Interesting 400 build in Hotrod magazine

[Ford F834]

Not my cup of tea since it relies heavily on non-Ford parts, but I am still glad to see the potential of the 400 brought to life! I wonder what Tim Meyer would have to say? 😉

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/hrdp-0702-ford-400m-engine-build/

[Gary Lewis]

I talked to him about that several years ago. He wasn't too impressed. The stock rods are good for the power numbers they got, he has pistons on the shelf to fit those rods so there's no need to off-set grind the crank, he likes Trick Flow heads and Weiand intakes better than Edelbrock's, and has his own cam grinds that work well with the 400's he's built.

Other than that, he liked it.

[Ford F834]

I talked to him about that several years ago. He wasn't too impressed. The stock rods are good for the power numbers they got, he has pistons on the shelf to fit those rods so there's no need to off-set grind the crank, he likes Trick Flow heads and Weiand intakes better than Edelbrock's, and has his own cam grinds that work well with the 400's he's built.

Other than that, he liked it.

I figured his answer would go something like that... they kind of lost me when they recommended all that specialized machine work to use Chevy and Dodge parts... then a points distributor to cut costs? 🤷‍♂️ (Of course they didn’t meet their goal without electronic ignition)...

[Rembrant]

Great read. I know nothing about these engines, so I found it all very interesting. The below comment was funny:

"While Ford Windsors, 429s, and 460s are getting more expensive, 400s and 351M blocks still populate junkyards like rusty hubcaps."

Funny because, I've been scrounging junkyards all summer looking for Bullnose stuff, and while I've found very little that's of any use to me, I've found all kinds of dentside trucks with the 351M engines still in them. The one junkyard I go to has 3 of them, all with engines still intact.

PS: I did see on the tag(s) on the valve covers the text 351/400M...is this why some people call them 351 modified 400? I realize that on the tag the 351/400 is referring to the engines family or engine series...but still, it does look a little confusing. Below that, in small print I did see that the engines were 5.8L.

My old man had a 1978 F150 4x4 with the 400 in it. It was a beauty of a truck, but I didn't know that they only had 158HP haha.

[Gary Lewis]

Great read. I know nothing about these engines, so I found it all very interesting. The below comment was funny:

"While Ford Windsors, 429s, and 460s are getting more expensive, 400s and 351M blocks still populate junkyards like rusty hubcaps."

Funny because, I've been scrounging junkyards all summer looking for Bullnose stuff, and while I've found very little that's of any use to me, I've found all kinds of dentside trucks with the 351M engines still in them. The one junkyard I go to has 3 of them, all with engines still intact.

PS: I did see on the tag(s) on the valve covers the text 351/400M...is this why some people call them 351 modified 400? I realize that on the tag the 351/400 is referring to the engines family or engine series...but still, it does look a little confusing. Below that, in small print I did see that the engines were 5.8L.

My old man had a 1978 F150 4x4 with the 400 in it. It was a beauty of a truck, but I didn't know that they only had 158HP haha.

Yes, the "351M/400" tags have confused people. But, as I have explained here (Engines/351M & 400"), Ford didn't put a letter suffix on an engine unless they had another of the same displacement. For instance, the 302 was never a 302W, although it is clearly a Windsor, since there was never another 302. Likewise, the 400 was never a 400M as there was never another 400.

But at one time they had three 351's - the Windsor, Cleveland, and the M. Ford never told us what the "M" meant, as they did with the Cleveland and the Windsor. But, since those are the foundries where the engines were initially cast, it seems reasonable to think the M stands for the Michigan foundry.