Good day all, I write this to introduce my self and my car.
I always dreamed about a Mustang Mach 1 and finally I got mine, It is a 1971, with 400 Cleveland motor, 690 CFM Holley carb, C6 trans. Because It is a Classic car I am in the process of restoring, previous owner had some good ideas but not so good implemented, then I am personally correcting some issues, I am not an mechanic expert but can do it better than previous one.
I am attaching some pictures to let you know It.
Thanks for opportunity to share things I like, any comment are welcome and if I can help please let me know.
BR.
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Welcome glad to have you. Its cool hearing someone call the 400, a Cleveland. Which it is, but most refer to it as a 400M, which stands for Modified Cleveland. I thought I was the only one who called them a 400 Cleveland! Enjoy the site, lots of info and good people, ask any and all questions as somebody here knows. We'll help any way we can. JTS 71 Mach1
Uh, that car IS "restored" compared to mine! LOL
That's neat with the 400M. A 400M is basically just a "stroked" 351. I never built one of these but I imagine it would work really well on the street. All 335 series motors (351C, 351M, 400M) have relatively large ports (even the 2v variants). The longer stroke helps to overcome some of the disadvantages of this while also taking advantage of it's increased power potential.
The C-6 is bulletproof but you have to choose your cam and gearing correctly (because it's not a 4-speed). I bet you could get the 400M to produce about 450 H.P. and still behave itself in traffic.
Enjoy that car. It's in a LOT better shape than mine (for now).
Welcome to the site! Nice car and now I am learning about the 400M. Okay, now that this thread has gotten my attention, my question is, is the 400M a desirable motor given it is modified? You just don't here a lot of talk about this motor.
It's just a "tall deck" 335-series (351C) small-block. They're actually pretty good motors. I think the main reason why they're not popular is because for the most part they were hampered by all of the anti-smog / pollution control devices that were used on them. They came out in the early 70's. In theory there's not only nothing WRONG with them but I think they actually might have some unrealized potential. They were intended as a light-weight replacement for the old Fe big-blocks. Unfortunately they were short-lived because the energy crisis and emission controls of that era turned them into giant lumps that made no power. I think they only came with 2v carbs. Yeah life was BAD back then.
I bet you could build one to run strong: Get rid of the the silly low-compression pistons that Ford was forced to use at the time. Tune it for something besides "off-idle" ~ "low-end" power and apply some of the 351C oil system updates. It's basically a cheap Cleveland "stroker" - these are all the rage these days.
Not really desirable in my humble opinion. Low compression, 168 net h.p. in 1972-up. 4 inch bore and stroke, can't wind 'em up that high. Performance add-ons yield so-so power gains, nothing earth-shattering. It was designed primarily to power mid-size and large sedans. (Low r.p.m. torque) It made it's way into a lot of light duty F-series trucks as well. 351-M and 400 also have the 429-460 bellhousing bolt pattern which limits transmission choice. I'm not knocking them, they're decent, reliable power plants, just not my choice for serious performance usage. GXR
May be it looks restored but I know that there are some works to do, break check and fluid change, relocation of fuel pump and oil pressure safety switch installation, like I said, good ideas wrong implementation, they installed relays for main lights but grounding cable is #18 AWG, and could not carry that current, instrument panel is not working because power is removed, I am checking to find why they did it and reconnect to have instruments back, and so on.
I am working on my hot wheels on weekends so It will take me time to get my goal, I do most of the job by my self so, eventually I will be finished.
Well here's MY car:
http://mach1club.com/showthread.php?tid=5661
Like I said, yours looks pretty good. I'm sure you'll get all of the annoying things fixed, then you'll REALLY enjoy the car.
(12-13-2014, 09:25 AM)gxr02190 Wrote: [ -> ]Not really desirable in my humble opinion. Low compression, 168 net h.p. in 1972-up. 4 inch bore and stroke, can't wind 'em up that high. Performance add-ons yield so-so power gains, nothing earth-shattering. It was designed primarily to power mid-size and large sedans. (Low r.p.m. torque) It made it's way into a lot of light duty F-series trucks as well. 351-M and 400 also have the 429-460 bellhousing bolt pattern which limits transmission choice. I'm not knocking them, they're decent, reliable power plants, just not my choice for serious performance usage. GXR
Yeah I hear ya but isn't a "stroked" Cleveland a really popular "performance" engine these days? That' basically what these 400Ms were but with the taller deck you have the same Rod:Stroke ratio as a 351C even with the 1/2" longer stroke. If you internally balance I would expect 7 grand would be possible. I DO know they had some problems with 400M blocks cracking but that's another story.
Well since your all dancing around the subject. I'll clarify and set you all straight on the 400 Cleveland. the early 351 Cleveland's were a low deck small bell housing block that was prone to cracking in several places. So Ford in there wisdom, raised the deck height and thickened the block in critical areas and made the 351M/400. M stood for Modified Cleveland. (The 400 was never given the designation M) Which could be either size simply by a crank rod and I believe, piston change. This gave them 1 block for 2 engines. Most parts are swappable, heads, cams, headers, rockers, timing sets, distributors, water pumps, The intake is about the only thing not interchangeable on these engines. In 1971 the first 400 was introduced in the LTD with a small chamber 2v head and flat top pistons, giving a 10 to 1 compression ratio.(all 400's had flat tops, they enlarged the chambers to lower compression in 1972 up) With a very large (I believe a 600 cfm) 2 barrel carb. this engine was quite impressive as it had lots of low end grunt, and ran hard all the way to 5500 rpm, where it ran out of breath due to the stock intake.I put a Edelbrock Street Master 400, single plain intake on it and it went past 7000 with no sweat till the valves began to float. The power was near ridiculous for a stock engine. I installed this engine in a 67 Fairlane Ranchero and it ran 12.90's all day long, G-70 street tires, no tune, just ran. Got about 18 miles per gallon, and was damn embarrassing to a hopped up 350 Camaro. I wish I had a set of closed chamber 4 barrel heads to put on it back then. It would have been very interesting to see what it was capable of. So to those of you that write off the 400. Look up Engine Masters Challenge / 400 Ford. I believe the article was in Muscle Mustang and fast Fords. And is probably on U tube. I can't remember who built it but it won the competition that year. Not to shabby for a boat anchor.
JTS 71 Mach1
Thanks for confirming my observations. Yeah you're right about the 400: technically it's NOT a 400M. The "M" was only appended to the 351C.I.D. variant. While most people seem to accept that the "M" stood for "Modified" some of the blocks were actually cast in "Michigan" so it's possible that that had something to do with it as well. In any event they needed a way to distinguish the tall-deck 351 from the other two (351W and 351C) so they used "M"...
Has anyone built a 400 with a belt-driven supercharger? I bet that would be a REAL strong motor. Filling the "taller" cylinders would be less of a problem with the blower. Are the 400 and 351M blocks capable of having 4-bolt main caps similar to the 351C?