Cheap stock stroke 400 makes 530 HP?

I've been watching justmoparjoe do a stock stroke 400 build on youtube. Nothing special, 10:1, E-Street heads, Holley intake, 850 cfm Holley. He took it to the dyno and it made 530 HP? I was impressed. This is the dyno episode but the whole build is on there somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEHE-_Zho-M&t=2s

Joe's videos are great! Easy to follow. Good advice for anyone building engines. Plus he has many other great automotive talents. I think it was actually a 750. Looking forward to the tunnel ram numbers.

I paid Joe to come down and fix my door windows in my 69 Charger. Joe is extremely talented and does outstanding work. He drove from Arkansas to South of Dallas, Texas to do my car. He and his brother Drew spent 2 days getting everything perfect. I plan on doing more work with him in the future for some of my customers rides. Here is his YouTube video he made when he came down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGbKhLpTWxA&t=884s

I think he relates to a lot of Mopar guys who aren't on an unlimited budget and would rather do the work on their cars themselves. It sure looks like he will take on anything. But when he said he wanted to get 500 HP out of that build I rolled my eyes. I just thought that was optimistic.

You're right, I think it was a 750. And I couldn't believe it made as much power as the house Braswell carb. Braswell is some hi-end stuff.

Just Mopar Joe is awesome and so is his channel. But why any doubt when aftermarket heads were used? The bigger valve better flowing heads are what takes Mopars to the next level. In the old days we ported or paid to have our heads ported- or we ran them as is because the aftermarket didn't recognize Mopars. Nothing being taken away from Joe- but with good quality aftermarket heads and a wise camshaft choice I am not surprised at all with his output. Now if he had used unported 906 346 or 452 heads I would say no way.

Those 330 cfm Trick Flows impress me, but these were only 280 cfm E-Streets, but I guess on a stroke motor they were all it needed. Sometimes you see a combo and it just works. My hat's off to him.

We made that much with an Eddy Head 340+.030 mild street engine.

The bore to stroke ratio and the rod ratio for the 400 are pretty close to optimal for making great HP per cube. What the 400 lacked was any sort of decent compression and quench. So with modern cylinder heads and valvetrain it should produce higher HP/Cube than a longer stroke variant all else being equal.I'm pretty sure the de-stroked 5.5L LS variant they use in the new Z06 Corvtte has a very similar bore to stroke ratio as the 400.

So for the same head flow a 400 will rev higher with less side loading than a 440 due to the lower relative piston speed at any given RPM

I wish I had bought that offset ground 383 crank AndyF had a while back, it was like 3.52" stroke with 2.200" rod journals. and a 6.8" rod would be a great high revving combo at ~423 cubes.

It's just more cost effective to build a small block these days for the same relative HP output.

I do enjoy Joes videos!

B400: 4.34" X 3.375" = 1.29 B/S ratio
LT6: 4.014" X 3.150" = 1.30

big block mopars love more air.so heads and cam was where the power came from.i had a 440 with only indy heads and big roller cam and ran 9.70s 1/4.and it was a stock stroke 440 with flat tops

1.29 to 1.30, pretty close indeed

big block mopars love more air

Which engines don't?

Seems to me that the big bore really helped unshroud the valves.

Didn’t watch, and I’m a bottom feeder chassis dyno kind of a person so I know less than zero.

With that out of the way I’ve always believed a big part of the appeal of the big block mopar is….the whole “trick of the week/best of everything” approach Isn’t needed to run respectable and competitive. Heads are the weak point in a wedge and sounds like he addressed that.

I seem to remember him testing small block stuff on a track with an odd length, After that I stopped paying attention.
Seems like he has some cool projects going and hope he keeps up the good work.

He had a small block in his 68 Barracuda bracket car. He built this 400 to go in it. And yes, he's 1/8 mile in Arkansas.

The problem with a Small block is that it’s still limited by the bore size imo. 400 an easy 4.375

That's very true but that is offset by the small blocks valves that open on the bore center and the superior valve angle, not to mention a port window that is very close to the size of the big block (proportionally larger relative to the displacement)

The coolest things about the big block (to me) are the ease of removing the intake manifold and the fact that you could change out the cam and lifters without having to pull the intake/bathtub.

And the fact that nearly every aftermarket component you can buy for them is made of aluminum, so weight reduction can get the front-end weight down. A 'B' motor can get down very close to the weight of a stock small-block pretty easily.

(around 550)

I believe an Iron small block head actually weighs a pound to 2 MORE than a BB

I think a 400 or 423" (3.5" stroke with 2.200 BBC rod journals) with a set of ported TF 240's would make a really sweet 7500+ RPM combo, perfect for a 5 speed

Dragula,
What's the recipe on your Eddy head 340 ?

I'd like to see the recipe for that one too.

The part 2 of this video is up where he bolts on a ported tunnel ram.

I'm anxiously awaiting the Street Dominator part 3 installment.

Aha, thanks for that. That's not the dude I was thinking of, then.

