Hi all. I'm finally in the process of restoring my dad's 442 that he bought new in 1969 as a retirement gift for him. I joined the site back in 2013 with the intention of starting on it then, but then life happened and the car sat for the past 4 yrs. It's still has the original 400 in it with about 160k miles, a TH400, power brakes, and factory A/C. It will be his weekend cruiser (I doubt he'll ever race it), but I'm sure he wouldn't mind a little extra hp on the street.

I know the long stroke 400 isn't the best performance engine to start with, but he wanted to keep it since its the original. I've tried to read up on the 68-69 400s as much as I could, but haven't found too much info regarding performance builds, probably because most would just do a 455 instead. Anyways, I'd like your opinions/thoughts on the following combination:

FAST EFI 2.0 w/ FAST electronic distributor
Edelbrock Performer w/ center cut down (or is the factory manifold OK?)
Port and polish C heads (would like to keep factory heads), port match intake
Lunati Voodoo 272/280 hydraulic roller & lifters
Harland Sharp pedestal roller rockers
American Racing 1 7/8 headers w/ 3" collectors to x-pipe that will reduce to 2.5"

For the bottom end, forged 9.5 to 1 pistons, forged rods, and hopefully the crank can be reused. I don't know if the block will need to be bored yet.

I plan on running a 2000 stall torque converter, 3.42 gears, 26" tire, and adding a Gear Vendors overdrive unit. I'm hoping this will combo will maintain reasonable street manners, make about 350 hp, allow us to use the power brakes/AC, and not need to be rebuilt for many years.


I've built several LS series small blocks, but know that Olds are a completely different ball of wax. I'm reading Bill Trovato's book right now to get a better idea of what I'm getting myself into. Who knows, I may just end up shipping him the motor if I think I'm in over my head.

I would appreciate your thoughts and any suggestions before I start taking the engine apart. Thanks in advance.

-Mike

 

I can help, you can email me directly at fastone01@hotmail.com

Thanks.