440 Build Begins

[landon1]

block is still at the machine shop - he had 3 race motors to do...then mine, supposed to be done in the next couple weeks. plan on getting quite a few parts stripped, cleaned, and painted today - thought i would share my first new part received so far...should receive a big bulk shipment of items pretty soon to get a better idea of the somewhat tame monster being created

[landon1]

got quite a bit done this weekend...basically all parts have been stripped, cleaned, and painted. Also fabricated a coil bracket - i think it worked pretty nice. i don't like the look of all the black brackets and components on the front, but can't afford to splurge on a new WP housing to run march brackets and pulleys, so it's a bit "custom" - all done in Chrysler Blue. not original for 71, but nothing other than the body and rear seat are original to the car now and eventually everything will be blue anyway, so i think it looks nice - everyone has hemi orange













and here's the not so good pictures i mentioned from another topic - all of this JUNK came out of my oil pump pickup. crud, gasket sealer, other debris, and pieces of the plastic-coated cam timing gear, which ran through the motor helping out the most likely already high-mileage HP Police Pursuit motor get the bearings down to copper







pickup tube is all clean now, but am switching to a deep sump pan, so it is no good to me now, unless i talk myself into pounding out the factory pan and running it, which is still an option



this is the result of what i thought was a bad cam lobe - a caved-in lifter...it is currently being made into a conversation piece that will hang from the rearview mirror

[Diriccatiticka]

That is perhaps the most interesting lifter I've seen yet. Sure it's not mechanically good by any means, but surely, as you said, a conversation piece!

The Chrysler blue pulleys look fancy, that's different! The yellow Super Coil and wires look nice contrasting it too.

I'm excited to see results in the aftermath!

[landon1]

i was going to replace them with blue, but i think that'll wait for another time, as i just made the yellow ones a year ago i think. not into making another set so soon the yellow and blue is kinda cool - i wish the boots were black or blue, though i tried restoring the moroso valve covers and drop base AC to the original gold anodized finish, but it was much too crappy, so i polished the VCs same way as i did my slot mags and will probably do the same to my air cleaner, unless i stick with the Eddy Pro-flo - i do kinda like the look of it

I have $400 in parts coming tomorrow wish it didn't cost so much, but it is what it is. still have to get belts, heater hose, fuel hose, and stuff to make custom rad hoses for my aluminum radiator - i used to just have those kinked coil hoses - not to happy with them

Hopefully machine shop will be done with my block in another week, then the assembly can begin - i forgot all about needing my piston pins pressed out and re-pressed in my new pistons

So, probably going to be another month, which is alright in a way, as everything will be done correctly and to my liking plus i won't be going "rebuild poor".....total for the rebuild should be around $1500, which is kind of a shocker - i bought the car for $1250 6 years ago!!! BUT, a long block would have been minimum $1600 + core + delivery + pickup to return core = probably well over 2K, and i still would have been buying some of the parts i've already purchased. if i could have bought a nice short block locally, that would have been great, but again, dunno if i would have saved anything.

[SureGrip]

Looks good!

The only thing I would change would to possibly paint the coil black to look more 'stock', but that's just me.

[landon1]

i have a chrome cover for it - maybe i'll put it on - probably will if i go to the blue wires down the road.

this weekend was productive, though i didn't quite get as much done as i hoped. engine bay was degreased, power-washed and painted with rubberized undercoating. i really love the body color engine bays, but if there's a need to work on something, if you drop a wrench or anything your paint is messed up - this will take abuse and hopefully will stay looking good for a long time. parts were all ordered - i was hoping they'd be here yesterday, but should be tomorrow (wouldn't have made much difference as i don't have my block back yet - hopefully within 2 weeks as next wknd is "family wknd"). i mayend up having to get it all finished up the week of the 4th while on vacation

[landon1]

well, a big chunk of the build arrived today....another $400 worth of parts in this box....
Comp Cams XE 268 cam and lifters
Comp Cams Magnum double roller timing set
Comp Cams High Energy pushrods
Comp Cams break-in lube & assembly lube
Chrome steel timing cover (this puts the flimsy stock unit to shame)
Accel U-Groove spark plugs
Mopar priming rod
Mopar bronze intermediate shaft bushing
Edelbrock replacement air filter
Triple mechanical gauge kit

[Smellslike1974]

Christmas came early I see.

