440 engine build

[moparfanUSA]

OK experts (I'm not) I plan on rebuilding a 440 that was given to me. I am not going to go crazy. Street car MAYBE once or twice on the track, but it will be a driver.
I want to know what cam I should put into it, I was thinking just a step up from stock. It is a 4 speed car and I will be putting in flat top pistons (six pack pistons) with either a six pack or an 850 Holly. I know I have to use heavier (H- beams?) rods. I have not found out yet if the crank is steel or forged. The block will be bored 30 over. Some say put in solid lifters and some say Hyd, maybe with adjustable rockers if I go with solid. So my question is, what cam and what valve train should I go with...oh I have a completely rebuilt set of 915 heads I ran on my other 440 and it made alot more power than the stock 906's I have on there now. I am also going to run a set of headers on it.
Opinons?

 

[moparfanUSA]

bump

 

[Propwash]

Take no offense to this because none is intended, but that is a pretty vague question. I'll throw in my 2 cents being I just got done with my stroker build. As far as putting together a build for your engine, there are a ton of variables that fall into place. Vehicle weight? Gearing, what gears?....Tranny, auto/manual?....Oil system? Heads, going to port? Valves? Bowl work?.....Headers, what size?....Exhaust, what size? Intake, DP or single?...Brakes, plan on having power brakes? Distributor, plan on a mechanical or vacuum advance? (Power brakes and Vacuum advance require decent vacuum-bigger cam will kill that). Wanna run on pump gas? Fuel system? (pump, lines, sending unit, tank, regulator?) Just some of the factors to consider. Obviously the meat and potato's of it all.......What kind of Horsepower and Torque are you looking for? And also, when you say maybe a couple trips to the strip, does that mean you don't mind burning up some T/A radials on a Sunday and running in the 14's or does that mean you'd like to bring some Mopar domination and fall into the 12's, even the 11's? The reason I bring this all up is there is a fine line in between having an engine with a decent idle, good low end throttle transition and habitable street manners into a roaring beast that requires more fuel, more air, more upgrades to transmission, rear, suspension and body.

So, I guess you really need to layout your detailed intentions. Just saying "street car" really doesn't lay any cards on the table besides the fact you can drive it down the street. There's others here with quite a bit more experience with engine dynamics, but when you do look into buying a cam remember that it's not just a hunk of metal for $200 bucks that will slap an advertised 50 horse on your engine. That line of thinking will end you up with a car that will fall flat on its face, run hot, run rough, be unreliable..ect..ect.. All the engine components must work together and be balanced. Look around the site and you'll see see guys bragging about big valve lift, long durations, tight lobe seperation cams in a engine with heads that don't breathe, intake & fuel systems that don't provide or over-provide, poor ignitions, bad compression and what do the got.........a boat anchor! Heck, there's guys on here that put Lumpy cams in their cars, just because they want to hear a choppy idle, meanwhile the engine it tripping over itself cause none of the dynamics of the engine are balanced anymore. Take your time, do some research, really layout what you want to spend, how you want the car to run/behave and the power you expect in the end. If your just looking for engine recipes, a good place to start would be the "Post your combo's" over in the race section. Good luck

 

[Meep-Meep]

You are on the right track by keeping it just over stock. You won't need much to put a smile on your face and to keep the tire companies in business.

A mild cam such as the MoPar .455 / 272 is a good choice. The 112 lobe separation is magic on the street, producing good vacuum while making the engine easy to tune. All stock components work well but a set of headers and free flowing exhaust will make it just that much happier. I always upgrade the valve train to high strength 3/8" pushrods and some quality aftermarket rockers like the Isky or Crane iron or even some of the newer roller tip. Valve train stability is important to making good power.

The 915 heads are a good choice and my preference out of all the iron heads. On a 440 you can get .4 increase in compression vs. the 906 head. Use a steel shim gasket and expect to get another .4 point increase. Target compression should be no more than 10:1. Don't forget hard exhaust seats for the unleaded gas.

The .455" cam works great with 3.55's and an 11" converter like a TCI Street Fighter. If you want to keep it simple and have a great running engine for along time this is a good recipe.

 

[Budnicks]

Take no offense to this because none is intended, but that is a pretty vague question. I'll throw in my 2 cents being I just got done with my stroker build. As far as putting together a build for your engine, there are a ton of variables that fall into place. Vehicle weight? Gearing, what gears?....Tranny, auto/manual?....Oil system? Heads, going to port? Valves? Bowl work?.....Headers, what size?....Exhaust, what size? Intake, DP or single?...Brakes, plan on having power brakes? Distributor, plan on a mechanical or vacuum advance? (Power brakes and Vacuum advance require decent vacuum-bigger cam will kill that). Wanna run on pump gas? Fuel system? (pump, lines, sending unit, tank, regulator?) Just some of the factors to consider. Obviously the meat and potato's of it all.......What kind of Horsepower and Torque are you looking for? And also, when you say maybe a couple trips to the strip, does that mean you don't mind burning up some T/A radials on a Sunday and running in the 14's or does that mean you'd like to bring some Mopar domination and fall into the 12's, even the 11's? The reason I bring this all up is there is a fine line in between having an engine with a decent idle, good low end throttle transition and habitable street manners into a roaring beast that requires more fuel, more air, more upgrades to transmission, rear, suspension and body.

