Mopar 440. What can be said about this engine?

Just watch the movie "BLUES BROTHERS"

 

Can those be replaced with p***enger-car parts? I note that you don’t say that it’s a different block, so it seems they could be.

-Dave

PS What kind of traditional builds are these engines showing up in? Seems I never see them. I’d love to see (own) a ‘55 Plymouth Plaza with an inline dual-quad 440 and finned valve covers.

 

Im a Ford man,love the 302, but that said the 440 is one tough engine.Sound good and born to run. Ice man

 

I bought a top fuel crank from Bruce Larson some years ago. $150 bucks on the condition it p***ed a magna flux test. It failed. Bruce said he thought it wouldn't p*** the test. The 150 dollars was the value of the Mallory heavy metal that was used to balance it. The machine shop offered to buy the crank from me to get the heavy metal. I returned it to Bruce for my money back. Cool!

Today I have what suppose to be a 413 max wedge crank in my build. I need to tear it back down since it has sat for a number of years. I now have a number chart to check the casting numbers. I had to have a pilot bushing hole drilled in the flange when I got the lower end balanced. Any idea why it might not have been there in the first place?

Thought they already where machined for a pilot bushing even if they were automatic cranks.

 

383 (1959 only) 413,426 & 440 RB blocks are plentiful, with mild cam, stock heads w/ good valve job, good 4bbl intake manifold & carb will run well and make 350 + hp and almost 500 lb/ft of torque.

 

I ran into & don't hold me to it... 73 or 74 up 440's having different "weenie" main bearing journal sizes. I had a 68 440 "D440HP2" / 727 combo for my coronet that I kick myself for swapping off. I'd pulled from a monster Newport (big mains). Non the less the smaller main 440 ( 74 Monaco) still ran great, in the many years of our machine shop we bored countless engines & only 2 440's they were at owners request , same goes for the Small blocks. Mopar engines from this era are second to none in design, & nickel copper block content. They almost never have ring groove or cylinder wear. Their long rods keep the piston dwell at upper end of cylinder making them in my book one tough dude to top. Plus I love the screaming thermoquad at WOT! Flux

 

In Weertman's book he states the reason for the 2 versions of 383s was simply that they had a block machining line for RBs and not enough sales volume to keep it open all the time, as opposed to the B only line, so they simply ran a RB 383 version to solve the problem. Kinda like the super heavy 273 wrist pins so they wouldn't have to change the balance on crankshafts [273 and 318 being the same] These are the guys, after all, who put five flathead sixes on one bull gear to make a tank engine in 2 months. Worked good, too.