rpm range for a 400. The thing was built for trucks and made it's way into the large cars, I.E. crown vics and town cars. They are great torque motors. I'd call comp cams or lunati, and see what they say about grind. Give them the horsepower you want with your setup, at the rpm you want. With gas prices the way they are I'd say a hp peak of 3k with most of the torque under 2k would be a great street engine.

i wouldn't push more than 55 on that crank unless you build up the bottom end a little more since 400s dont have the toughest of bottom ends

thesals; I'm trying to find a good steel rod right now for it,
and maybe a steel crank If I can find some one that makes them.
The oiling system is getting beefed up and I already have a stud
kit for the bottom end with a windage try, canton 8 qt pan,crank scraper, and a high volume oil pump. For the top end I already have Lunati roller rockers with screw in studs and guide plates, Pete Jackson gear drive, Weind Intake that has been matched to a set of two barrel cleveland heads that have been worked over to except chevy valves and dual springs.
On top of the intake I have a Berry Grant 750.
Oh and lets not forget the alluminum Ford valve covers.


~ Vegas ~

alright, if you can find some rods and a crank, then i'd say you could push her to 75, but about that gear drive... if i were you, i'd get rid of that and use a double roller... gear drives are noisy, if you can stand the noise... well thats cool, but... the noise throws off harmonics in your engine, and wears down engine parts prematurely...