BB newb questions

You have just about the most pure truck engine you can get with the stock motorhome engine. Just bolting it in will give you a fantastic increase in power and torque. Most motorhome engines through 1973 were forged cranks with heavy rods. The J440 does mean it is a 1973 model year engine and because there is no "E" (meaning it has a cast crank) after the 440, I believe you will find it has a forged crankshaft. All the regular FelPro Blue 8519PT1 head gaskets come with the holes for the motorhome heads and blocks. But even if you block the holes off, in your application, there will be no harmful effects. Here is what we did with a low compression 440 engine and the power we managed to get from it. However I do not recommend using the 509 camshaft we used for these dyno tests.

Dyno testing a stock(?) 1972 440