quote:Originally posted by Panterror:
When it comes to Pantera mods, to each his own. Other than the fact you have the 400, I'm not sure why you'd want to do the swap.
Lastly, I doubt the swap would be viewed favorably in the buying market. If you just like the 400M and don't plan on selling, ...not a factor.
-Good luck.
Actually I don’t know why more people are not doing the 400. With the cobra/mustang I see people building 302’s and other small engines putting out 3-400hp. They say why would you want a bigger engine, these were “race engines”. I think the concept is turned upside down. They are race engines because the "races" limited the cubes. My brother watch these guys all the time at the track and most of them blow their engines if they race them seriously. My brother has a bored and stroked Ford 460 with Aluminum heads he has dinoed 675hp at the rear wheels. He has over 30,000 HARD miles on it; race track, drag strips, etc. He has spun it off the track a couple times. He drives it hard. The only major problem he had was wipping out he main bearings when he put synthetic oil in the car. He put Dino oil back in, changed the main bearings and had not had a problem since.
He got this kind of power and durability from cubic inches. The 400 was always seen as a truck engine because of the way it was configured, not for what it could be. It is one of the most under rated and under priced core blocks out there. I actually sought out the block I have. Jon Kaase was going to use the 400 for the engine masters. It was within the limit but they ruled it an unfair advantage.
As far as the difficulties, engine mounts and headers are not a big deal. Once those are worked out, I don’t think it would drop the value of the car. It would still be a Ford 335 engine; a super Cleveland so to speak. If the bugs such as engine mounts and headers are worked out, there would be no reason for it to keep some one from buying it. I doubt the inch on deck height would keep require moving the tanks. I know the problems the mustangs had but they really crewed themselves engine bay wise with the shock towers. On top of this the Cleveland would be the back up engine which could be swapped out at any time.
I will probably use the CHI heads and I have some ideas about the intakes. I think it will be an interesting project.
This is why we have Pantera’s and not Ferraries!