Reply to "3785 Gets a 400 swap, fabbed 180's and fabbed mufflers"

With that out of the way let’s get started!

As you should know by now the bell housing pattern on the standard 400 block is the same as a 429-460. I say standard because there were a very small number of 400 blocks cast with the small block bolt pattern.

I looked at my options for the adaptation and found three sources:

1. I contacted Precision Proformance as they had done 460 swaps in Panteras to see if I could buy the required bell housing. I was told that they do not sell any of the parts for this conversion and the car would have to be brought to them for the work.

2. I looked at using an adapter plate made by this company:

http://www.transmissionadapters.com/Ford%20429-460.htm

My concerns with this part were its effect on the input shaft to clutch and pilot bushing distance. I could make a custom pilot bushing and use a thicker billet flywheel as possible solutions. The price at $795.00 was also pretty high for what it is.

3. I found that Quick time had released their 351M, 400,429,460 to ZF bell housing.
http://www.quicktimeinc.com/products.html#ford

This is a SFI approved bell housing and comes in a kit.
This is the route I chose to go I purchased pn. 8012. At $415.00 I could buy it and the intake adapter for less than the plate style conversion. I did run into a problem as the bell housing is drilled to be used in a GT40 application which is 180 degrees rotated from a Pantera. My solution to this problem was having a machine shop re drill the pattern rotated correctly. Here is the bell housing after drilling.