Crazy idea....Chevy 353

Take a 400 block, bore it .030 over, with a 327 crank. It makes a big bore short stroke engine. Anyone know how to make this work?

All you would need is custom pistons, but I'm afraid I don't see the point. There is no replacement for displacement in a small block Chevrolet.

If you want to go really nuts, you put a 3" crank in the 400 block. I think thats a 326 @ 0.030 overbore.

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

It will rev like a chainsaw? There's something fun about ludicrously short stroke engines.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

That's my idea behind this. A replacement for my 307 that'd scream and handle some boost. Other forums are saying pistons for the 400 stroke with 6" rods allow the use of 6.25 rods I'm this build. My question is what would allow 6" or 5.7" rods?

Take the distance between the deck and main journal centerline, subtract stroke, subtract distance from piston pin to top of piston, there's your rod length(center to center).

EDIT: This assumes you want the piston flush with the deck. Just think of it as a stack of parts at TDC.

OK thanks. I didn't realize it was that simple.

Streetwiseguy wrote: All you would need is custom pistons, but I'm afraid I don't see the point. There is no replacement for displacement in a small block Chevrolet.

Custom pistons? This is a Chevy. Everything is off-the-shelf already.

Let's see, stock rod is 5.565 with a 3.75 stroke, you'd be putting a 3.25" stroke crank in there (maybe a 307 crank would be easier to find?), and it would need 5.815" rods to use the stock pin height. On the other hand, if you used pistons for a 400 with 5.7" rods (would want a 5.95" rod) you could use 6" rods with dished pistons and mill a little off the tops to zero-deck them. If they aren't zero-decked already since sometimes things work out like that. Probably get a set of claimer pistons for $300 with rings. (Well, they'd live a heck of a lot easier life than if they had the 400's stroke)

edit: The 265 "baby LT1" had 5.95" rods. 3" stroke with 350 pin-height pistons. (Yes, I know the math doesn't work, but all evidence I've seen says the rods are 5.95") And before you ask, yes indeed people have put the 265 crank/rods in the 350 to make a modern 302. Which is deliciously ironic since the LT-1 was born out of the DZ302 to begin with.

I got to looking and summit racing carries pistons for this exact use. Apparently its a popular circle track engine.

Wow, I scare myself sometimes. The pistons are currently $234. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/KB-Claimer-Chevy-400-Hypereutectic-Pistons-Flat-Top-57-Rod,33222.html

The rings (the cheap ones, anyway) are $60. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Moly-Piston-Rings-4125-Bore-Style-A,28178.html

Regarding building a 434... why? You can still make more power with the destroker engine to have engine block problems with the 400 unless you drop a couple thousand on an aftermarket block. And if you're going to do THAT, there's a 8.2" deck Ford block that can take a 4.185 bore and you could stuff a 289 crank in that.

"Popular circle track engine"... you'll find that practically all 358ci-limit engines are 3.25" stroke, lets you run larger/less-shrouded valves with the larger bores.

It was a thought. And I'd rather not use a ford engine in my camaro. Loladding up the costs, I could build a 427 small block stroker for about the same price.

We can put LS valve covers on the Ford, nobody'd suspect a thing

Hmm. I seem to recall an 8.2 deck SBC block from somewhere. The deck was actually lower than the bellhousing face, so you had to be careful when machining it so you didn't run the cutter into the flange. Just thinking out loud at 2:30am.

I saw a 460 powered camaro on pinks all out once. And that deck height sounds like a really bad idea.

The opposite of the 383 stroker would be the 400 block with a 350 crank, 377 cu inch. circle trackers used that engine back in the day. it was pretty common.

I've heard good things about those. I'm looking for options to replace my 307 in a couple years and I'm really trying to avoid cookie cutter engines (350, 383) and have something I can slap a couple small turbos on and make a few extra ponies.

In reply to DCharger68:

what about the 4.8L turbo thang

I've considered it, but I like the idea of an old style small block. They still have a bit more of an aftermarket and I'm more familiar with them

In a discussion about rod length... someone piped up that some circle track engines had two different rod lengths in the same engine. Someone else offered that they used to do engines with 3.48" stroke in the front half of the engine and 3.75" stroke (or more) in the rear half... because they knew that the tech guys were too lazy to check anything but one of the front cylinders

Lots of neat cheating stories from the circle track world. Like the tech guys who inspected the head of one Pony Stock guy's engine up, down, left, right,and sideways for excessive decking, because he HAD to be cheating. But they never found anything wrong because the head was 100% legal. The block, however, was quite a bit short...

Makes me think of Smokey Yunick style shenanigans. Like turning your roll bar into a fuel tank.

You will need main bearing spacers due to the crank journal differences. Ford 300 rods even...

Hot Rod did a story about it in 1997.

By the powers of google....

http://www.purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/techinfo/350%20chevy%20engine.html

If you are using a 1968 2.450" (350)main journal crank you can do this:

Keith Black pistons part #9911HCKTM comp. ht. 1.433"

6" rods

Felpro head gasket Part Number: FEL-1044 4.200 in. Bore, .051 in. Compressed Thickness

King bearing spacers for 400 to 350 mains

Mill top of pistons .020" for .038" piston to head clearance.

A 377ci using the 400 block, Scat 9000 series crank,and spacer bearings, would be a cheaper, easier build thought. Example $775 will buy a complete 377 engine kit including crank,4130 ros...kit http://www.pmeracing.com/triton/engcomp/enginekits/sbc-33770.htm

How readily available are good used 400 cores? That's the only drawback I can see out of the gate.

Searching car-part for S&Gs, it seems a lot of places get the 400 mixed up with the 402, listing them as the same engine even.

Rob_Mopar wrote: How readily available are good used 400 cores? That's the only drawback I can see out of the gate.

That's the only problem that pops into my mind at the moment. For simplicity and parts availability, I'd say start with a 350 block and build a high-winding 327 with 6" rods.

I LOVE this kind of stuff!

I've thought about a 327. And depending on the depth of my pockets when I start this build, I may do that. I'll just have to get all new internals because I can't use any of the parts from my 307

If the main and rod journals are the same size 307 crank + 350 bore = 327.