[landon1]

Well, just an update.....motor won't be done til the end of THIS month! n Apparently, another guy came in with a 440 and wanted it done on a certain date, so he decided to wait and do both at the same time Oh well, if it had gotten done a couple weeks ago like I had planned, it probably would be back together. But, I'm going to be busy for the next few weeks now, so I guess it's not a HUGE deal - really starting to get anxious now

[landon1]

another update.....not good - won't be done supposedly til this coming week! either way, i'm going down there friday night or saturday morning to get my stuff. if it's not done, it'll be taken somewhere else. not recommending this guy to anyone. apparently, if your motor isn't going in a race car, it can sit around for 3 months before it's touched hopefully i'll get some pics to post up after i get something accomplished

[72RDRNR]

Sorry to hear that... I have had a car in the same situation and missed the deadline, it sucks. I can't wait to see your back out cruising the DM streets ( I live in DM we need to meet up!). Don't know forum rules but can you say what shop - so no one else (me in particular) goes there? I know a great mopar motor guy, but he is not local, he is in Michigan.

[landon1]

MOTOR IS FINALLY DONE!!!!!!!! at the machine shop, anyhow. after over 3 months of waiting not so patiently, it is being picked up tomorrow afternoon. final price for machine work $1,125.34 almost $200 more than the original estimate, but i'm sure $70 of that was in that gosh darn thing called TAX. anyhow, i'll hopefully have time to get the block painted later this week and maybe get the motor assembled and primed to make sure everything is okay, then probably the weekend after be able to get it in the car, fire it up, break 'er in and go burn some rubber. should be right about 410 HP/513 TQ at pretty low RPMs

WIX 51068 oil filters and a case of Valvoline VR1 10W30 on the way. i've always used Frams (except on the mustang and my ranger, which get/got Ford filters and oil), but due to quite a few recent quality issues with fram, i'll be switching to wix, which i hear is about as good as it gets. another thing is i may have been hurting myself in the oil filter department. i knew i needed a short filter, due to the low-mount later style PS bracket. well, i was probably running TOO short...the PH16 recommended to me by the O'Reilly's guy many years ago, is for little Alfa Romeos, etc....the 51515 wix filter for the earlier motors is 5.178" tall, where the 51068 filter i need is 4.338". the PH16, was in the mid 3" range but, it will all be better hopefully...everybody cross your fingers now

[steved]

give a summary of specs, please. I'll be building a street 440 for the gtx soon. I'm looking for the same hp/tq numbers you're shooting for.

sjd

[landon1]

HP/TQ numbers are mostly based on Comp Cams Camquest software, but should be fairly close, might be hoping a bit on the numbers, but should be about 400 HP and 500 TQ, which is pretty good for a street cruiser i think, without getting too radical since i do a bit of highway/interstate driving. changing the intake and increasing the carb size plus running larger headers would definitely get it to well over 400 (their estimation is around 430-440 HP), not to mention running a little bit taller pistons would really get you going (resulting in probably having to use premium or ultimate fuel).

it's a '76 HP 440 block
cast crank cut -.020
bored +.030
pistons are 1.991 CH (speed pro L2266F pre-70 design) yields compression of 8.8:1 with .039 gasket, 9.1:1 with .020 steel gasket (undecided on this, in order to use 89 fuel)
346 heads milled 86 CC combustion chamber, 3 angle 2.14/1.81 valves, bronze guides, hardened seats, HD springs good to .509" lift
Comp XE268 cam
Comp Magnum double roller timing set
Comp High Energy pushrods - 9.315"
milodon windage tray
zinc-plated 7qt oil pan
Melling HV oil pump
'69 HP intake with 1" open spacer
Holley 650 Double Pumper
Hedman 1.75" primary, 3" collector headers
Summit 2.5" dual exhaust
Procomp HEI distributor
Accel 12V coil, plugs, wires

so as you can see, almost a basic stock rebuild to pre-emissions HP specs. i can't wait to see what it drives like, as i put the info in from the stock specs, and it's estimation is about 300 HP, and actually it ran pretty well in that trim, so now it should be quite a bit more powerful, while not over-doing it

[steved]

cool...I look forward to the first report.

my block is coming as a '68 block, forged crank -.010, .030 over bored, odds and ends...basically need a cam, pistons, and carb.

sjd