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Picked up a low mile 440 today.

Well just got done loading up the block,crank, heads and the rods and pistons. Should have it back by the end of the week. Its getting hot tanked today and will get the rest of the machine work this week.
 
Ordered a SFI flex plate, new rod bolts and a intermediate shaft bushing. The pistons,rods and crank should be balanced sometime today or tomorrow.

I did some calculations without really knowing 2 of the real numbers and by swapping around some numbers.

Bore: (diameter) 4.350 Known number
Stroke: 3.75 Known number
Cylinder Head Volume: 90cc Guessing 452 heads or 92cc
Effective Dome Volume: +7.00 known number
Use (-) for Dome and (+) for Dish.
Deck Clearance: guessing this number .015
Compressed Gasket Thickness: .020 known if used. I have some other head gaskets with .035 compressed thickness.
Number of Cylinders:8
Compression Ratio : 9.65 : 1
Total Displacement (in.3) : 445.85
Total Displacement cc's : 7309.02
 
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Got some freebies today. Just for putting in a MSD ready to run distributor, coil and wires today. I scored all of this.

IMG_1496[2].JPG IMG_1498[1].JPG IMG_1500[1].JPG IMG_1502[1].JPG IMG_1503[1].JPG IMG_1505[1].JPG
 
Yup. The exhaust manifolds are nice and will work well on the old RV engine. :)
 
Just went through this thread. First post you mentioned the motorhome transmission is basically junk. Do not throw it away. Motorhome transmissions often have the stronger 4 pinion planetary gear sets and 4 disc front and rear clutch packs. Only the short output shaft and tail housing are unusable in a car application. Plus, it is a big block case (front section that counts). Hope your build goes well. Keep up the good work.
 
Bobzilla said:
Just went through this thread. First post you mentioned the motorhome transmission is basically junk. Do not throw it away. Motorhome transmissions often have the stronger 4 pinion planetary gear sets and 4 disc front and rear clutch packs. Only the short output shaft and tail housing are unusable in a car application. Plus, it is a big block case (front section that counts). Hope your build goes well. Keep up the good work.
Click to expand...
Yea I have decided to keep it. I have another 727 out ion my shed that is bad. But I can use the tail shaft from it to have the monsterhome trans as the main transmission for the 440 Im building. I heard the motor home trans are built similar to Hemi transmissions.
 
Forgot to mention the heads on the old RV engine may need a couple seats replaced. Some severe pitting due to rain water sitting in the head. Not sure how much this typically costs to have repaired. So I may be looking for heads if the repair cost is to high.
 
Update.. Getting a few new valve seats installed into the heads. Also new springs, Cam and lifters. I should have the engine back this week where I will start assembly.
Had to bore it .30 over and it was cleaned, decked and honed. They said the block was in good shape other than having to bore it. Keeping the 452 heads After running the numbers it should be 9.5 to 1 compression ratio. Have my Mopar M1 intake Have a really nice set of Hp manifolds. Bought a center sump pan and pickup. Also A car style water pump housing. Have my table set up to start installing the crank and pistons. Also the rotating assembly was balanced. ala Rods,pistons and crank...
I am really looking foward to building this thing. They asked me if I wanted them to assemble the bottom end. To keep cost down I declined. Also I want to do it myself.

On another note picked up what is going to be the start of my engine run stand. Stainless Steel... Just have to do some figgerin... Its 5 feet long and 26 inches wide. I think it will make an awesome run stand.

IMG_1602[1].JPG


IMG_1604[1].JPG


IMG_1603[1].JPG
 
Lol I have been trading around swapping stuff for stuff pretty much doing this as a budget build. Spend 800ish bucks at summit for a kit .30 over pistons, gaskets, bearings etc etc. I have paid 500 so far to the machinist I have a 1995 Ram with a 5.9 and I'm going to trade it to the guy for the majority of the work. I won't say what I have in the Ram but will say I will be coming out on top. But pretty much I owe him for the head work and balancing the rotating assembly. Oh I also gave him some brand new pistons, 2 440 Distributors and the RV oil pan. Just trying to make this as cheap as possible.

On the above GTX I traded the guy JJ my work fixing his rear windows for a nice set of HP manifolds.
IMG_1502[1].JPG


Traded an old steering column for my Mopar M1 intake.

IMG_1446[1].JPG


Traded an old gas tank for some valve covers and a timing cover. The blue ones on the left.

IMG_1537[1].JPG


Here is the Timing cover.
IMG_1577[1].JPG
 
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Got my cam and lifters..
Summit Racing® Classic Cam and Lifter Kits SUM-K6401
 
Had to have 5 seats replaced in the 452 heads. Also new valve springs I will have all that info when the engine gets here on Friday. I have my bobweight card maybe someone here can make sense of it. Being new to this it looks like Mandarin Chinese to me.

Rod Rotating 605
Rod Rotating 605
Rod Bearing 58
Rod Bearing 58
Oil Allowance 4
Locks 1 set 0
Rings 1 set 66
Rod Receprocating 236
Bobweight Total 2752

Cam card= This cam will not be a choppy cam. Couple of videos the cam are on youtube. This whole engine plan was to be better than the stock ratings of the old motorhome 440. And bring it closer to that of a 69 car 440. I have exceeded that. By a tad.

summitcam.png






 
Have the rings sized and installed on the pistons. Need to clean the block real good then start assembly. My heads should be done in the next day or so. I have everything ready to assemble the engine. Will need to get a set of HP manifold bolts and a few other bolt sets. But I'm taking my time and reading and teaching myself the correct way to do this. Sadly I wish my boys had some kind of interest in this but they are stuck in the internet. So I'm going at it alone and I guess I couldn't have better company..

Things I still need to get.

HP manifold bolts
Intake bolts
Timing set. Thinking Cloyes
Pulleys old ones were very rough.
And brackets for the carb return springs and kickdown linkage. Kinda worthless right now with no car to stuff it into. lol
 
Got some stuff done today, cleaned the block and installed all the pistons and crank. The cam should get installed in the next few days. Waiting on a cam bearing. Someone made a booboo. Hint it wasn't me. Anyhow this thing is looking sexy..

IMG_1699[1].JPG IMG_1700[1].JPG IMG_1701[1].JPG IMG_1702[1].JPG IMG_1703[1].JPG IMG_1704[1].JPG IMG_1705[1].JPG
 
Thanks guys this is my first engine build of this magnitude. I have done stuff like heads cam swap and typical fix it stuff. The speed pro pistons are nice. In case somebody wants to build an old RV engine these are the way to go.

Speed-Pro Forged Pistons L2355F30

Bore (in):4.350 in.

Bore (mm):110.490mm

Piston Style:Flat top, with four valve reliefs

Piston Material:Forged aluminum

Compression Distance (in):2.061 in.

Piston Head Volume (cc):+7.00cc
 
Was playing with a calculator. If I use steel shimmed head gaskets I can pick up a point or so with just a 0.020 head gasket. But not knowing the actual CC of the 452 heads I can assume its either a 90 or 92 cc head. Is there any way to measure piston deck height without a dial indicator?

Changing a few options around I can be either 9.5:1 or 9.7:1 based on gasket thickness and whichever chamber cc is correct. My kit came with 0.039 crushed head gaskets. If I keep them the compression ratio drops to 9.3:1 So I have a few options to go by.
 
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