Anyone know what kind of performace can be had out of a 400 without stroking it?

[sixty-niner]

well whats the difference between short stroke and long stroke?  Someone said that he is building a 451 with the stock 400 rods which are shorter than the 440's and therefore it will have more low end torque but will not rev as high as if he would have used 440 rods.  this correct? 
wouldnt I want a higher revving motor if I was doing autocross?

[XH29N0G]

I love seeing the claims that you need a long stroke to make torque. Do some research and reading. There have been lots of dyno pulls made on same cubic inch engine with differnt bore/stroke combos and the end result was the same. The bottom line is a 440 makes more torque then a 383 because it has 57 more cubes....then same reason a 500 has more torque then a 440.
 I like big bore, short stroke, long rod. Keeps the piston up top longer, good quench, faster reving, longer street life.

I don't know the enough about the physics of the process to evaluate whether stroke plays an important role in torque, but I think you make a good point, that cubes also play a role in torque.  It seems to me that the lever arm of a crankshaft with a larger stroke should transfer the energy of combustion more efficiently to torque, but I don't know if that is actually what happens.

well whats the difference between short stroke and long stroke?  Someone said that he is building a 451 with the stock 400 rods which are shorter than the 440's and therefore it will have more low end torque but will not rev as high as if he would have used 440 rods.  this correct?  
wouldnt I want a higher revving motor if I was doing autocross?

As far as the rod length and stroke are related, my understanding is that a longer stroke engine in the same block will need a shorter rod/piston combination to reach the top of the deck.   The rod length depends on the total length of the rod/piston combination; so the height of the piston is also a factor in rod length.  Shorter pistons save weight, but if the piston gets too short the rings can overlap the pins and/or the pistons might rock back and forth in the cylinder; so there is a tradeoff.  

If you have a higher deck height (like the RB vs B block) then a longer rod could be used with the same stroke.  The bore of the 400 is slightly larger than the 440, but the 400 has a shorter cylinder (can use a shorter rod/piston combination to reach the top of the cylinder for the same stroke) which means less rotating weight.  

My understanding of the issue of stroke vs revving is related in some way to the velocity that the rods/pistons reach for each engine revolution.  At the same RPM, the piston/rod in a longer stroke engine will be moving faster than in a shorter stroke engine.  If it is also heavier, then there are several reasons it may be more prone to failure at a given RPM.

Torque at the flywheel and torque at the wheels is another issue.  The Torque at the wheels can be changed with gearing, but there can also be practical limits to that.

I'll leave it to others to correct/clarify what I have written, but this is how I understand it.  

[Cooter]

we have this same debate with the import guys vs domestic guys. The import guys seem to take the side of higher horsepower and the domestic guys tend to take this side of higher horsepower with reliability. A bigger engine of course will make more torque, however given the choice there's nothing wrong with building a 400, but when there is a raised block 440 out there common sense says build the bigger engine. Yes, given enough money, a 400 will do just fine...

[Ghoste]

There are also some ratios involved and the bore stroke ratio on a 440 comes in at a number that many engineers and race engine builders consider to be nearly perfect.

[green69rt]

I read an article in a rodding magazine a long while back.  It talked about the relative merits of stroking various blocks.   End result was the 440 was the best to stroke followed by the 400.  They talked about small rod angles and thus low cylinder wear.   Just one more piece of info.  I think that goes along with what Ghoste said.

[fy469rtse]

with the 400 , lighter slightly longer rods with the wrist pin higher up in the piston high compression, keeps that angle ratio to rods change to a minimum, will help it rev quicker, rule of thumb with so much after market goody's why would you use the heavy factory rods and pistons,   alloy heads, and so on , stroker
crank or not , good engine, although you get problems with engine bay clearance with headers because nearly all are made to the 440 block , slightly higher, wider, stock steering linkages get in the way

[ACUDANUT]

"wider, stock steering linkages get in the way"

This is only a small block problem. Not a B or RB issue.