do i have a 400M or what? help

[FORDPLAY]

hey i just got a 78 bronco it has the dana 60 swap and c6 205 i was told it has a 400M but i have never had a 400M run like this thing it will hall balls..for having 10" lift and 38" TSL's

anyways...

im asking ..how to reed the vins and is there anyway to know if its a 400 or 429 or what ever..

thank u

 

[racebreedbronco]

must be a 429, heres how to tell, 429 intake manifold requires removal of the rocker covers to access the intake, 400m has intake that bolts to the head and can be removed without taking the rocker covers off, so look at the intake where it meets the heads, if you see 6 mounting bolts you have a 400m, if you see no mounting bolts(because there under the rocker cover) you have a 429

 

[FORDPLAY]

must be a 400M thin...i can see the bolts....i just have never seen a 400 run like this one runs ....i can hear it has a small cam...looks like it has a intake too....i was told the 400 ford was a junk motor...is it? i have ran the 302 and 351W and the 360..

 

[Broncobill78]

Reading the VIN wouldn't have helped, the 78'/79's never came w/429's only 351M/400's. The 400 was a fine engine and with a cam, intake & carb it *should* run balls to the wall & even more so if you have decent gears in the axles.

 

[racebreedbronco]

well I wouldnt call it junk, was our first emission restricted engine, cam timing was ********* and compression was lowered to reduce nox, sounds like yours has been refitted with some internal preformance up-grades, good luck

 

[bidibronco]

Actually, all of the FE engines are as racebreedbronco had described. Another thing to note on the FE engine's are they are all "Y" blocks instead of the typical "V." Thus the FE engines have LOADS of torque with generally about half that of HP. The FE engines ranged from a 352FE to the bad ass 429FE. If you can look at the engine where the crank is the block will actually surpas the crank by 4-6 inches making the bottom end STOUT! Hope I was able to shed some "light" on this subject? Speaking of the FE's there's a 360FE with a Munsie 4sp and PTO at the junkyard. Probably $400 for the whole set up. Maybe $500 if anyone is iterested.

 

[Broncobill78]

Good info Bidi & most of it is correct /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> the 351M/400 is actually in the Cleveland family. The FE's are the 332, 352, 360, 361, 390, 391, 406, 410, 427 & 428. There are also the non-FE Y-block 239, 272, 292 & 312. The 429/460's are 385-series engines.

One last piece of obscure trivia, while many people call the 351M a 351 *modified* it's actually a 351 Milford. Since there are three 351 engines each one has a letter designation behind it and the letters used are from the plant where it's designed/cast. You have the 351Windsor (Windsor, Ontario), 351 Cleveland (Cleveland, Ohio) and the 351Milford (Milford, Michigan). There were emissions stickers on some of the 351M's that used to have the word "modified" on them and I think that's where the confusion began. The 351M/400 are identical engines with the exception of the stroke, the 351 is a 3.5" stroke & the 400 has a 4" stroke. Throw a 400 crank & rods into a 351M block and you've got a 400, no oter changes need to be made.

FE's *are* great engines, only problem is that parts are not as easy to find as they used to be and they're getting pricey when you DO find good ones. Me personally, I'd LOVE to build a nice fuelie 460 w/the aluminum CJ heads from SVT. Wouldn't THAT be a nice engine, or I guess you could go whole hog & get the aluminum marine service 460 block and start with that /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[bidibronco]

I meant to say the 427, not sure why the nine got in there but oh well. I also forgot about the 332. I've never seen a fuel injection kit for any of the FE engine and I would love to have one. Preferably a 390, I had helped a fellow build one for a 78 ford high boy and it was a pulling SOB. I don't remember all the specs (second engine I ever got "into") But it would pull like an Ox on steroids! Body was a mess and the windshield was "sorta" there and the bed was strapped down with some of thoes straps big rigs use to hold there load down. We built the engine for a fellow then bought the truck from him for $500 so he could keep his butt out of jail. Worked out good for us. Came with a second truck (no bed but the doors were in good shape) and a spare 4 sp granny tranny. I also scored a full set of 35x12.50's for it. I was in my little nissan and asked a fellow how much and he said "if you can fit them in that little car you can have them." Needless to say, my passenger had to stay behind (he only offered ONE trip but that's allright). Anyways, sorry for the rambling I did.

 

[Broncobill78]

I think some of the 60's era factory racers sported a mechanical injection system (how much is one of *those* worth today ?) but FE's are dinasours that died out before the age of Fuel Injection began so there aren't any cheap factory systems available. The only way to inject one would be to retro a throttle body like the Pro-Jection or to go with one of the aftermarket multiport setups, but have you ever *priced* one of those ? Highboys are nice for runing 36's w/stock suspension but the front-end architecture is just so funky. I built a nice 360 with a friend & his brother that wound up going into his brother's F100. It was a nice engine and with most of the bed cut out & tubbed and the front end dropped it he'd light'em up from a dead stop and could smoke a stock Camaro or GT, well, at least until they got to the first turn, then it turned into a snowplow.

 

[Johnny Reb]

I think some of the 60's era factory racers sported a mechanical injection system (how much is one of *those* worth today ?) but FE's are dinasours that died out before the age of Fuel Injection began so there aren't any cheap factory systems available. The only way to inject one would be to retro a throttle body like the Pro-Jection or to go with one of the aftermarket multiport setups, but have you ever *priced* one of those ? Highboys are nice for runing 36's w/stock suspension but the front-end architecture is just so funky. I built a nice 360 with a friend & his brother that wound up going into his brother's F100. It was a nice engine and with most of the bed cut out & tubbed and the front end dropped it he'd light'em up from a dead stop and could smoke a stock Camaro or GT, well, at least until they got to the first turn, then it turned into a snowplow.

One of my 78 bronco,s has a stock 400 in it and it really gets it. The other has a 390 and when she starts up---the noise shatters the hollers and causeing my neighbors to have the diahrea-haha