So, I guess you really need to layout your detailed intentions. Just saying "street car" really doesn't lay any cards on the table besides the fact you can drive it down the street. There's others here with quite a bit more experience with engine dynamics, but when you do look into buying a cam remember that it's not just a hunk of metal for $200 bucks that will slap an advertised 50 horse on your engine. That line of thinking will end you up with a car that will fall flat on its face, run hot, run rough, be unreliable..ect..ect.. All the engine components must work together and be balanced. Look around the site and you'll see see guys bragging about big valve lift, long durations, tight lobe seperation cams in a engine with heads that don't breathe, intake & fuel systems that don't provide or over-provide, poor ignitions, bad compression and what do the got.........a boat anchor! Heck, there's guys on here that put Lumpy cams in their cars, just because they want to hear a choppy idle, meanwhile the engine it tripping over itself cause none of the dynamics of the engine are balanced anymore. Take your time, do some research, really layout what you want to spend, how you want the car to run/behave and the power you expect in the end. If your just looking for engine recipes, a good place to start would be the "Post your combo's" over in the race section. Good luck

Propasan, I couldn't have said it better myself "Grasshopper"...

 

[67Satty]

Sounds like it will be a fun combo to me. Maybe it's because I have something similar, except you have better heads. If I had to do it all over again, I would put in a solid lifter cam because they've been shown to make more power than a hydraulic cam with similar specs so why leave HP on the table? I don't think adjusting valves is that hard and you don't have to do it very often anyway.

Only thing I'm curious about is what gear ratio do you want to run?

My cam is a .534 lift, 238 @ .050 duration, 110 LSA and it is a smooth-idler, maybe just a hint of chop but very streetable so I think you can go a little bigger than just one step up from stock especially since you have the compression, 4 speed, and decent heads to support it.

My only concern would be thrashing it at the strip with the 4 speed, I've never owned a stick car with any power I'm guessing you'll have to have heavier duty drivetrain stuff than you can get away with with an auto.

 

[moparfanUSA]

Prop and Meep, Prop I did try and put in as much as I thought I had to, but to add, mostly all stock stuff, I did put in the post it is a 4 speed. It will have power brakes, not sure on the exhaust yet. Going to be a stock six pack of carbs or stock Holly850, Dist will be stock (vacuum advance) pump gas. I have no intenstions of putting a big cam in it, just wanted to see what other people have done that is Just a small step above stock. I have a stock cam in my other 440 and want something just a bit bigger without getting into what you descibed with other people. I wanted to see if I should put in the stock lifters or go to rollers
Meep, the heads have harden seats already.
Thanks for the info.

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I'm going to run 3:55's in the rear

 

[67Satty]

I'm going to make one more point in favor of a bigger cam than just one step up from stock. With your 6 pack pistons and 915 heads you will end up with a compression ratio somewhere between 10:1 and 10.5:1 (depending on variables you have not posted yet like what the heads CC at and if the heads have been milled and the block decked). I think that's maybe borderline on the high side with iron heads. A cam with more duration could help bleed off some cylinder pressure and let it run better on pump gas. JMHO. You don't mention your elevation, that will factor in too.

I know a lot of people advocate for going with smaller cams but just to play devil's advocate, way back Mopar Performace or Direct Connection did a cam test with a smogger 400 and found that it kept getting faster with each cam change the bigger they went - all the way up to the .590 lift, 312 duration cam.

 

[Budnicks]

One option if your going to use stock valve train components/shafts rockers pushrods valves etc. is the Mopar Performance Hydraulic Camshaft #P5007697 Revised Purple Shaft MP Cam 248/284* {or 241*/241* @ 0.050}, with 0.484"/0.484" gross valve lift with true 1.5:1 rocker ratio {with stock stamped rockers it will be slightly less}, 114* centerline, 56* overlap, 2200-5900rpm range, with MP #P3690933 recommended springs, with MP #P4006767 hydraulic lifters is a good bumpty bump cam, with plenty of lift for the street & noticeable more HP/TQ, if ignition & carb/s are tuned properly.... a minimum of 1-3/4" tube headers are recommended, with 2-1/2" dual exhaust... just one option, for a street driver, with good street manners & a little humph, when you need it... IMHFO it's not the lift that hurts you, you can go more lift {you will need to take the guides down some, for clearance & should go to adjustable rockers & aftermarket push rods, if you go over about 0.520" gross lift}, it's the center line revised 114* vs. old 108* & valve overlap revised 56* vs old 68*, mostly that makes the revised cams, better mannered for the street, than the old original grind MP Purple Shaft Cams were...

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IMHFO spend the money on port work too, it will be money very well spent, for getting the most out of your combo, the heads are a big choke point in the BB Wedge B/RB engines...

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there are allot of cam choices out there... IMHFO just call the experts, any reputable Camshaft Mfgr., tell them exactly/truthfully what you have, exactly/truthfully what you expect & ultimately want to do, with your car in the final outcome... they are the Camshaft experts after all...

 

[Propwash]

Propasan, I couldn't have said it better myself "Grasshopper"...

Hey Budnicks, I gotta credit smart folks like yourself, Meep Meep, RRR, 67Satty and many others on this site that I learned an absolute ton from when putting together all the parts and pieces of my 512. You and the others really know your stuff and the recent outstanding numbers on my engine dyno prove that. You're in good hands Moparfan.

 

[Meep-Meep]

It's all about keeping the power band in harmony with the rear end ratio and how you will use the car. Get to crazy on the cam and you will need deeper gears to get the most out of it.