Hello I am looking into purchasing a 73 Plymouth satellite station wagon soon. It has a stock 400 ci motor. I've looked around for information on stroking the motor and this what I've gathered up. First step is to get a 440 crank with the mains shaved. second step is to bore it over .03? and get new pistons. And the third working the heads a little? I've seen a kit from 440 source that has the crank and new pistons. I wouldnt have to do anything for the crank but I'm not sure how much I would have o bore the engine for the new pistons. Im also not sure what I would have to do to the heads? I would love to make it into a badass sleeper and keep it as stock as I can. Any help with these questions would be appreciated!
why not just rebuild a 440 ? seems like a lot of work to get 11 cubic inches more when if you bore the 440 you will probably get more inches
I have to agree--the 400 and 440 are close to the same weight, so stroking doesn't really bring higher power versus lower weight. An overbored 440 block with decent pistons, a pair of decent heads, an aluminum intake, headers and a well-matched camshaft can bring the same or more power if correctly tuned
Well the reason why I don't want to get a 440 is I would want to keep it stock. I'd rather just do the 400 that come with it.
First question I would ask is: What is your budget.....? And how far over ARE you prepared to go over....?
No one's gonna know it's not stock unless they really look closely. Besides, keeping the 400 fresh and stock will come in handy if you or a prospective buyer want to do a full concours resto on it. Even if there's little to no collector value in an original car, there will be someday. Then, as I said above, look at the cost and ease of building a larger engine versus stroking then building the smaller engine. I would only do a stroker for drag race duty if the engine and car numbers do not match.
Why stroke a wagon engine if you are into restoration? Really what's the point and what ya gonna gain that a good cam in a 440 won't already have? Engine mods take time and time is money. How good or bad is the stock 400 engine? Sleepers are basically useless with the laws of today. And most newer V-6's will outrun it.
The 400 is pretty easy to build as a 451 stroker, PLUS you have the advantage of an engine you can make look bone-stock as a 361, 383 or a 400. A 440 takes up a little more room under the hood (wider). Plus, there are a lot of very sound and rebuildable 400 blocks around. 440 Source is a great source for the kit. You might also look at Mancini Racing, too. Not a whole lot of Mopar guys on this forum, as you are probably gathering. I've got a bunch of them, however!
WRT cylinder boring, there's no point in taking more off than necessary. If it's clean at .020 then go with that and don't worry too much about displacement as it's not really going to matter much unless you're racing for that last tenth of a second. What you do with the heads beyond porting depends on what cam you decide to use and your desired compression ratio.
