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.

The next adapter required is to bolt a 351C intake on to the 400 with the taller deck. I researched and found out that Weiand at one time made a adapter but as far as I found out it is discontinued.

I decided to go with this company
http://www.pricemotorsport.com/

This will allow me to use one of the 4V manifolds I already have. Here is a pic from their web site.

To start with I re installed my bare 351C block and ZF. I had to do some repair to the ZF mounts and it is covered in the ZF forum here.

http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9550045562/m/6730095465

After that I tightened down the factory mounts and built a jig that mounted on the front of the block and located its height as well as centering it. It is made out of a couple of pieces of angle and some square tubing. The front of the block is the same between the 351C and 400 in this regard. Here is the jig mounted on the front of the 351C block.

I bolted the Quick Time bell to the ZF and my mock up 400 block and installed it in the car with the jig bolted to the front of it.
Then I started on the mounts. The design I created made it possible to access the top of the mount for installing the rubber cushions as well as access to the mount nuts.
The lower plate of the mount is ¼ thick steel and the rest of the pieces are 3/16 steel.
The original cast aluminum upper mount was 3/8 thick. When tightened, the rubber cushion was preloaded against a spacer inside the rubber. I machined 1/8 off of the internal spacer to compensate for the thinner steel I am using to maintain the correct preload.
Here are the pieces to the Right side mount cut out before welding.The Left hand mount is the same as this one. I just didn't photograph the pieces to both.

I know its going to be a good design because my supervisor took the time to approve final mock up despite her busy schedule of popping bubble wrap.

Here is the mount fully welded. I spotted it with a Mig while it was bolted in the car then removed it and did the final welding with a Tig.

Here it is bolted on and installed in the car.

Here is the project as it presently sits.
I have a old set of 4V heads sitting on it for header fabrication.

I will start out using a set of New GTS ANSA mufflers and will tie the headers to them.
I have another set of ANSA's that I will modify for better performance in the future.

The short list of things I will soon address include:
Swirl and over flow tank mounting. The brackets had been cut out of my car when I bought it so I had to deal with this anyway.
Throttle cable length in regards to the taller engine.
Engine screen fab and mounting.

I have a hectic schedule so these things will take me a while. The bell housing and engine mounts took about a month to complete.

I hope people find this thread informative and helpful.
If it gets too boring I will have Cowboy from hell post pics of hot girls to keep interest.
If anyone wants more pics of something posted let me know.

Great stuff Brooke. Nice welds. Keep it coming.

I like your supervisor. Why is it that no matter what expensive toys we buy them, the bubble wrap is always the most fun?

You're doing great Brooke. The time & work you took to post your pictures & descriptions is very appreciated.

Your fabb'd motor mounts are BITCHEN.

cowboy from hell

Brooke,

Excellent fab on the mount. Very impressed with your method for matching the 400 block position using the front mount bracket.

Am I correct the other side mount remains stock Cleveland?

Larry

Larry,
The mount on the other side is fabbed also and matches the one shown.

Awesome Brooke, Awsome! So glad to see others doing it. The 400 blocks are a dime a dozen which is nice and it is nice to see others using it. Amazing to me this engine has not been tapped before. It in itself is basically a stroked Cleveland.

Lary one side has the embosement for a Cleveland mount but you would have to drill it and tap it.

Gary

Blazing along at a snails pace I finished the water bottle relocation project.

This is not necessary for the swap. I wanted my bottles moved to give me more room for the headers and clean up the compartment a little.

You do however, need to raise the bottle as the thermostat mounting boss on the 400 is higher and this will make the tube higher than the swirl tank.

I made the bracket out of 1 inch angle steel and a piece of 1/8 thick 3/4 wide flat steel.

I made the round cutouts in the angle steel and then welded the flat steel in half circles to it.The bottles are retained with T clamps.
I will add some rubber or another material for insulation later.

Here are the bottles mounted in the car.
Later I will modify the engine oulet tube to match the angle of the relocated swirl tank.
I removed the existing bracket for the recovery tank and mounted the new bracket there.

The coolant outlet tube still misses the firewall but it is just barely due to the higher location of the thermostat boss.

Next up on the list is finish the shifter install and adjustment, Fab header flanges to match my port plates and build collectors to mate to the exhaust pipes. Then I can start header fab.

Cool!

Welcome to the next installment of my build which is 180 header fabrication!

I originally planned to build undercar headers which I will still do…read on.

There will be a long sequence of posts to present this information. I will do the best I can to present the job as completely as I think necessary to convey the ideas and procedures required.

This job requires a fair amount of skill and specialized tools but the most important thing is patience.

I don’t know when it started, maybe it was Rapids avatar or I was spending too much time on GT40s.com. You will not find a higher percentage of 180's per capita than with the GT40 crowd. Whatever it was I became obsessed with the 180 Header design. I decided I had to have 180’s.
I particularly liked the Symmetry of this design.



