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Looking at a 1976 401 engine For a rebuild and swap out my 1978 360.
So should be a PnP mostly once refreshed, "I think".
Have a set of heads from a 79 360 all done freshened up.
Anyway, Heads should be a direct bolt on, though is there any performance advantage to the OEM 401 heads.
I think the rocker arm studs on 401 are same bridge type & 5/16 studs.
I'll likely go with an aluminum intake for my 4bbl carb.
Ant nuances and info about a 401 this year Let me know plz
From memory. There were some early 1970's heads that had dogleg exhaust ports and I think the rocker mounts were studded.
But for your use case you don't need high performance heads. I would just go with the freshened up heads you have, save the money and not really notice any difference.
It's just a low usage rig, sits around mostly, go to Wednesday car shows, HomeDepot runs , very low usage. Keep it local maybe 50-150 mile trips 1-2 times a year.
Also thought about installing an aluminum intake, put dual exhaust on it, Possible an EFI too.
Just keep it clean and lightly upgraded.
I thought adding more CID and gaining extra 75+HP should be all I'll ever need really.
So weighing it All out I'm rethinking things.
The Rig with the 401 Is $2,500, then I have a parts truck in my yard once I pull the engine out.
So upfront costs, $2,500 just to get an engine.
That monies can go a long ways in just doing my engine instead.
It's 82K original miles, doesn't smoke no noises etc, runs very nice!
360 is a descent power plant especially if I put 9.8 compression in it as Upgrade from the 8.25:1 OEM setup.
Add in the new upgrades I will do anyway, I am tetering on the question will a 401 Really be all that great of an improvement?
Last edited by 1978J10REDWHITE on Wed Oct 18, 2023 8:12 pm, edited 3 times in total.
The answer is, for the money, a 401 will not be that great of an improvement. You're not racing it. It's a lightly used rig that you drive around for fun and you are not expecting to win any stop light races.
I wouldn't (and didn't) bother with an EFI. You'll never get the money back in gas savings. There are a lot of modifications to get it to work and you'll have to mess with it for a while. Toss a holley or Edelbrock carb on it and it will run 'good enough' for your use case.
In my sig you can see I ended up with a 401 but that's just because it was available and I got a great deal on it at the time. When it's time I might rebuild it or if I get a good deal on a 360 I'll jump on it and never look back.
That oil upgrade is for the rear crank bearings and isnt that big of a problem. The oil changes also recommend opening the oil path at the front of the engine and adding a restrictor to provide more volume to the rear bearings. All good and easy upgrades but probably not needed for a Daily Driver.
I'm rethinking things.
Valley MOD is not needed for street daily driver use. HP drag racing absolutely is needed.
As long as I go 003" on #5 and 002" on #1-4 main caps, should be ok, with todays oils and proper ZDDP additives will be fine.
Bulltear sells components which has a proper upgrade for a few MODS that are helpful.