Hopping up a 440

[Tom Howard]

Hi all, new to this forum and I’m sure there are some friendly gurus on here. So;
440 big block stock internals
Edelbrock 750 cfm carb
Edelbrock torker
Schumacher headers
New disi cap and rotors
New 22” dual pass radiator

What else can I do to hop up this old 440 for max results without a full rebuild?
Cam? Heads? Head studs? Coil?
Anyone running nitrous on stock internals?

Cheers

[Pete]

Welcome, Tom.

Well, the sky is the limit here, all depending on your objective and wallet.

Most people who want to go faster first put he Edelbrock in the bin.

It depends on so many things - Compression ratio and mostly camshaft selection.

MMA members run anything from numbers matching stockers to stroker motors on nitrous...

The next thing is the transmission and possibly rear end strength.


I think we need more info.

[Tom Howard]

All the Edelbrock? Or the just carb or inlet?
Trans: (rebuilt) 727a Torqueflight
Rear end: 8.25 inch open diff

I think stock they are 9:1 compression ratio.
Originally from winnebago so has the forged crank

[Dave999]

i'd guess pete is referring to the carb.

most people go with a holley or derivative.

I had an edelbrock

i liked it becasue i could reconfigure it without having any fuel spill and it worked well.
everything comes out through the top so jets rods etc can be changed with the lid off the well and/or the top off the carb.
and you have no diaphragms to split .
no gaskets below the fuel level in the bowls and the bowl is integral with the carb body not bolted onto the sides

however unless you find someone who has tuned one before it can be hard going without a lambda sensor and gauge. the tuning guide is helpful, but the kits are expensive and you really need 1/2 a mile of road to blast up and down at different RPMs to get a good result.
you can have great success if you are shown the steps by someone who has done it before.

whereas with the holley if you post up your set up someone can usually suggest a baseline saving a bit of time and effort.

however, wait until pete comes back to explain his comment further or someone else pops up as i know little about either carb cos i run webers on a motor that is 1/2 of the capacity of yours.





I know nout about nitrous but would suggest at a minimum hypereutectic aluminum pistons with a decent distance between the crown and the first ring. they are rock hard and don't expand much however they can crack

basic upgrade
up the CR to 10:1
match port inlet
match port headers
solid lifter cam.
adjustable rockers and appropriate length pushrods to make sure the adjusters are not so far out of the arms as to either fatigue or cut off oil flow
sump baffle
viscous fan hub.
use a decent ignition (if you don't plan excursions beyond 6000 rpm stick an HEI on it with a blaster 2 coil or a lucas DLB198) look up HEI on here
limit the advance in the dizzy so you can have initial of 10-15 BTDC and no more than 34 at 3000+

use a tool on the net to work out your dynamic CR to help with cam selection.
or download this one.

aim for DCR of 8-8.5:1

http://cochise.uia.net/pkelley2/DynamicCR.html


Dave

[elevensies]

tom, you have some of the best builders on the planet on this site, and each one will guide you through a process.

that process is one we all have been through, you not asking something alien here. id start with a better carb, holley, but it then depends on the cars main use, do you need something that will idle nice at traffic lights, of something that is a beast to start and wont idle until warm?
also 750 may be too big for your set up.

torquer intake is a good one, maybe a little too aggressive, again, single plane or duel plane, depends on what you want as an end result.

any headers will waken the engine up, its what happens with the porting and valves before that that really matter.
So do you want head work?

a cam will make a big improvement, but now your into top end re build, think 2 grand ish to do this top end work.

work out a budget, then ask same question, what can be done realistically for £X

personally, and this is only my take on it, headers alone will make you feel better about the motor.

by the way what car is it?

[Blue]

What year 440 is it? What is the intended application?

[morgan]

In same boat. Keep toying around with it but never really get round to it. Most other jobs done now so my head is back on this. Sounds like same motor set up as me. I have made a couple of inquiries over the years - I had sort of concluded that I would be starting with the wrong base unit and really needed to be thinking about swapping it out rather than tinker in situ.
Will watch this thread with interest.

[Tom Howard]

Hi all, thanks for the responses, i'll try to answer all the questions:
Building budget is £2000 (exlc parts)
Application is for smiles and the visceral experience, used to be into rotaries so I'm a big fan of the lumpy choppy idle.
1977 Winnebago motor.
Its already got schumacher headers and summit turbo mufflers, would people recommend changing these?

So in my proverbial Jegs/ Summit racing basket for this:
- Holley carb (around 750cfm?)
- High compression heads (10:1)
- ARP head studs
- Solid lifter cam
- Rockers and pushrods (need help)
- Beefier ignition (need help)
- Expert carb tuner (need help)

Would need help choosing the last 3 but is that budget realistic for an expert to fit/ tune if I had all the parts ready to go?

[morgan]

, used to be into rotaries

Ooh. We like that. Me too - I had a lovely 1st gen RX7 which was great and then pre-ordered a brand new RX8 (like week1 delivery) but that was actually less cool. The one that got away however is obviously the 3rd gen. Oh man was that a car - try finding an unmolested one now though...

Ref the mods -
I went round and round the ignition route (painfully). Settled on an MSD all-in-one system in the end. Drop in, stick 12v in and you are good to go. Personally, I'd recommend - but my driver was reliability.
Regarding the other upgrades - I will defer to the hardware boys, but I will be interested whether its concluded modifying what you have or starting over is the best route.

Good thread...

[Blue]

Late 440's are low compression so to me that's your starting point, speed pro six pack Pistons are the cheap way to get to around 10.1 with an iron head, lighter more exotic pistons such as Ross have floating pins so require new rods as well. If you were going the ally head route you'd need to go that way to make the best of it. Whatever cam you went for would need a matching torque convertor which is an often overlooked expense. Hughes have some decent rocker gear at a sensible price as well as a very large cam selection. You could talk to Dave Billadeau, he has built many a fast big block in his time.

[elevensies]

blue, his build budget is 2k i think we are all building him a peach but as we know just from what you have said, theres 5k plus in parts.
i hope he goes with this, but once you start it never ends, like you said with matching converter, so now trans is out may as well re build with red clutches, low first gear, billet drum lol

honestly, buy another engine, one that you know is good, one from a hopped up car where the driver is looking to go further. or leave yours as is and have it refreshed. you have the headers and intake,

that 540 on ebay other week at 10k was bargain of the century just in parts alone,

get hold of dave billadeau and have a chat

[Blue]

Stated budget was £2000+ parts, so realistic I think. Here's another way to look at it, 500hp on an all iron motor, 600hp+ with an ally head motor and a stroker motor would do either with a shed load more torque. An honest 500hp in a street car is more power than you can use, won't break the bank and won't lead to countless other costs unless you let it.