440 vs 5.7 vs 6.4

My son and I are building a 65 Coronet. We thought long and hard about power plant. He's 21 and in the Air Force. I wanted reliability and some fuel economy for him. ee just picked up a 6.4 with the 8speed automatic. We're gonna put a cam in it and some programming. TTI sells mounts and longtube headers. Bouchille (probably misspelled) sells oil pan and pickup tube to drop in with stock K member. HHP can do the programming via email. Plenty of companies and resources out there for the rest. Should make about 550 reliable HP. The car has fiberglass fenders, bumpers and hood. Should be a fun ride!

vracing1 said:

My son and I are building a 65 Coronet. We thought long and hard about power plant. He's 21 and in the Air Force. I wanted reliability and some fuel economy for him. ee just picked up a 6.4 with the 8speed automatic. We're gonna put a cam in it and some programming. TTI sells mounts and longtube headers. Bouchille (probably misspelled) sells oil pan and pickup tube to drop in with stock K member. HHP can do the programming via email. Plenty of companies and resources out there for the rest. Should make about 550 reliable HP. The car has fiberglass fenders, bumpers and hood. Should be a fun ride!

Click to expand...

Josh at HHP tuned my 6.1 via email, he's awesome.

FWIW, I'd stay with the old iron and equippe it with as much aluminum as I can and make it fast. You have the cubes as an advantage but that's it.
Cool factor aside.

The newer mills have every other advantage there is besides cubes. Step up to them if you wish. The aftermarket has your back on this. And your wallet as well! LMAO!

Uhhh....GOOD luck with getting that 8 speed to work. Not only is it HUGE, it requires a computer to run it. The computer relies on several inputs to function.....Coolant temp, air temp, throttle position, vacuum signal, cam positioning, rear wheel speed, ABS sensors and about 30 more things.
Are you going to fab up rear wheel speed sensors?
I would LOVE to fit one of these into my 70 Charger but the electronics of it are a killer. Nobody makes a stand alone transmission computer for this model as of yet. When the "RoadKIll" guys put a Hellcat mill into a 68 Charger, they had to rig the new car taillights in the car to get it to run. Yes, you read that right.....

Allow me to weigh in if I can... I have seen both and I currently have a 5.7 swapped 73 sattelite with a rf545 transmission... I think your decision should me on what you want to use it for, I wanted a dependable daily driver and that is what I built... It was very costly! The motor is not bad for the money but all of the nickels and dimes it takes to make it work really adds up...

My buddy has both a 440 4speed charger and a 6.1 hemi with rf545 coronet... He said the 6.1 is hands down more power and more dynamic than his 440 but his 6.1 was really expensive and he never drives it so now he has little issues just like any car that just sits...

If I were doing it again I would tear apart a used 440, rebuild it, shove a Fitech kit on top and just drive it... Now if I was doing another late model swap because I forgot about this pain, then I would bolt a *whispers* 4l80 up to the back of the hemi so I wouldn't have to screw with the trans tunnel... Also I did gen 3 a/c and it was a pain... Not sure if any of this rambling helps... But any swap questions, hit me up...