400 74 RR/440 source parts

My cars been kinda on the back burner for the past 2 Years now. I bought a new home for my family and on top of that I've been on night shift working 12hr nights. So most of the time I'm sleeping till my wife and daughter gets home, only to have the warden say its family time.:eusa_wall: So today while I'm in the midst of a heated game of pocket pets with my daughter she says," Hey honey why haven't you touched the Road Runner in awhile i at least thought by now you would of had it ready to be painted by now!!!":violent1: You can just imagine the things that ran through my head at the moment. Keep in my every night I'm at work I constantly look at pics of finished birds and doing research on my car. Which leads me to the questions I have for you guys? I'm thinking about buying a 500 or 512 stroker kit for my 400 from 440 source, but I'm seeing a lot of negative reviews that's scaring me from the purchase. And I'm wonder will the kit be to much for the road in this Mississippi heat. Any intel will do on the subject I just give a foot for something thats not worth the trouble. Thank:eusa_wall:

first things first get that baby under cover that's were I'd start

yea i took that pic when we moved it to my dad house 2 years ago. but i have 2 covers over it

I just finished a 400/512 build! It not installed yet but should be starting that adventure within a week.

I know that others wrote some bad reviews but I saw many good ones too. A lot goes into a build beyond the parts which can, not always, lead to issues.

Anyway, I pretty much did the entire build through 440source. Everything I ordered came in every box as it should have. Not 1 missing part. The orders were pretty darn large too.

I used the stealth CNC heads with the comp cams 571 lift camshaft. Needed to upgrade springs, locks and retainers with new Teflon valve guides. I was surprised by this but they said it had to be done so I did it. My builder thought the springs were reall close in comparison but did say the new ones were doubled and did have a slight difference, so it seems 440 was right!

Next, my builder was very glad to use all new parts (except 400 block) to do a build as he has been getting other jobs with old parts. He said every new part went together extremely well. No clearance issues. The crankshaft and bearings went in with no issues. I do upgrade the bearings as they suggested.

When it came to firing up. It fired right away. Ran on a stand no problem. I used the dished Pistons, zero deck. clearance(for hopefully lots of "squish") I shot for mid 9's after running it, we checked each cylinder and everyone came in at 9.7:1

During the process I made several calls to 440source. Some to order, some for questions. They answered every question I had and gave info that helped out a ton.

I know it's a much longer answer than I could have given, but if someone is gonna spend that kind of money, I would want to hear as much as I could. If there is anything else you'd like to know feel free to shoot me a pm.

Good luck!

Call them up and ask their opinion, and give them the info on what you want to accomplish. They will give you multiple options and multiple suggestions. I also ordered a stroker kit and girdle, from them and alot of other miscellaneous parts. They were always very helpful and knowledgeable when asked questions. I am confident in their parts as far as quality goes too! Just chiming in.

I'm looking for all the reassurance I can get, so the longer the better in my case. Xp29h you didnt have any trouble with oil support to everything did you?

I did a 451 stroker out of a 400 back in '04.One of the best engines I've ever owned.Raced and street use, 40,000 miles later still on the road. You should be fine as far as long life.Bought alot of parts from 440 Source over the years.Yes they had a few problems, but let me know and corrected them,locks, retainers, and rocker adjusters were the only things swapped for up graded parts before being used. I can't complain about their service.

Good luck and I'm glad to see an other Southerner on this forum!! :headbang:

Lot of people use there products. I have there 500 kit in my Genll Hemi. I originally built a 500 RB block with the kit and then bought a world hemi block and took the rotating assembly out and put it in the hemi block.Changing pistons and rebalancing of course.The crankshaft needed to be fixed when I bought the kit ( The journals were tapered and the rods needed to be sized for the floating pins).I am sure they would have sent me another crank but I just had it ground and moved forward.I make 900hp to the wheels with that rotating assembly.
Just have the machinist who is doing your block work check the crank and rods when he is balancing and you will be fine.There heads are pretty good for the price.Budget builds for good power they are good place to go.

I ordered a 438" stroker kit for a 383 block from 440 source. The pistons are nice (made by KB) the rods needed to be honed for the floating pin to move freely. I haven't checked the crank out yet. Will let you know how the kit turns out. Does anybody know of a machine shop with a torque plate for mopar big blocks around Hattiesburg, Ms? I am willing to travel to New Orleans or Jackson to have it done right.

Just want to add, on any big block build, it is cheap insurance to go with swinging oil pickup, preferably dual line. i lost 2 crankshafts before I added second line, none since.

Uno, everything has been good so far. Like I said it's been run on engine stand and everything has checked out really good so far. But no issues at all. I will keep you posted as it should be dropped in this week or next.

Also, as previously eluded to, have good people (if not you) do your mating work and build. That can cause a ton of issues down the road, as we know.

i built a 499 low deck about 6 years ago with a source kit. At the time it was for my buddy, but he since traded it off to my dad. its been a very good engine. I'm currently building a 511 low deck for my rr also using a source kit. this kit looks improved from the one a few years back. while they have the kits very well ironed out, nothing is 100% bolt it together when it comes to race parts. and the people whom usually bitch are the ones that pull the **** out of the boxes and slam them together. Both kits have needed pin fit on the pistons and rods, the first kit didn't have any rod side clearance, haven't got that far with my 511 to know how its going to go together. Having spent my 20's as a professional engine builder i always expect some issues with anything aftermarket. Just the name of the game. The key is taking the time to correct any deficiency's, that's how you will end up with a good package in the end. If i thought the first one was a shitty kit, i sure wouldn't have bought one for myself.

and my 511 will be a pump gas street motor, everything works on my RR including the heater and i plan to keep it that way.



this was the 499




https://youtu.be/buCVoeyv1TI

camtra said:

Good luck and I'm glad to see an other Southerner on this forum!! :headbang:

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Raised in the South and Ill Die in the South!!!!:hello2::icon_bounce::icon_twisted:

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Xp29h said:

Uno, everything has been good so far. Like I said it's been run on engine stand and everything has checked out really good so far. But no issues at all. I will keep you posted as it should be dropped in this week or next.

Also, as previously eluded to, have good people (if not you) do your mating work and build. That can cause a ton of issues down the road, as we know.

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I appreciate it, good luck

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68 HEMI GTS NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT BABY SOUNDS MEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!