Pontiac 400 rebuild
 

Hi
i am having my 400 engine rebuilt for my 67 firebird convertible. I am just using the car for cruising and not racing. I am at the poinrt where I need to decide:
Stroker?
Aluminum heads?
It is tempting to save money but I am afraid i may be sorry down the road. Or are those options too much for a convertible just for cruising? Please let me have some pros and cons. Thanks.

It`s all up to you to decide what you want for cruising. A stock `67 400 Poncho is plenty enough for that. Your wallet will decide the rest.

400
 

prepped 400 appearing stock can easily get you well into the 13's plenty of power to get arrested for drag racing!

I would replace the rods and pistons 5140 rods TRW type pistons 068 style cam. Rebuild carb via Cliff or his book stock intake. I do mean aftermaket cam summit 2801 cam.

If you are running the stock 670 heads I would take a close look at the ICON dished pistons from ACE PPR to lower compression.

Replacing the rods is a no-brainer. They don't cost much more than it does to magnaflux,polish, replace the rod bolts and re-size the stock rods. TRW pistons are a little too heavy IMO. You'd be better off with SRP or ICON. Replace the harmonic balancer. Make sure you use a Pontiac-competent machine shop. Have the block honed with torque plates. Make sure the main saddle alignment is dead-on. Keep your rod/main oil clearances to .002. Use an RAIV oil pump and you'll have plenty of oil pressure. Make sure EVERYTHING is clean when you assemble it and you'll have a docile street engine(depending on cam selection ) that will send the import jockies heading for the curb!!

do you have a mfr and part number for the RAIV oil pump?

Try Ace,Butler, Paul Spotts or P-Dude. I've always used the Melling version of the RAIV oil pump. I want to say MEL-54, but don't quote me on that!!