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Stroke limits of a 440?

DeGamba, keep in mind what the rest of the car will need with the large stroke. A 4.25 will make a ton of torque that needs to be controlled. Bigger than 4.25 will complicate things more.
 
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A few things. First is the poster wants to build a 572. A stock block won't go to 4.500" bore. A mega block has been mentioned to have a raised cam for clearance. Those cams are in the stock location. A 4.75 stroke will fit with the cam in the stock location. A low deck is a tough fit with a 4.500" stroke. The counter weights have to be cut. You have to watch the bottoms of the pistons for crank contact. It'll take expensive Mallory metal to balance. The 4.500" could be used in a stock block. Though the internal oil pick up may be tough if not impossible to use. The other issue with either a 4.500" or 4.750" would be to find a suitable cylinder head. Either could make tremendous torque but a very low RPM HP number Most 572"s peak at no more than 6800 with a decent head. With a B-1 or Predator that number would go up. A pump gas low compression 4.500" stroke with a minimal stock overbore (4.320"-4.350" would make 528"-535") would be a fun street motor. With a Trick Flow 270. It would probably be all done at 6000 rpm or slightly less. But low end would be very good. I would run a Milodon pan with external oiling. Be very careful with timing to avoid detonation with a stock block. No need for much compression in this case either. With a decent head a 572"-588" will make 875-1150hp. Just depends on how much you want to spend. Mine makes somewhere north of 900hp. But if you had to buy all the parts new, you would be over $25K plus machine work and assembly. The 1150HP version would be more like $35K plus.
Doug
 
How much power and RPM is the stock engine block expected to handle?
It gets expensive to modify a stock block with aftermarket caps and girdle, modified oiling, and such.
The long stroke likely would be fairly safe in a lower RPM torque type engine, but I think will need really good parts and large cylinder heads if trying to make high RPM torque and power.
 
A few things. First is the poster wants to build a 572. A stock block won't go to 4.500" bore. A mega block has been mentioned to have a raised cam for clearance. Those cams are n the stock location. A 4.75 stroke will fit with the cam in the stock location. A low deck is a tough fit with a 4.500" stroke. The counter weights have to be cut. You have to watch the bottoms of the pistons for crank contact. It'll take expensive Mallory metal to balance. The 4.500" could be used in a stock block. Though the internal oil pick up may be tough if not impossible to use. The other issue with either a 4.500" or 4.750" would be to find a suitable cylinder head. Either could make tremendous torque but a very low RPM HP number Most 572"s peak at no more than 6800 with a decent head. With a B-1 or Predator that number would go up. A pump gas low compression 4.500" stroke with a minimal stock overbore (4.320"-4.350" would make 528"-535") would be a fun street motor. With a Trick Flow 270. It would probably be all done at 6000 rpm or slightly less. But low end would be very good. I would run a Milodon pan with external oiling. Be very careful with timing to avoid detonation with a stock block. No need for much compression in this case either. With a decent head a 572"-588" will make 875-1150hp. Just depends on how much you want to spend. Mine makes somewhere north of 900hp. But if you had to buy all the parts new, you would be over $25K plus machine work and assembly. The 1150HP version would be more like $35K plus.
Doug
Thanks Doug, I recall there were a few megablock configurations and at one point they had a raised cam option with a 50 degree lifter angle about 20 years ago. Probably not very common.
We pretty much had to overcome all the things mentioned to make a low deck 542. The only thing I would mention is the 7.4" rb counterbalances will fit in a b if you want to grind and make it fit. But, I certainly don't recommend it. Our low deck 542 is built in the spirit of F.A.S.T. racing, not really maximizing anything other then displacement and our open chamber iron heads flow 320cfm. No roll bar... so faster then 11.5 et they will send us home. Hoping to get there with 3.23s. Not going to set any records, but should be a fun stock appearing '72 satellite sebring hiding a 542.
 
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I'm having a 572 aluminum RB built now. 4.50 x 4.50 bore x stroke. I had already decided that I wasn't going to use a factory block, put all that money and effort into a package that would be on the edge of its power handling capability, and if I decided I wanted more power, with N2O, that I'd have to start all over with an aftermarket block anyway.
Just my perspective. I believe the Bill Mitchell aluminum block is a good value, and that's what I'm using.
 
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