440 ideas?

[troutbum]

I picked up a 440/727/203 drivetrain for $200.00

I am looking for build up ideas for the 440, everything I can find is for high rpms...

It has the 452 heads 88cc? cast crank (externally balanced). I don't know a damn thing about the heads? Are they trash or will a good valve job be enough? I want to keep the CR below 9:1 and I am looking for low end grunt. Cam ideas? I am assuming .030 over and forged pistons??

Any ideas for a good stump pullin' mill??

[pistol45]

sweet! about time someone did this! Ive been dragging my feet by doing other projects but I have a ramcharger that will have some 42's on it sometime later this year and the 440 is alread in it, here is what i thought about. First get ya a mopar performance catalog. that book tells you every engine combo and the characteristics of each set up. i was thinking converting it to TBI by using a ecm and throttle body off of a 454 BUT turbo city makes the 440 tbi kit relatively cheap! start here!

[pistol45]

put a turbo city tbi kit on it. they are reasonably priced. get ya a mopar performance catalog, it has every possible engine combo and output info in it with part numbers, then have turbo city burn the computer to match. the heads are fine clean them up and go if you want more info on what to do with the engine look up muscle motors on a yahoo search.

[hy_desert_4wheeler]

The 452 heads have an 81.5cc combustion chamber not 88. They also have the big ports so they flow decent. For a cam MP has two that work well for a DD they are part numbers P4286673 and P4286675. For mud bogging I would go with a P4452993. If you have the money then I would go for the FI but on the cheap I would use a Carter 4401 AVS if you can find one. For an intake manifold go with a dual plane or keep the stock one.

my personal 440 has the following. 69 440 .020 over - 516 heads that I home ported with the MP porting kit - P4286675 cam- performer 2191 intake manifold with a carter AVS4401 carb-I used header kit #P4529506 since I was unable to find Off the shelf headers.
These part Numbers are from when I built my engine in 96 so they may have changed by now but the dealer should be able to cross reference them.

[troutbum]

Can you swap externally balanced cast crank for internally balanced forged crank?

Another question if you run aluminum heads on a cast block do you run into problems because of the different heating and coolings properties of cast and aluminum?
Seems like you would need to retorque the heads more frequently, but are there other impacts?

TIA

[hy_desert_4wheeler]

I do not know for sure whether you can swap cranks or not. The 76-78 cranks have different size main bearings than the 73 and older cranks. Even if the cranks will swap you will also have to use the rods and pistons from the same engine you get the crank from to keep things balanced. To see if the cranks will swap I would recomend finding an old block and measuring the main bores and then measuring the main bores on the engine you currently have.
As far as the aluminum heads go their are no problems with running them. You can install them just like you the iron heads and it the gasket calls for a retorque, retorque them at the specified time/mileage. then forget about them.. All the Chrysler built 2.2 and 2.5 liter engines including the turbo motors use aluminum heads with out problems. Just dont get them HOT They will crack between the valves.

[FULLSIZE]

well said russ. i think you can swap them, but you will need the balancer and flywheel/converter from the forged crank motor and like russ said use the parts from the forged motor or have all the parts balanced together when you rebuild.

[txs]

yes you can change the cranks with appropriate bearings but why bother, unless you're going to spend a wad of money on your heads you can not make enough power to hurt the cast crank, that aint no piddly gm cast crank.

[ScoutII]

Instead of running aftermarket EFI systems like
Howell, Holley, TurboCity...which almost all
use the GM parts, Why not just use all Mopar
Parts?
90/91 pre Magnmum Engines used TBI straight
from the Factory. To convert from small block
to big block application simply purchase the
intake/head spacers to use a small block manifold on a big block engine and then use all the stock Mopar stuff. You can now get parts
anywhere, anytime you want except for the
ECM which is a dealer item. The rest of the parts
you can get at any mom/pops store if they fail.

[FULLSIZE]

SPACERS?

[txs]

methinks scout 2 has been smokin the good chit

[hy_desert_4wheeler]

scoutII they make spacers to mate a "B" intake to an "RB" engine but the "A/LA" is totally different and will not match with any spacer

[troutbum]

I read somewhere that the 76-78 BBs had thin casting walls and should not be bored over more than .020? Anyone running this year BB? What's the deal? The bore taper is barley within spec, but I would I would prefer to go .030 over???

[hy_desert_4wheeler]

The thin bore wall is just a rumor but I only have them bored enough to clean them upthat way I can do it again in the future if necessary without spending $100.00 per cylinder for sleeves..