[chiphead]

To split it even further, any '67-78 block is good for a stock rebuild. You're really not pushing the envelope with a warmed-over 400, even the 557 castings.

The water pumps, brackets, emissions BS, etc is all bolt-on. So I'm not sure if you're talking about the best "bare block" or the best complete engine combination from the factory.

Best factory 400 engine combos would be 69-72 4bbl engine from F body or A body, because it would have high-comp heads, 11 bolt pump, later balancer, decent cam, popular exhaust manifolds, accy setups, decent Q-jet, etc.

Even then you can swap the timing cover/balancer assy from a '67-68 pretty easy, so any of the high-comp 400 engines are the best in my book.

BTW, have you actually put some time on that 557 stroker? How does it run?

[steve]

Originally Posted by chiphead

To split it even further, any '67-78 block is good for a stock rebuild. You're really not pushing the envelope with a warmed-over 400, even the 557 castings.

The water pumps, brackets, emissions BS, etc is all bolt-on. So I'm not sure if you're talking about the best "bare block" or the best complete engine combination from the factory.

Best factory 400 engine combos would be 69-72 4bbl engine from F body or A body, because it would have high-comp heads, 11 bolt pump, later balancer, decent cam, popular exhaust manifolds, accy setups, decent Q-jet, etc.

Even then you can swap the timing cover/balancer assy from a '67-68 pretty easy, so any of the high-comp 400 engines are the best in my book.

BTW, have you actually put some time on that 557 stroker? How does it run?

Well like I said I know all that stuff can be swapped but why deal with that if you can just bide your time and find the one with the right goodies. Yes. I'm talking about the entire engine. The high comp heads may actually not be good tho because of crappy gas. This thought is about finding a 400 for a rebuild using all the original stuff and as low budget as possible. Might be better to have some larger cc heads so they could be cut a little for a bump in compression. 72 cc heads are not much good for a pump gas combo and low buck rebuild....harder to open them up for more cc.

Yes. I have put some time on the 557. It's a beast. I've revved it up to over 6k a few times with not much worry. The only thing keeping me from driving into the sunset with it and not looking back is my Muncie is giving me trouble. I've abused it with three different motors for 5 years with unknown origins and it's time for a freshen.

The only other issue I am having is the 77 block needs adapters to mount in my 67 chassis and it does not seem to fit right. Drivers side is a mess and I will likely have to pull it out because the header hits the motor mount, the frame, the steering rag joint, and is leaking at all exhaust ports on that side. The crazy thing is that my iron headed 421 used the same headers and did not rub at all. Still scratching my head over that one. Maybe it's a difference between the RAII heads and the eheads as far as the angle of the ports flanges go ? I may never know. Considering long branch manifiolds or dougs headers next.