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Help me tear down and inspect my 440..

Still grinding away over here. We got slammed with a winter storm last week so not to much work got done.

But I've got a little more adventurous with the area around the valve guides and the exit of short turn into the chamber. I'm about 85 % done the second head. I will have to go back and match the other head to this one though!

I will admit getting a lot more comfortable with the grinder ...can do a full intake in about an hour now.

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Have you been working on opening the pushrod pinch?
 
10.2 can be iffy on pump gas. Not worth the chance of detonation.
Doug
 
10.2 can be iffy on pump gas. Not worth the chance of detonation.
Doug

I agree.

And Deffinantly not by putting In a steel shim gasket , which gets my piston to head distance a little iffy as well.

Now I could take it to the machine shop and have them take .020 off the heads .. put in my .039 gasket and go that route......

Question to clarify, when people say " pump gas " are you referring to 87 octane or the highest you can get at your local pumps . Which in my case is 94.

I do drive the car on the street, and to work sometimes , don't get me wrong . But like many of us , Iike to push the power as much as I can while still being a cheap *** ! Or just finding ways to squeak out a bit more power with what u have. I think alot of us can be found guilty of this !

So I guess my question is, let's say I bumped my compression from the current 9.8 to let's 11 :1 . Let say my motor currently makes 400 HP . If I were to run the correct gas to avoid detonation what would the increase be on a such a mild motor , like mine
 
Have you been working on opening the pushrod pinch?


Not to much other than removing casting imperfections. My motor as it sits isn't made to make power above 6k . Do you think there is a lot to be gained in the pinch ?
 
So I guess my question is, let's say I bumped my compression from the current 9.8 to let's 11 :1
on paper like 5 HP but what it does it makes more torque coming in faster at lower rpms. to benefit more a bigger camshaft could be used to go along with the higher compression for detonation and to rev higher making more HP at a higher rpm. the higher compression also helps for a smoother idle. for me I don't like big cams for the street and is a down side.
 
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I use the 8519
 
So I guess my question is, let's say I bumped my compression from the current 9.8 to let's 11 :1 . Let say my motor currently makes 400 HP . If I were to run the correct gas to avoid detonation what would the increase be on a such a mild motor , like mine

There is a simple rule of thumb formula for the increase in power with increase of compression ratio. I don’t remember it and don’t use it. Others swear by it.

It might be correct. But I personally believe that the result somewhat understates the car’s performance increase. CR increase adds power everywhere on the hp curve. Everywhere.
 
I finished up porting the heads, I could have gone for hours more but was deffinantly getting into unknown territory and possibly just wasting hours more grinding! . I stopped where I felt comfortable.

My day life is an automotive painter by trade . Brought the heads in the shop and put a coat of Utech polyurethane single stage on the heads to fresh them up! I did the intake and valley pan in this exact paint 2 years ago and still looks the same as the day I sprayed it.

I will give the heads a FINAL clean , make sure there us no grinding left. THen throw the valves and springs back in. Then start my reassembly .

So far my order list is basic, ARP head bolt kit, felpro valley pan gaskets, header gaskets, felpro 8519 head gasket .

I still want to measure my lifter preload after I get the heads bolted back on.

Did some reading about changing the rocker ratio. 1.5 vs 1.6

From my readings, nothing to really be gained for an engine as mild as mine.
That being said , had I chosen to up the compression ratio, AND change the rocker arm ratio. Maybe there could be a worth while improvement? But one or the other just seems to be a wash in my case .

I am very interested to see if the head work pays off on the time slips!

Holidays coming up, will have to wait for new parts to show up !

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