Question for mEl

[jon f mn]

John Saeli said you might have some info for me. I'm working on a project 400d. The block is bad and needs to be bored because the counter bores are bad. I have all the parts to bore it out for 4 3/8 sleeves and pistons and am thinking about doing that. What I need help with is the head gasket. The bolts are different so a 1030 gasket won't fit the bolts and the 400 gasket won't fit the sleeves. John says you've been using copper wire and I'm wondering if you could explain what your doing. This will be for a farm use tractor and for pulling, so reliability is necessary. Thanks for your help.

 

[jon f mn]

Sorry, should say NOT for tractor pulling.

 

[Jerry He]

Do the 400 gaskets have a fire ring that you can remove from the gasket? If they do measure the thickness of your gasket and add .0015 to .0020 for crush factor. next measure the diameter of the sleeve landing. You want the ring to the outside of the sleeve so you are not trying to push the sleeve through block when you tighten the head. You can get custom made fire rings any size you may need. the company we get our rings from has a min order of 18 rings. You can make your own when you figure out what thickness you need. Some do away with the gasket and use a thin cooper ring and then use gasket sealer to seal the head. Once you seal off the compression all you are dealing with 40 or so pounds of oil pressure and 10 to 15 pounds of water pressure.

 

[Roger Link]

The last time we did one we elongated the bolt holes in the 1030 gaskets,as far as I know its still going. You will need 830 or 1030 rods as the wrist pin is bigger.

 

[jon f mn]

I have the rods, sleeves,and pistons and new rings. The crank was already turned and new bearings put in and the heads rebuilt. So if I do this it should be good for a long time. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Don Rudolph]

That plan will give you basically an 830 engine in a 400. What a stout beast that 400 will be. Keep us posted on your progress. Don

 

[mEl]

(quoted from post at 14:09:52 01/08/19) John Saeli said you might have some info for me. I'm working on a project 400d. The block is bad and needs to be bored because the counter bores are bad. I have all the parts to bore it out for 4 3/8 sleeves and pistons and am thinking about doing that. What I need help with is the head gasket. The bolts are different so a 1030 gasket won't fit the bolts and the 400 gasket won't fit the sleeves. John says you've been using copper wire and I'm wondering if you could explain what your doing. This will be for a farm use tractor and for pulling, so reliability is necessary. Thanks for your help.

Jon, Jerry has it right, that is great for engines for the field and should do well for pulling also, If it was for pulling only I would recommend going gasketless.The crush figures are what I use but I do not use a head gasket, simply red RTV to seal water passages. I have done very few of those engines, mostly DCs, I am interested as the one poster stated using the other gaskets and elongating the holes to center the gaskets on the bores. that may be a viable option.

 

[jon f mn]

Thank you! But today I got an estimate
on boring the block and it was much
more than I thought, so now I'm
thinking of just getting an 830 block
and going that route. A good block from
the salvage yard is half the cost of
boring this one. Unless I can find
someone cheaper. I do have heads that
will fit an 830 block, but they need to
be repaired. My 400 heads gave already
been redone. Guess I'll have to do some
more checking around to see what is my
best option.

 

[mEl]

Jon, would you be willing to let me know how much it was quoted to bore 4 holes and fit sleeves to them, I am very curious as we do that work, maybe we are not high enough in price although all of our work goes to pullers

 

[jon f mn]

He wanted $450 to bore and $100-150 to
mill the top. I'm going to do some shopping to see if I can find someone else for less. Everything else for this engine has been redone heads, crank, bearings etc. So I want to reuse that if I can. I can get a block for an
830 for $350 local. I'm hoping a
neighbor will sell me his for less. But I'd I do that I'll have to use different heads and likely have to have them gone through. Got
way too much into this already.

 

[EP]

I'm doing the same thing to a 400 gas, 4 3/8 bore. I machined down the firedam on the sleeves so the 400 gasket will fit. It's pretty thin but will be ok I believe. It would probably work if there weren't any firedam at all. That is a fair price for the machine work. Egging out the holes will also work fine and no extra machine work is needed.

 

[JD 435]

(quoted from post at 03:39:37 01/10/19) I'm doing the same thing to a 400 gas, 4 3/8 bore. I machined down the firedam on the sleeves so the 400 gasket will fit. It's pretty thin but will be ok I believe. It would probably work if there weren't any firedam at all. That is a fair price for the machine work. Egging out the holes will also work fine and no extra machine work is needed.

Jon is working on a diesel engine not gas. I would think the gasket would need to be pretty stout to hold the compression. I'm thinking elongating the stud holes from an 830 diesel gasket would be the ticket.