advice needed

[stumpy71se]

had a question regarding a early 70's 440 out of rv. friend of a friend has it allegedly motor was built to with 6 pack rods but no 6 pack on it. anyone ever heard of this or some just blowing smoke up my.... even if not 6 pack built 50000 miles on it just needs to be put back together how much is it worth? thanks any input will help.. my 71 se has what is left of a 383 non magnum 2 bar from factory.. needs complete over haul... guy took heads off it left it to sit was covered just rusted and would take bit of work to free up pistons... part of me wants to go original but not sure if motor in car is worth cash to fix? thanks for any input in advance

 

[BeastlyBirdie]

RV engines came with the heavy rods. Really not worth it to have the extra weight spinning. Normal 440 rods take more than most street cars can do. As for what a standard 70's 440 RV engine is worth...running, around $500. If I was planning to use it, I'd swap to a forged crank, different rods, different heads....not running...its a core $150-250.

 

[stumpy71se]

Ty for advice.

 

[Meep-Meep]

If you are trying to throw something together on a budget (most people are) then use the best of the best available to you. Yes, some early 70's 440's had six pack rods and they can sure be used on the cast crank even for some mild hot rodding. As far as core pricing goes Beastly has a good handle on it.

 

[Bruzilla]

I've found it depends on where you live. I saw a guy selling an RV 440 for $2,500 on one of the mid-Atlantic CLs a while back. Down here in FL, many RVs come here to die, so there's a glut of them down here selling, with the 727 trans, for about $350. The worst ones are when someone has a rotted out RV and wants to sell the engine and tranny... but you have to take the whole RV to get it, which sucks when you have to deal with disposing of one of those carcasses.

I've also heard stories about how the water jackets in RV blocks were different, but I think they're all the same.

 

[Photon440]

As I recall, the 1969 six-pack had regular rods, 1970 introduced the six-pack rods for six-pack engines, and by 1971 even the four barreled 440s had six-pack rods.