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Hi my names Mike i'm a newb at this site but post at a few others(mostly at anti-rice.com though). I'm 17 live in California and I have a '72 Chevelle w/ a straight six and a powerglide, right now I am building up a 400 small block for it. Haven't decided on a tranny yet, it will problably be a Turbo 350. I've been a lurker at this site for a month or so now I guess I just finally got around to registering. Well thats about it for now

Welcome to the club Man, A 72' thats cool, hope you have a good time here. I've already learned wayyyyyyyyy....... more then I intended 2..................

Welcome Nova. Have fun with the Chevelle, and welcome to the club.

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

Originally posted by techinspector1
Mike, you know from hanging out here that the 400 block is gonna run hotter than a 350 block because the cylinders are siamezed. A great alternative to the 400 is a 383.

I was originally going to do a 383 but then I found a rebuilt 400 shortblock for $500 which is alot cheaper then machining one of the 350 blocks I have and then buying a 383 kit for it so I decided to go with the 400. I just figured I'd have to run and aluminum radiator and maybe dual electric fans to keep it cool. Would the aluminum radiator keep it cool enough or do you think I would have to do the two fans too?

So far the plan for the engine is a 0.020 over 400 short block with 4 valve relief pistons(need to figure out compression), vortec heads with upgraded springs, a Vortec Air Gap Intake, Demon Carb, and an ignition system(not sure which I have a friend who claims that he can get good deals on MSD, we'll see about that ) Not sure which cam I am going to use yet either, at first I was going to go with the Comp HE268 but now I'm going to call up the Comp Cam help line and ask them about it. The car is eventually going to be my daily driver so I have to make sure it's streetable.

Right now I am going to run the 400 as it is unless I have to change anything. Yes it is 0.020 over making the bore 4.145(lol, kinda wierd I measured it a few times to make sure I didn't screw it up). The pistons seem to be flat tops with 4 valve reliefs, they have a part number on the I'll try to find out who made them tommorrow. They look like exactly like the pistons I pulled out of one of my 350s except that they are hyperteurics(least i think they are, and sorry I think I spelled that wrong). So the 400 heads have 76cc combustion chamber right? And with the flattop pistons chevy was using at the time it made about 8.5:1 compression, wouldn't dropping the combustion chamber just raise the combustion up to about 9.5:1 or maybe 10:1? I'm not trying to argue or anything but this is how I was figuring the compression would end up or am i just missing something big? And thanks alot for the help techinspector1


I'll get the deck height for you tommorrow

if it wouldn't bother you so much could you tell me what the compression would be with the 64cc heads, I would rather not run the stock 400 heads so if the compression isn't too high with the vortecs maybe I'll just run them.

ok thats way too high to run on pump gas(91 octane) right? What heads would you reccomend? I'm thinking about saving up and picking up Sportsman IIs for the heads and a Offenhauser Cross Ram intake(the one with the convertible top), would they work well?