The youtuber I was thinking of had either a Dart or a Valiant, and his test track was something like 800 feet or other odd length.

I have speculated that any 400 using a 3.52 stroke crank would be a very good match for a torqueflite equiped bracket car. The short stroke will allow consistancy , yet at up to 426(!!) Cubes still make serious power, enough for a 10.00 et 3300 lb car. Easy to drive, as dhifts won't be too soon on the 1/2 given a good gear choice.

Dwayne Porter did a pretty straight forward 383 that made 500 hp. I have been able to duplicate it and it makes for a great 7.00/11.00 combo at #3400. However, I would that say that due to parts availability I'm not sure I would build another 383 but move in the direction that has already been mentioned- 400 based 4.375 bore/6.800 rod/offset ground 383 crank.

http://www.moparts.org/Tech/Archive/bb/25.html

With big block strength, and a stroke shorter than a 350 Chevy, how can these things not rev to the Moon?

How high it revs will depend on the head flow and induction along with cam design. The short stroke and long rod ratio make the 400 gentle on it's guts at high rpm's even with heavy pistons and rods. Given the same basic induction and cam a small bore long stroke 59 383 (4.03 x 3.75) will rev higher than a .030" over, stock stroke 400 before it runs out of air, it's the overall cubic inches that draw a given amount of air, not the stroke.

It's fun to see a Mopar build out-perform what people think it should be making.

I see all these high dollar Indy Cylinder Head builds that Indy puts on it's Facebook page and it seems like they are all underperformers.

I agree.

Now that I must see to believe

My favorite motor build I have even done is my 400 based 470. It's a mild street build. Ported eddys by D Porter, .540ish hydraulic roller, RPM Performer. That little motor is surprisingly a little powerhouse. RPMs like a small block. I would love to do a current version. With 240 Trick Flows and a little more cam.

justmoparjoe did a dyno test recently as a part of this series on the Edelbrock RPM Performer but the Holley Street Dominator had a lot more power.

I am building a 470 now with trick flow 270's and a mechanical flat tappet. I hope it works well.

Those Holley Street Dominators work way better than most people realize and have the advantage of fitting under most stock hoods.

While I have to agree the numbers on alot of them don't make them appear to be world beaters, some of those have been pretty helpful and encouraging
since there was really nowhere else to find anything like a dozen 572 Hemi builds intended for the street, with really deliberate compromises, to study
and then go talk to the builder about at a show.

I'd thanked Kenny for putting more specs out there on the magical book of faces, as it helps guys like me out quite a bit... and he said it was Indy ownership's idea, they wanted no secrets...
which is a very different business strategy than alot of others doing Hemis.

I did a similar street build using OOTB Eddy heads and a street solid roller. !0.2:1 compression.Same intake and a Holley 800. I always say...it RPMs like a chainsaw and pulls like a freight train. It made 425 whp at 5500(could have easily spun to 6500) and over 500 ft lbs all the way up there. It lives in my 69 B'cuda with a 4 speed and 3:73s. Thing's a blast to drive!

Care to share the details on your 340 build? What cam did your run?

I don't know how streetable a 530 hp 340 would be, but back in the early 80's I had a heavy TRW 12:1 bottom end 340 with home ported W2's an Isky 255/260 @.050 oval track flat tappet with non roller rockers that probably made close to that.

It had a V gate shifter and a hemi 4 speed and 4.56 gears in a gutted 69 Dart, It wasn't hard to drive on the street at all back in the days when we had Sunoco 260 and 280 pump gas.

It gave most of the big block Chevelles and Camaros all they wanted to the point to where within a couple weeks of running it they would scurry away like cockroaches whenever the little Dart pulled in.

You only need about 285 cfm of head flow to hit 500 hp, with fuel injection and good valvetrain I don't think a 530 hp combo would be that difficult to come up with today.

You will love it!!!!

Make that 3

Calling this build Cheap is not accurate although compared to a full on race engine I guess that would be so. One big staple of an affordable build is the cam and lifters. The option of reliable flat tappet cam and lifter sets is pretty much gone which is a shame. Back in the day- all those differing affordable grinds from competing manufacturers and their quality was superb.

I don't know if I would call a flat tappet cam even an option anymore. We have all had them go flat on us. More go flat than don't. I've hated roller cams all my life but I may not build another flat tappet motor for risk of it being a failure. I think he did the right thing going roller. And he did it about as cheap as you can.

A QUALITY flat tappet used with the correct oil can still be had and is dead reliable, and still cheaper than a cheap roller.

I have run a few aggresive flat tappet cams with his lifters from Jones Cam Design, never a failure.

+1

I think Hugh's Engines has some sort of no flat guarantee on their flat tappet cams. Don't know what it entails. Been lots of videos showing improperly machined tappets. Seems like it would be easy to account for with just a little QC.

This was an entertaining video series and shows what attention to detail can do using less than ideal parts. Thanks for sharing! I also followed links to see some build videos you made ...GOOD STUFF too. Nice work Rick.

I'm sure you guys do good work too but what does this have to do with the price of tea in China?