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69 Coronet 440 project

I use the hell out of my blast cabinet, so nice to toss parts in an pull out clean metal
Yes it is and I had both of those blasted in an hour. My Harbor Freight cabinet would have taken days. Now I need a bigger air compressor as the one I have is pushing out 11CFM at 90PSI and can not keep up.
 
I got an early Christmas Present from the Machine shop today. 512 cubic inches of big block hotness!

Christmas512.jpg
 
Lol, on the carpet and everything. Poor Santa.
 
Love the 512!! If you have never had one the torque that is at your command is a truly awesome Experience!

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I think We have the same parts from 440 Source and Soon mine will look like that. The rotating assembly is at the machine shop being balanced. 440 Source says it's balanced but I want to be sure.

The two 440 source kits that I checked the balance on, after a machine shop screwed up the balance on my first one (I think they made a math error?), were within 3 grams worst case of tolerance stack up which is generally considered in balance for most street/strip engines under 6,500 RPM.
If reving over 7,000+ RPM might want to slightly overbalance the engine.
On both of the kits I used as delivered, I did weight match rods, pistons, pins so each journal bobweight and the reciprocating weights were less than 1 gram difference.

If only doing an engine or two. it is cheaper to just have the machine shop balance the setup.
The Rod balancing fixture and good scale costs over $600+
 
I think We have the same parts from 440 Source and Soon mine will look like that. The rotating assembly is at the machine shop being balanced. 440 Source says it's balanced but I want to be sure.
I also used the 440 source Stealth heads, water pump housing, water pump and the only thing I had to have looked at was the Valve contact patch, it was incorrect when i got them out of the box. I had to change springs anyway so it was no big deal to correct. otherwise everything that I got from them was top notch and has to this point performed great.
 
Most of the 440 source stuff is decent. The stroker windage tray is too deep for a Hemi oil pan, and the oil slinger I got, the crank hole was a bit too small. Needed to open the oil slinger hole slightly to get on the crank. If using a manual transmission, the crank pilot hole is a bit too small for the bushing. It would need to be finished to size, or just use a roller type pilot bushing that locates in the countersunk part where the torque converter would normally go.
Stealth heads should be cleaned and checked before using. Pretty much applies to almost every aftermarket head.
The most concerning issue I found, was one rod had the bearing tab machined slightly off towards the center of the rod, putting the bearing edge into the crank chamfer. Found when there was too little rod side clearance. This was an old kit that had the 4340 I-Beam Rods, like 15 years ago?
The 6010 400 low deck 500" stroker pistons (KB) had to have the pin holes deburred as burrs were keeping the oil ring support from sitting flush in the oil grove.
 
Most of the 440 source stuff is decent. The stroker windage tray is too deep for a Hemi oil pan, and the oil slinger I got, the crank hole was a bit too small. Needed to open the oil slinger hole slightly to get on the crank. If using a manual transmission, the crank pilot hole is a bit too small for the bushing. It would need to be finished to size, or just use a roller type pilot bushing that locates in the countersunk part where the torque converter would normally go.
Stealth heads should be cleaned and checked before using. Pretty much applies to almost every aftermarket head.
The most concerning issue I found, was one rod had the bearing tab machined slightly off towards the center of the rod, putting the bearing edge into the crank chamfer. Found when there was too little rod side clearance. This was an old kit that had the 4340 I-Beam Rods, like 15 years ago?
The 6010 400 low deck 500" stroker pistons (KB) had to have the pin holes deburred as burrs were keeping the oil ring support from sitting flush in the oil grove.

This is my first time using 440 source stuff and many people like you who have used their stuff really likes them. When I talk to machine shops they hate 440 source. I dont understand it, the Icon pistons are the forged versions of Keith Black hyperutetic pistons made by the same company. The rods and crank seem really well built but it keeps getting called Chinese crap.
 
Started putting parts together on the 512. I've degreed the cam, its a
hughes engines flat tappet solid roller. It wasnt the cam I wanted, it's the one they had in stock that they could ship so the machine shop could fit the cam to the cam bearings. It's a decient cam just not what I wanted.

512_01.jpg


After mounting the Trick Flow heads to the block, I worked on rocker geometry. It was way off with the Harlan Sharpe roller rockers I had on hand. Come to find out Harlan Sharpe makes rockers specific to the Trick Flow heads so I ended up ordering a new set of rockers. The Rocker geometry is now spot on, no shimming required.

512_HS16.jpg


Ok I just wasn't happy with the Cam I had. I also built a profile for the 512 on my desktop dyno program. The cam I had didnt make the torque I wanted but every roller cam I inserted into the equation made more torque off idle to 4500rpm. I bit the bullet and bought a TFS roller cam for the engine. .640 lift 242/247 duration at .050 and a 108 centerline. I hope actual dyno numbers are close to what I got with this cam on desktop dyno. If they are I should be making 650 lbft of torque from 2500 through 4500 and 550HP 6000rpm. I know it will be different but I'm hoping it will be close or better. Now I just have to mortgage the house to afford the roller lifters I want lol.

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I found out that the K-frame fits into my blast cabinet if I remove the grate. so its cleaned up and sent to the power coater. I went with a gloss black to match to lower control arms.

Kframe01.jpg



Kframe02.jpg
 
Started putting parts together on the 512. I've degreed the cam, its a
hughes engines flat tappet solid roller.

View attachment 1250986
Hate to a stickler, but it's either a flat tappet or a roller cam. Roller cams are either solid or hydraulic lift. Whew, my ocd is satisfied. My apologies for mucking the thread! Love the build so far! I think your power and torque numbers may be a bit conservative.
 
Hate to a stickler, but it's either a flat tappet or a roller cam. Roller cams are either solid or hydraulic lift. Whew, my ocd is satisfied. My apologies for mucking the thread! Love the build so far! I think your power and torque numbers may be a bit conservative.
Thanks for catching that. It's a flat tappet solid cam not a roller lol.
 
Back to body metal work. Starting to repair the fenders with what I thought was just a few dents and typical rust. Then I found this LOL. The front right fender got smacked in a weird way. I'm not sure how to fix it so I split it up the middle and I'm trying to work each panel separately. I really hope this works and I'll post more as I progress.

Front L Fender fix.jpg


Front R Fender fix.jpg
 
Pushrods installed. That's a good looking engine! now to order the valley pan and get to putting the top half together. I need to find some valve covers as the ones I have are all chrome and I dont want that for this engine. They will be painted Burnt Bronze Cerakote to match the timing cover and brackets.

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