440 Rebuild Components

[TetanusShot]

What do you plan to do with the car? Is the motor home crank forged or cast? If the crank is a forging, I'd just get some hypereutectic pistons, rings, rod bolts, have it balanced and call it a day. 440ci is plenty of motor. Does your satellite have an 8 3/4 axle? 904 trans?

 

[nuteguy]

The car is going to be a daily driver but I do want to be able to go to the track and run a decent time. I'm going to swap in a 9 1/4 with 3.55s and a posi. 727 trans. I was hoping to do a 4 speed swap but theres not enough money in the bank for that.

I have the engine down to a bare block. I believe I have a forged crank, as there is no small defined seam of casting, rather there is a larger "seam" of sorts. I'll get around to posting pictures soon enough.

I'm looking to engine tech for an OE master rebuild kit.

 

[reeltime]

A stroker is nice and certainly every bit as reliable as a 440 but, they use more gas and need better cooling.What is wrong with the crank you had in the motor home engine ? A lot of them came with forged cranks.The cast cranks are good for 550 - 600 HP range.LY rods are very good rods also which were likely in your engine.
A very good person to call on your rebuild is Dave Hughes at Hughes Engines ( hughesengines.com ) They know their stuff and can be trusted to steer you in the right direction and parts selection.They are competitive and have an outstanding reputation. I do not want to start any arguments here just to help someone out.Good luck no matter what you decide.

 

[nuteguy]

I'm most likely going to end up reusing the crank. I initially thought that it would be a cast crank, however, during takedown, I realized that someone had rebuilt my motor at some point in time and most likely put the forged crank in.

 

[Cranky]

Had a bone stock 100k miles 70 440 RT Challenger rag top that still ran decent but it needed to be restored. It was loaded up with everything so it wasn't exactly light. With street tires and 3.91 gears and spinning off the line, it ran a 14.20 which wasn't too shabby for what the car was. Basically, it was well worn but it didn't smoke or anything. Your car shouldn't be any heavier than the Challenger was. I weighed it once but don't remember what the number was. My 71 340 Cuda with AC, PS/B was 3560 so I figure the Challenger was at least 3700 or better. My Challenger probably would trip the lights in the high 13's with a fresh engine, decent tires, fresh suspension and better tires than the set of Good Year GT radials that were on it. It ain't that hard to go faster than 13's with a stock stroke 440 with some go fast goodies.....how fast do ya want to go?

 

[nuteguy]

I'm not too worried about the quarter mile times just yet.

 

[nuteguy]

So a quick update. I just dropped the block off at the machine shop. The crank is forged and the rods look like the come from a 440 magnum. The casting number could either be a 73 or 78. I'll post with more info after measurements are taken.

I think I'm going to start calling this the mystery engine. I really don't know what I've got or its story.