Motor home 440

[DoubleADuster]

I heard the engine mounts required to put in a regular car arnt on motor home engines. Is this true? What else would be different about a motorhome 440 and 727 trans that would make it more difficult than a regular car engine and trans?

 

[Mrmopartech]

A motor home can be a tradesman van with a box or a 40 foot home on wheels.The year and applacation differ form year to year and can be extreme.Some have alot parts you can still use,others you have to toss 80-85% of the parts to make a car engine to go.A motor home motor is made for torque only and at low rpm.Not alot can be used,only thing that can be used for a sjort time is the block and rods/pistons until a rebuild is done.The cam is no good or the heads,intake,water pump assembly as this is made for a truck/RV applacation,so you need other parts to do a start up kit to make it some what useable,mrmopartech

 

[steve o]

I am in the process of installing a motorhome 440 in my 73 duster.The motorhome was a 77 sportsman van body,so I think the block is OK as far as the mounts go.The heads are 452s (should be good there right?). It has a cast crank ,which I plan to have balanced.I want the compression to be around 9.5-10.00 ,and I will probably be using a mopar performance hemi grind cam or something similiar,and I have an old Torker intake to put on .Do you recommend shumaker or tti headers,I don't really want to go fenderwell,I'm just wanting the car to run like 12.80s ,with total reliability,do you think this is to much to ask out of a mild 440 duster? thanks again for all the help!

 

[Mark Nixon]

The break point is '72.
'73 and up is basically a pick-up engine with van mounts, so use that as a guide.
That means you have to change the mounts, pan, exhaust manifolds and, possibly pullies and brackets, though some used non-air brackets similar to a car application.
1975 and up also were normally cast crank, but not always.

On the earlier motorhome engines the heads are special, the water pump housing is special, exhaust manifolds, cam, gear-on gear timing components, damper, pistons, even the crank is an 8 bolt extended flange.
No, the crank is NOT like a HEMI crank!

The 413 INDUSTRIAL block (cast # 2658836) was also used in motorhomes and is capable of being bored to a 440's bore size with no issues.

I recently pulled a 440 from a '76 motorhome that was stamped 440 on the ID pad and used the above mentioned INDUSTRIAL block.

Some 1972 413 Motorhome engines used a shot peened 6 bolt, non-extended flange (read: 413/440 car type) crank with standard 'LY' rods, yet still utilized all of the Industrial type accessories out lined above, with the exception of some coming with normal rotation cams that used timing chains and not gear to gear.

Mark.

 

[STR-14]

Thanks for the info on the 413. I didn't know that. I've got one stashed away and wasn't quite sure what to do with it.
Daryl