I'm at the point in my Coronet restoration to start on the engine rebuild. It's been on an engine stand for 8 months while taking care of the rest of the car. Checking the casting number I have a 1978 440, interestingly with 915 heads. I understand the late 70's 440 was a thin-wall design only good for a .020" overbore.
I've pulled the heads and the engine looks to be in excellent shape - no sludge or varnish anywhere, the lifters looked almost brand new. Looking down the bores the cross-hatch goes all the way up the ridge, which I know doesn't mean a whole lot until bore taper is measured. But overall the inside of the engine looks a lot better than the underside of the body panels did.
As a amateur enthusiast I've worked on a lot of big-blocks and know my way around an engine but I've never rebuilt one on my own. I can describe my skills as being able to get myself into trouble a lot faster and easier than getting myself out :eusa_pray: I'm still deciding whether to reassemble the engine myself or take the smart approach and hand it over to a professional.
So this weekend I'm going to be tearing down the reciprocating assembly but I need some advice from members before getting too deep. I'm OK with building up a stock stroke 440 and adding some performance parts to wake it up. Is the thin-wall 440 a good block to build up, assuming it passes magnafluxing and sonic check? If I want to step it up with zero-deck pistons (no more than 10:1 CR), decent cam (something in the area of a FT hydraulic .509"), head work, headers - can it handle the additional stress?
And I looked into stroker kits just for S & G and they all start at .030" over so I'm probably stuck with a stock stroke rebuild whether I want to or not.
I've already learned a great deal from FBBO members and value your inputs.
I've pulled the heads and the engine looks to be in excellent shape - no sludge or varnish anywhere, the lifters looked almost brand new. Looking down the bores the cross-hatch goes all the way up the ridge, which I know doesn't mean a whole lot until bore taper is measured. But overall the inside of the engine looks a lot better than the underside of the body panels did.
As a amateur enthusiast I've worked on a lot of big-blocks and know my way around an engine but I've never rebuilt one on my own. I can describe my skills as being able to get myself into trouble a lot faster and easier than getting myself out :eusa_pray: I'm still deciding whether to reassemble the engine myself or take the smart approach and hand it over to a professional.
So this weekend I'm going to be tearing down the reciprocating assembly but I need some advice from members before getting too deep. I'm OK with building up a stock stroke 440 and adding some performance parts to wake it up. Is the thin-wall 440 a good block to build up, assuming it passes magnafluxing and sonic check? If I want to step it up with zero-deck pistons (no more than 10:1 CR), decent cam (something in the area of a FT hydraulic .509"), head work, headers - can it handle the additional stress?
And I looked into stroker kits just for S & G and they all start at .030" over so I'm probably stuck with a stock stroke rebuild whether I want to or not.
I've already learned a great deal from FBBO members and value your inputs.