Here is a pic of Rapids awesome 180's that I shamelessly stole from his thread



The reason I did not originally consider going the 180 route is that I wanted to keep my A/C in the rear of the car and I wanted to use my trunk. I decided that although I could keep my A/C with 180's to meet all of my needs I would have to build two exhaust systems. I will build 180’s and a undercar set for use of the trunk when I need the car to act like a car such as going to the fun rally or other long distance events.With the 180's I will also have to build a heat shield to protect the paint on the decklid.

The 180 design header is not for everyone. Like anything else there are compromises. You have to decide if you can live with those factors before determining if 180's are for you.

I have been modifying and fabricating headers for years. I started in 1993 when I did a engine swap (460 in a 69 Mustang) and could not get a header to fit the way I needed it to. After that I began to modify headers for a better fit or collector upgrades, this way I did not have to settle for header manufacturer's design limitations. The first time I built a set of headers out of thin air(Zoomies for a Supercharged 460 in door car tube chassis) was when I could not buy something to fit a custom application. After that it was just something I did when a off the shelf header was not available or what I could buy was not available in a size or configuration I needed.
I don’t make a living building headers it’s just a skill I have developed over the years.

Before I start any project a little research is always in order. For those not familiar with what a 180 degree header is here are some sites to help with the basics.

Please take the time to look at these links. They will answer a lot of basic questions concerning 180 header priciples.
Here on the PIBB you can see where they have been discussed here before.This is one of those threads.
http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5650045562/m/2460086584/p/1

I primarily want to deal with the construction aspect of the build in this thread.

http://www.pro-touring.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-218.html

http://www.ssheaders.com/header.htm

http://home.alltel.net/bsprowl/Exhaust/180FEHeaders.htm

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/all-gt40/9358-header-design.html

Here is a cad drawing made by Adam C. on GT40s .com it gives a pretty good visual of the typical layout for a set of 180’s. Adam is an engineer who started fabricating GT40 parts as a hobby.
Adam calls fab “art class for adults.”
I love that quote!
Here is a link to his incredible work.

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/gt40-tech-engines-induction-...-summer-project.html

I did a lot of searching here on the PIBB and could not find a thread on headers that showed the thought process and individual steps that go into the fabrication of headers. I thought I would do that here in this thread. I apologize for the redundancy if this had been covered before.

Let’s get started.
First thing I did was to make a “wish list” in other words: What criteria do I want to incorporate into my design?
My list is as follows.
1. Headers must allow the use of rear mount A/C unit
2. Headers must be two piece with the only slip together joints present at the collector.
3. Must have descent access to header bolts
4. Must have descent access to spark plugs.
5. Must not have a large primary length difference from one cylinder to another.
6. Must match my MPG Port Plates at the flange.
7. Headers must be easy to install.
8. And most important, they must LOOK COOL!

My headers will be a rifling design where the pulses in the collector rotate in a clock wise or counter clockwise motion. I will mention that I was not able to find a single dyno test comparing a rifling design to a non rifling design. The original GT40 designs that I studied are only rifling on one side.
I am incorporating rifling into my design because I agree with the logic.

Here is a illustration from GT40s .com showing a rifling firing order in the collector. Keep in mind it is not the exact position that is important here it is the order. This order also determines which direction the rotation occurs.



My primaries will be oriented in this order 3258 and 1764
Left-------------Right
8—3 ----------6—4 Top
5—2----------7—1 Bottom
This makes both sides a clockwise rifling motion with the 13726548 firing order.

Given the modest projected power level of 375 emission legal horses for my 400,
my headers will be 1 ¾ primaries exiting into 2 ½ inch collectors.
My car will be a street use only car. No ORR racing or Track events. As such my engine will be built with a emphasis on bottom and midrange power. I feel the added primary length of the 180 design will compliment this goal. I will chassis dyno my car upon completion of its restoration to validate or invalidate my decisions and make the necessary changes.

We will start by fabricating the collector.
These will be a standard 4 into 1 style collector. They will have a 5 inch taper. They are not a true Merge collector but will incorporate some of the internal features of that type of collector. As I understand it a true Merge collector has a much steeper angle.

Here is a great thread on true Merge collector fabrication.

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/how-engines-transaxles/24820...tors-jim-cowden.html

I use a straight edge on end to mark the center of a tube. The tube dia is 1 7/8. This is the slip diameter for a 1 ¾ tube.



Then I lay my template over it lining up the centerline marks and tracing it. It needs mentioning that the template is not a true cone shape as one might think. It flares out drastically at the bottom.



Here are the 4 pieces cut out. I use a high speed cut off wheel to cut them out of the tube.



This is the alignment tool that I use to keep the pieces square. It is available from
http://www.coneeng.com/tech_assist.html
This makes the ends of the taper line up with the slip rings that will also be welded in this alignment tool.