OK, need some early BB engine info....

[Red63440]

IF I were thinking of building a slightly hot 413 to put in my 63 Dodge 440 what parts would I want to locate. This will be a long term build and at present I am not considering punching it out to 426...although you never know. I do know that some 413 blocks are not as acceptable as others and keep in mind that I want to be able to drive this on the street and it won't be installed until fully completed.

 

[Meep-Meep]

Most people here would say just build a 440 and that's good logic, but nothing wrong with building a 413 if that's what you really want to do. You are limited in piston availability, unless you want to go custom, which can set you back nearly $1000.00 for the set. EGGE has cast replacements and those should be fine for most builds. I have no idea about their quality so can't comment there. The rest of the stuff is the same as a 440.

 

[Red63440]

I'm not looking for a high compression engine when you consider what pump gas may be like by then, ie., 40% corn juice. Maybe the high side of 9.5:1 would be good enough. I do need info on the blocks, I have heard that the truck blocks are sort of worthless but I don't know that for a fact. What heads would be the best choice short of Max Wedge heads. I do like the look of a cross ram so I am sure it would be big $$$$ for one of them.

 

[Meep-Meep]

I personally like the 67 440 heads (2780915) because of the better intake port and the closed chamber when compared to the 516's or 452's. Or for about the same money, figuring by the time you find an iron set and have them redone, you can just bolt on some EDDY's. 9.5:1 should be the limit depending on what cam you run, and you don't want anything crazy. Keep the cylinder pressure around 175 PSI and you should be able to get away with pump 91.

 

[66 coronet]

If you have an old 413 lying around go for it but a 440 could be had for about the same cost. The 413 truck and motor home blocks are cast with the high nickel alloy used in the max wedge blocks but the block is about the only thing worth using unless you find one of the steel crank heavy duty option engines. about any 413 car engine will have 10 to 1 flat top pistons and will have 516 closed chamber heads. if you want lower compression use any of the later open chamber smog heads these also will flow a little better at higher rpm. The engine I'm using is a 72 motor home engine block and crank with the 10 to 1 pistons for a car engine with a set of 516 heads off a 65 chrysler with the intake off the motor home engine which uses the 1 11/16 bore carbs mounted higher on the engine than on a car body. Haven't bolted it together yet but right now i've got about a 150 bucks in it.

 

[Cranky]

9.5-1...ok, but 10-1 is better and with today's cams, it's easy to do but like Meep Meep mentioned, pay attention to cylinder pressure and that's where someone knowledgeable in cams is important. I know how to make an 8-1 engine ping it's *** off with the right (wrong) cam (dang, I feel like a broken record). Quench also comes into play and so does dynamic compression so don't dote on just static compression if you want to build an excellent running engine. 10-1 pistons? A lot of manufacturers sell pistons by advertising them as 10-1 etc but what you need to know is what the compression height of them is. That will tell you exactly how high in the bore they come. There's calculators on the net that will help you look at all the various combinations of the different piston heights and head CC's etc. Even head gasket thickness is included in the calculator. A good running engine is much more than bolting a bunch of parts together....

 

[wedgie]

The early (pre '62) B and RB cranks are different because of the trans. The aluminum 727 came out in '62 in the B bodies. Before that, they were cast iron and the flex plate/convertor was different.