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motor home 440

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 8:03 pm
by xray
I have a chance to get a 75 motor home with a 440. Are these blocks the same as the older 413 motor home motors as far as the extra webbing, better cooling ect. What is done to the tranny? Could it be a stronger version like maybe a hemi auto? This thing is fairly low mileage at 52,000 but I will be rebuilding it anyway. I dont think I will be using the trans because Im going the 4sp. route. Thanks

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 9:38 pm
by bruce
A '75 motor home 440 is a 440, no extra webbing. It's also the later "thin wall" casting, meaning it has larger passages for coolant flow. They have their detractors--those who will tell you that a thin-wall block can't be bored as much as the earlier 440s. Be that as it may, a 440 is a 440, if the block is in good shape it's worth having and worth building--thin wall or not...

Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 10:05 am
by mopar71
I have a set of heads for a 440 motorhome if interested.Somebody put them on my 383 because of overheating,If they would of looked further a freeze out plug got wedged into the block,restricting water flow.

Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 2:48 am
by xray
Are the motorhome heads set up for unleaded? What if anything has been done to them to upgrade them for RV use? Does anyone know anything about these trannies? Has something been done to them for the RV application? In order to get my car on the road asap I am going to put this 440 in my car with out rebuilding it. I will tear it down and insoect it and replace all gaskets and seals. I plan on putting the auto trans in for the time being. In the mean time I will find a better block to start with.

Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 12:15 pm
by road chicken
The way to tell if you have the induction hardened exhaust valve seats is to look for a blue ring around the seat. The Motor home head should have this done already- especially in a 75 engine. This is all that needs to be done for unleaded use.

The other advnatage- and the whole reason it is spec'd as a Motor home head is .. it has addtional cooling passages. This allows more flow volume to the head for cooling in the severe duty that engine application sees.

with the trans- I'll venture to speculate that it has hemi-duy internals, if not even more substantial. The motor home is the toughest duty a engine or trans will see. Better and more clutches, maybe even higher line pressures, ect.