Building a 77 motorhome 440

[RustyRatRod]

Where has Jim gone ? I’ve tried contact him .

He's busy with hunting, church and spending time with family. Retired.

 

[273]

I'd just go with stealth heads airgap headers and 225 ish cam with .480-.500 lift, and it makes what it makes.

 

[junkyardhero]

I'd just go with stealth heads airgap headers and 225 ish cam with .480-.500 lift, and it makes what it makes.

i'd take a flyer and say it makes an easy 1hp per and more than likely closer to 475 than it has any right to.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I'd just go with stealth heads airgap headers and 225 ish cam with .480-.500 lift, and it makes what it makes.

Yeah, and with low compression, it's cheap to feed and will never give a single problem.

 

[mbaird]

I had a New yorker Short block refeshed with template ported 906s , 6 pak , headers and a small solid roller . It made505 hp. A stroker with a better port job , good single plane and a more aggressive cam would easily hit 600.

 

[Daves69]

That engine builder [Jim] from Idaho proved you can can make good power with a motor home 440. There is a long thread out there where he did dyno testing. Get a set of heads, spec a camshaft,SD intake, headers and run it.

.............

Dyno testing a stock(?) 1972 440

Lets put on those High Performance exhaust manifolds and see what happens. We tested this last year too. Went from center dump Truck manifolds tot the fancy HP manifolds and gained about the same you did, nothing. And the small gian with the headers is about right for a stockish, low...

www.forabodiesonly.com

 

[Demonx2]

Well I created my own problem when I built my 440 30+ years ago. Bought the wrong pistons, yada, yada. CR was 9.2. Iron heads with bowl blending, 292/.509 purple cam, 750 vacuum Holley. At least it had an old double plane intake (CH4B). 3200 stall converter with 4.10 gears.

But even this mismatched set of parts and low CR pushed my hefty (4400#'s at the line with me in it) 69 Charger to mid-12's. My learning was to measure things BEFORE you buy parts to get the proper CR!! Heck, this engine even used 87 octane pump fuel!

So don't underestimate the 440 the OP has. They can still run well.