Rebuilding A Junkyard Pontiac 400 Engine For $2,000

The Pontiac 400 cubic inch motor (made between 1967 and 1979) is still a great platform for a high-performance daily driver.

The HorsePower guys prove that by extracting a 400 from a junkyard, machining the block, and rebuilding it on a two-thousand dollar budget. The results of this recycled-power project are pretty impressive when it’s dyno time.

Have you got a GM 400 engine block?

All GM engines are stamped with an engine ID code, consisting of assembly plant code, production date, and suffix code.

Inspect the casting numbers on the engine block. The GM 400 cubic inch engine has only three distinct numbers…

Browse All GM Engine Block Casting Numbers…

Parts Used in this Engine Rebuild

• Accel: HEI Distributor, HEI Supercoil, ignition module, spark plug wires.
• ARP: Harmonic balancer bolt, head bolts, accessory bolt kit, rod bolts.
• Butler Performance: Cleaning, prepping and machining of the short block, bored .030, align-honed, machined crankshaft, resized connecting rods, installed cam bearings, installed freeze plug kit, aluminum fabricated valley pan.
• Denso: Denso Iridium tip spark plugs.
• Edelbrock: Performer aluminum intake manifold.
• Federal-Mogul Corporation: Cam Bearings, Rod bearings, Main bearings.
• Federal-Mogul Corporation: Sealed Power pistons and rings.
• Gold Eagle Co.: 104+ Octane booster and Maximum 104+ Octane booster.
• Halibrand Engineering Inc.: 15×10 Halibrand Sprint cast polished aluminum wheels, 15×4.5 Halibrand Sprint cast polished aluminum wheels.
• Hays: Steel flywheel.
• Hedman Hedders: Ceramic coated long tube headers.
• Howards Cams, Inc.: Hydraulic cam and lifters, timing set, valve springs, retainers, and locks.
• Loctite: Loctite 598 Black High-performance RTV silicone gasket maker.
• Mothers Polish: Mother’s Tire Shine.
• Mr. Gasket: Overhaul gasket set, exhaust gaskets, intake gaskets, chrome water neck, fuel pump mounting plate.
• O’Reilly Auto Parts: Quadrajet OE replacement carburetor.
• Pioneer Inc.: Rocker arm studs, rocker arm nuts, woodruff key, rocker arm balls, oil pan bolts, timing gear bolts, dowel pin kit, pushrod, valve springs, freeze plug kit, oil filter adapter bolts.
• Summit Racing: Harmonic balancer, FlowKooler water pump.