OK, RANT ON! Every once in a while, I'll see the odd question about building a 413. Considering my own background with this engine, I'll have to ask.. "Why?" Nearly 30 years ago, I bought a nearly new 413 motor home engine from a guy that ran a machine shop. The motor home caught fire and burned down around the engine. The motor had less than a 1000 miles on it. Picked it up for a good price…. And that's where the whole thing goes out the window…. At that time, you could still order new factory pistons for the 413. I did. Got a set of flat tops… Of course, you ask why? Well, the motor home\truck engines come with dished low compression pistons. The engine also had a gear driven cam (that rotated backwards), heavy heads with extra coolant passages (and offer zero performance), heavy water pump housing, fat rods and an intake that weighed a ton. I essentially threw out everything that came with the engine except the block, crank, rods and oil pan and replace those with 440 items.

The point is, I'd spent lots of money… and wound up with a 440 with a smaller bore… I would have been better off just rebuilding a 440 and been done with it. So, when someone posts "I've found this 413 motor home engine for cheap and want to build it..", I say… "Pass". There are zillions of 440's waiting for some TLC…

Rant off…

Greg

True, but I think a lot of guys who want to run these 413's find low mileage ones out of motor homes they just want to drop into their car and run the short block without rebuilding the whole thing from scratch. I do agree that these days the 440 or even a 400 is a better base, but that's not to say the 413 is useless.

I would take one

If the question is "If I had this to do all over again, would I start off with a 413 motor home engine?". The answer is "Hell no!" Too many better options...

Greg

Can you say "Forged crank" Boys and Girls? I knew you could.

I sold the heads and pump housing for $50 and ended up with a complete RB electronic ignition, rebuilt alt, 4bbl intake, a bucket full of correct marked bolts, and a nice short block ,the '72 I got even has a 6 bolt flange, All for going to get the thing...

BTW, have some plans for what to do with that dish piston turd sometime in the future CHEAP... parts are falling into place now

It's been 28 years since I built up the thing, but here's a list of stuff I got rid of:

Heads
Rocker arms and shafts
Pushrods
Waterpump housing
Timing cover
Intake
Exhaust manifolds
Valve covers
Camshaft
Timing gears
Distributor
Pistons

Basically, I had to buy a junk 440 to get the parts I needed to put the 413 back together…

Greg

I see your point, but honestly if your "building" an engine, most of that stuff is going anyway.

I have a ton of parts lying around from 3 other engine builds in the last 5years... so my shopping list is pushrods and cam selection

Got a friendly deal on a pair of low milage 902's with stainless valves, I debated stroking it to 472, but after another buddy offered me a rebuilt/conveted 6-71 blower for the cost of parts.... Why not just shove 5-7psi through the thing and call it good for a street motor,

The real problem is off the shelf piston selection. or lack there of on the 413...kills the build cost wise.

A lot of guys, myself included, are NOT buying motorhome 413's. We are trying to build early 60's engines from New Yorkers and such, and we're not dealing with funky heads and water pump housings and all that crap. Your first mistake was buying a MOTORHOME 413, and expecting to be like a 440. I agree that a 440, or 400 are probably better starting points for building high horsepower, but sometimes you've gotta use what you've got. I think it's cool to use something that not everyone else has, and if you look at factory specs, you'll see that early 413's had as much, and in some cases, more torque than a stock 440. These engines will run hard with very little tweaking. I got my 413 for nothing! I don't know of anyone that's giving away 440's.

But I looooove my 413 ....

And YES .. the ticket IS flat-top or domed pistons. The motorhome I have will have those ... plus a ton of flow-work on those "funky" heads. And a roller-cam AND a better fuel-delivery-system.

You have a gasser tow-rig ? ....you WANT one of these mills !!

I had a 72 class A Winnebago that has the Ind 413. That tank weighed 14,500 pounds with my stuff in it. A few years ago I went on a out of town job and hauled my old 5,000 + pound 73 F250 4x4 on my 1,500 pound trailer behind it. I got over 13 miles to a gallon of fuel. I liked my 413.

I'm running a 65 413 in my 64 Polara that's been bored to 426 cubes. It's running stock flat top pistons, 513" Lunati cam, Edlebrock intake, 906 heads, headers, 750 Holley, and 4-spd. It's not a race car, but stomping it at 20mph puts it sideways through 2nd gear, and the torque is massive! I can take off in 4th gear. The rear has 3:91's, so I know that makes all the difference, but I regularly take off in 2nd in normal driving and it's not even noticeable. I know you can get a lot more from a 440, but 413's are usually a lot cheaper...I know where one is sitting with a 727 on it for $200.

And don't forget; In the Beach Boys song, the 413 got "Shut Down" LOL "Tach it up Tach it up..." "Declinin' numbers" and all that jazz

Yeah, know what the song says, but I think the only way it got shut down was if he went up in smoke to begin with! lol My brother's 30ft 1972 motorhome had torque beyond belief. When I mentioned "funky" heads, some of the truck and motorhome heads I've seen, didn't look like they would be conducive to breathing well without massive work. I just believe that there are much better alternatives. I suppose you can make anything work if you have enough time, patience, and money to throw at it. I love ALL mopar big blocks, but I guess I'm just partial to 413's and 383's.

Those FUNKY heads ? .... and breathing well... should not be in the same sentence ! Unless you are talking about running the motor under 3k rpms. No matter how many $$$ you throw at those heads they will never be a HP head on a 6k rpm motor.

But for what they were designed/intended for - for a truck/motorhome application - there was never a better gasser-motor built. Chrysler was the KING of these back then.

I agree the motor home 413's did come with a lot of odd ball parts, but most of that stuff you're junking anyway. You can slap on a set of aftermarket heads, a mild cam with new rockers and pushrods, new t-chain, timing cover/water pump housing can be scored at the junkyard or moparts/ebay for cheap enough, or just buy new, etc. Pretty much you can buy everything you will re-use when you rebuild that 440 block you will buy some day. As far as rebuilding the 413's short block, I will say that yeah, that's very questionable and probaly not worth it. But for something to just drop in and beat the tar out of without worrying about it, the 413 is a decent choice.

I agree totally. If you want enough low end grunt to uproot a skyscraper, that's your motor. My 413 will probably never see more than 5800 rpm, and in an a-body with 3.91's on the street, that should be enough.

I wanted a 440 for my Plymouth, but this 413 literally dropped in my lap. Deal was too good to pass up: Freshly machined, magnafluxed, balanced, blueprinted, 440 six pack rods, worked 516 heads, and $800 worth of brand new Arias flat top aluminum pistons. The builder who hooked me up with it builds 413s, 440s and Hemis for the high-dollar '62 to '65 cars built by Bob Mosher. It's actually a very strange block - no casting number on the side, but on the pad it says it's a 1973 truck block, which I assume is different than a motorhome engine.

i got 3 of them if any one wants to buy one ...... lol

has anyone sonic checked the 413 blocks with no casting numbers (the cold weather, industrial , truck blocks)? I was told that they were cast with the same castings of the 440 blocks and you could take them all the way out to 4.380" bore (60 over 440), so if this is the case you could have a standard 440 4.32?

It would be interesting to find out how much meat is in those blocks. I have a 64 passenger car motor and wondered about making a 426 out of it.