The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop '70 chevy. 400 badge. was it really 400 or a 402?

Just curious about this. A friend of mine is being offered an engine out of a 1970 chevy truck. The owner said he thought it came with a 396 and they just 'rounded up' to put the 400 emblems on. I know chevy swapped over from the 396 to a 402, but they had spent SOOOO much money advertising the 396 that they continued calling the 402 a 396. I just don't have any idea about the 400.

I haven't seen it myself to see if maybe the truck came with a 400 small block, but he is swearing it's a big block and that it IS the factory engine.

Any ideas/information on this??

its true, Chevy used the 396 in 69 then the 402 in 70, they used both engines in both years at diff plants, there was a strike in 70, things were kinda messed up. they called the 402 a 400, guess it sounded better. sometimes they used 400 badge on the fenders for both engines-a few were listed as 396/400 so even GM didn't know which one was in what vehicle, kinda like the 350/400 small block was used interchangebly in the mid 70s. In 71 they added the small block 400 so two diff engines were called 400 for a short time as the 454 replaced the 402.brian

I can give a little more clarification. The 396 was changed over to the 402 in mid '69, Chevrolet referred it as the "396" due to the marketing that was already in place for their engines. That is why you see "SS 396" '70 Chevelles, Camaros, and Novas, GM didn't want to change the marketing. Besides, SS402 doesn't sound right. In trucks they called it the Turbo-Jet 400, which is the big block name. There was also a Turbo-Fire 400, used in passenger cars, that was a small block. By the way, the 454 came out in '70 as a replacement for the passenger 427. The tall deck 427 was still used up to the late '90's, as was the 366 big block.
The 402 was used in trucks to '72, the 454 was introduced in light trucks in '73. The small block 400 was used to '80.