You just gotta love company politics. Does anybody remember the 377ci
small block that GM played with for a while? I don't think it ever made
production, but I think they used it in Bill Thomas' Chevy Cheetah, and I
think possibly the Corvette Gran Sport. I don't think it was the same
377ci that people are building now days (400ci block and 350 crank), but I
guess it was a real runner with the mechanical fuel-injection and the
solid-lifter cam. The 66' Corvette with it's 425hp 396ci was no slouch
either.
Kevin Lake
56 GMC Suburban/napco
----------
> From: Gwyn Reedy <mgr@mgrcorp.com>
> To: Kevin Lake <lakek@oit.edu>; MarkNoakes@aol.com;
oletrucks@autox.team.net
> Subject: RE: Re: [oletrucks] 366 V-8/big blocks
> Date: Sunday, March 14, 1999 11:18 AM
>
> According to information on the Mortec page, the small block 400 had a
bore
> of 4.125 and a stroke of 3.76. The big block 400 had a bore of 4.125 and
a
> stroke of 3.76. Both calculate to 402 and both were called 400 by
Chevrolet.
>
> I often wonder what was going on. This was just when cars had become
subject
> to California smog restrictions and more were soon to become effective.
It
> was also a few years before the major reductions of engine variations by
GM.
> It would have been VERY unlikely that two engine blocks would just happen
to
> work out to the exact same bore and stroke. The big block was a slight
> increase from the 396 (only 30 thousandths larger). I always figured that
> was some manufacturing convenience that came about when the block was
> recored to handle the 4.250 bore of the 454, but now I'm beginning to
> suspect it was for some other reason. It is just too much to accept that
it
> came out with the same exact bore and stroke as the new small block 400
all
> by accident, and at the same time too.
>
> In 1967 the GM engine line-up standardized on the 350 displacement. The
> Chevy 327 got a new crank to become a 350. This was the first time a
'wierd'
> bore or stroke dimension was used. (The 265 was 3.750 bore and 3.0
stroke.
> The bore increased 1/8 inch to 3.875 for the 283. Then it increased
another
> 1/8 to 4.000 and the stroke increased to 3 1/4 for the 327. It seems
obvious
> to me that the engineers picked a bore and a stroke and the displacement
> came out to whatever it came out to be. Note the change with the 350 -
bore
> stayed the same as the 327 but the stroke increased from 3 1/4 to 3.48
> inches - not 3.5 inches you would have expected. Seems obvious the GM
front
> office had decreed that the displacement should be exactly 350. Same year
> Pontiac increased the 326 to 350, Olds came up with a 350 etc. Sure looks
> like a pattern to me.
>
> Same year the Pontiac 389 turned into a 400. Don't remember the Olds or
> Buick - hope someone can contribute what they did. Interesting thing to
me
> is that the Chevy 396 did NOT change to 400. (Could it be because SS-396
was
> too powerful a marketing tool to mess with?) But then 3 years later it
> turned into a 402. When all the GM divisions - Pontiac, Olds, Buick went
to
> a 455, Chevy did the 454.
>
> I'd love to read a book about the corporate planning and the Chevy vs GM
> intrigue that must have been going on back then. There was talk of
> government anti-trust action against GM back then (notice how the
government
> picks on the successful firms till they lose it) and the guess was that
> Chevrolet would be broken off as a separate company leaving GM with BOP
and
> Cadillac. Could that have been behind some of the engine identity
posturing?
> Or was it about preparing for the engine/drivetrain simplification that
> occurred in the 70's. Remember the law suits about Olds owners who sued
> because their car came with a Chevy engine? And for a few years all the
GM
> adverts in the magazines came with fine print that said, "GM automobiles
may
> be equipped with engines from various GM divisions" or something like
that
> so they wouldn't get sued again. Maybe the plan all along was to have a
350,
> a 400 and a 455 and phase out the different division's engines and just
have
> one of each. Kinda like there used to be a Hydra-Matic, a Dynaflow, a
> PowerGlide, a TurboGlide and that changed to a Turbo-Hydra-Matic 350 and
a
> THM 400 that served all divisions?
>
> Anyone else have any insight on this?
>
> Gwyn Reedy
> Brandon, Florida
> mailto:mgr@mgrcorp.com
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-oletrucks@autox.team.net
> > [mailto:owner-oletrucks@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Kevin Lake
> > Sent: Sunday, March 14, 1999 11:53 AM
> > To: MarkNoakes@aol.com; oletrucks@autox.team.net
> > Subject: Re: Re: [oletrucks] 366 V-8/big blocks
> >
> > Weren't all of the 400ci motors small-blocks? I have seen a 402ci. big
> > block, but I thought all of the 400ci motors were small-blocks.
> >
>
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