This is the dilemma. Part of me thinks pull the numbers motor and put it on a stand and build a 440. I think I'll need to save a few more pennies for that but I can still drive the car while the 440 is under construction.
I struggle going back and forth on this. Any cost estimates to build a 440? I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that as soon.
Let me help you out because I was in the same boat. I have a 69 Road Runner 383 727 car. The car was my Dad's and has gone through a lot of changes over the years. 4.10's were way too much for the freeway in my opinion; the thing would scream at 65 mph. I've changed to 3.73's and it is a lot better. I would suggest 3.55's if you plan on a lot of freeway driving. More than 10-15 miles is almost too much with the 3.73's in my opinion. If you have torque, it really doesn't matter. When I changed to the 3.73's, I dropped in a re-curved distributor (from FBO) around the same time and actually ran .15 quicker in the quarter mile with the 3.73's with nothing other than those two changes.
The Performer RPM will clear the stock hood; that is what I have on my car. You'll have to run a shorter filter with the stock un-silenced air cleaner or you can run the stock height filter with a drop base which can be bought from Mancini Racing for around $20. I still run the un-silenced upper portion. I did not have to modify my kick down linkage or anything else when we put the intake on.
It cost about the same to re-build a 383, 400 or 440 so; if you are starting to think about re-building the current motor or building another one, build the biggest one you can afford. FYI- The Performer RPM would probably not work with a 440 and the stock hood given the taller deck.
My Dad rebuilt the 383 years ago. The thing has had 3 or so different cams in it; the past two were way too big for a 383. The piston options for a 383 suck by the way. The numbers matching engine now sits on a stand in the corner of my garage ( I wanted to play and did not want to hurt it).
I now have a 400 based 470. I bought the balanced rotating assembly from 440 source and everything checked out good and was run right out of the box. I have around 9.65:1 compression, pocket ported big valve 213 motorhome heads and a small Comp XE cam (I actually bought it for the 383 and ran out of money when building the 470 so; it got used). I used to run Hooker Comp headers, 2.5" compression bent exhaust and Flowmaster mufflers and ran 12.25 on a Mickey Thompson Sportsman Pro. I recently put the HP exhaust manifolds back on with a TTI mandrel bent exhaust with Dynomax Super Turbo's; this combo went 12.48 this year. I have some more tuning to do but, I think I can get to some 12.30's easily.
My car has also had a TCI sizzler converter in it and currently has a TCI Super Street Fighter; both bought and installed by my Dad. I like my current converter but suggest you call a reputable company and have something built for whatever you choose to do.
My suggestion would be to figure out what you want to do with the car. My motor does not even have 3-4k on it and I already want to dig back into it. I wish I would have saved for a month and got a custom cam ground. For the money I have in my 213's, I could have had a Stealth head that flows more and is lighter. I really like the FAST class and I'm starting to go in that direction so; I'll have to have some 906's worked and would have been money ahead to start with the 906.
If you really start to think about things like rebuilding a 440, it almost makes sense just to build a stroker. If you buy a core engine with a forged crank, you can re-con the rods, have the crank turned or polished if it's good and then buy a set of pistons but, you'll have hundreds in the crank, you probably don't want to trust 40 some year old re-coned rods if you plan on pushing the motor (you'll have hundreds in them too) and then you'll have $600 or so in pistons and then you have to get it balanced and buy bearings and ext. so; now you have $1100-$1600 in some mostly used stuff when you could have a rotating balanced stroker kit for around $2300.
Again, it depends what you are looking for. Maybe play with the 383 a little bit and start with things that can be re-used if you plan to build another mill for example, the gear or the Performer RPM. You can easily get the 383 to run some mid 13's or better with some small changes.