400 Cleveland - Ford Forums

Tote · 08-31-2003, 04:06

When I was a young bloke one of my mates dad's friends had an XA GT. Apparently he had done the big ends on it fairly early in its life and had it rebuilt as " a 400 ". It has always intrigued me what he would have done to the engine to achieve this. Would a 390 crank and 30thou oversize achieve this or is there another way to do it. I believe the engine was built in the late seventies so I would doubt there would have been many aftermarket cranks available.
The GT was a 4v and is still one of the quickest street cars i have ridden in. Unfortunately it was stolen in the mid 80s.
Regds,
Tote

xacoupe · 08-31-2003, 04:15

a 400 is a differenet block entirely with a taller deck height. I figure he either put in a 400 cleveland or it was a 351 that was a good combo. Back in those days strokers were very rare.

Tote · 08-31-2003, 04:27

I always thought it was the original block, and he always claimed it was a 400. That's what has had me wondering all these years. The bloke that owned it had some interesting gear such as an F250 4x4 with a Hino truck engine in it. I am pretty sure he wasnt lying as he wasnt the type of bloke to bullsh!t. I got the impression that he had imported the bits from the states to build it but I could be wrong.
Maybe he just put the 4v heads on a 400 block, that can be done can't it?
Regds,
Tote

xacoupe · 09-01-2003, 01:24

You can easily put 4v heads on a 400 but you are stuck with 2v sized ports on the inlet manifold( especially back then ) Really though, nothing is impossible .. just improbable. Spacers could be made, a crank could have been ground up .. just can't tell without seeing it ... and it's long gone now !

ebxr8240 · 09-01-2003, 04:21

Could have been stroked using smaller dia Chevy rods so crank journal can be ground offset???
the 400 is from the M series not realy a h.p motor, the deck height was higher and from memory had big journals.Used mainly in trucks etc...

xacoupe · 09-01-2003, 05:39

I am not sure that you could get 400 ci using a cast crank .. the best I have heard of until recently was a 378 .. I have seen some 390 cranks on offer but only in the last year.

RevHeadRon · 09-01-2003, 12:41

its most probably and import job from the states. my brother bought an xc with a clevo in it that had a 4inch stroke so these 400 clevo's are out there just very very rare, although i did not know whether it was a reground 351 crank or an actual 400 crank, i never saw the bottom end. But it went hard all the same and thats all that really matters

xacoupe · 09-01-2003, 16:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by RevHeadRon

But it went hard all the same and thats all that really matters

exactly

09-04-2003, 06:28

A 390 is from the FE bigblock engine series and it's crank will not fit a cleveland block.
How long ago was this? More likely a 400C engine was fitted or the guy was pulling your leg.

Pete.