400's are they any good?
Doosterfy;yep I agree,not a lot of power to be had from a stock lo comp 400 without a turbo or nos etc. I guess throwing 383 heads with small chambers would help comp some allright,but how much work do they need to make some good h.p? Bigger valves,port work? Probably not that cheap of a solution.
Demon 1515,all 400 blocks are stronger in the main web than anything else mopar produced.It's in the design. A 440 block is good for about 600 h.p,but they werent designed to withstand the power that modern heads can produce.
The B1 head was designed with the 400 block in mind,before the aftermarket block was available because it could withstand much more due to the heavy duty main web design.
Who knows why mopars engineers saw fit to put such a heavy duty main web in a smog motor,but god bless em!
No other block can offer as large of a bore either,which helps air flow so it has that edge as well.
The thin wall block rumour is a myth as well. You could go and sonic scan any 400 block and it wont be that bad. Not many of them were so badly core shifted as to need sleeving.Probably no better or worse than any other block in that respect.
Go and ask any decent engine builder that knows mopar and they will tell you to build a 400 block up if you want to make better than 650 h.p without buyinf an aftermarket block. If they want to use a 440 block,run away.