1978 Dodge Sportsman 440

[Feral]

I've got a 440 Big Block from a 1978 Sportsman RV that I have been thinking about rebuilding for my 71 Superbee; but I don't know much of anything about the engine, the difference between the early 70's blocks and what kind of power output it had.

Can anyone give me any information on this engine?

 

[benno440]

you need to posrt the stamped numbers off the side of the block and the stamped numbers off the id pad near the distributor.

74-78 motors were low compression, low power water blocks (better cooling), to make it perform well you can go mild with cam heads and intake or wild with stroker kit pistons crank cams etc.

google 440source.com and read the info on there site

 

[Feral]

Would the rotational assembly (crank, rods, pistons) be strong enough for a 400 HP range build?

 

[BeastlyBirdie]

You're going to want to swap pistons. A cast crank can handle 400 up, that's more an issue if you try spinning it up too high. The rods will be fine. You'll need to rebalance the assembly. It springs to mind they were a whopping 230 hp, or something else sick. Good blocks to build from, as was stated earlier.

 

[Feral]

You're going to want to swap pistons. A cast crank can handle 400 up, that's more an issue if you try spinning it up too high. The rods will be fine. You'll need to rebalance the assembly. It springs to mind they were a whopping 230 hp, or something else sick. Good blocks to build from, as was stated earlier.

My goal is to make horsepower without relying on high compression so I can run the engine on pump gas without additives. I was thinking about leaving the rotational assembly alone (apart from necessary work), and getting a set of aftermarket heads, moderate profile camshaft and a sixpack intake system.

 

[BeastlyBirdie]

You can get detonation even from 8:1 compression. And cams are designed for static compression of....as listed by cam specs. Its easier to simply change pistons, to push it up for HP, get good heads, time the cam right, and it will run well on 91 octane. The stock pistons will never get you anything like 400 HP.

 

[Meep-Meep]

Yep, as stated you should do something to increase the compression a bit to make the larger cam work better. Bigger cam needs more compression. My build is based on a 77 block but with zero deck KB pistons and closed chamber heads. I'm probably over 400 at the crank and it was not very difficult or expensive to do. Look up my recipe in the 12 second build section.