First time post, long time lurker...

Ok i'm finally building my cruiser a 1976 New Yorker coupe . The 440 was cleaned up at the machine shop and the bore is stock as there was no need to open it up. I was going to just slap it back together with a little hotter cam and a small converter and mill the heads. But after searching the forums that looks like an expensive way to get compression.

I found these 6 pack pistons on EBAY for 350$ EBAY LINK 440 Pistons

My question is will these work with the stock rods in my 76'? I'm offshore right now and have no access to the pistons and rods that came out of it.

The goal is to have an engine with a bunch of torque, and a good sound... It will have 2 chamber flows dumped over the axle when all is said and done. The Cam is a elcheapo summit grind Summit K6401 .

I'm going to home port the heads a little and install new springs and lap the old vavles in good... Heads are 452's and the compression should be in the 9.3 range with the above mentioned pistons.

Any opinions on what i need to look for. This is my first 440 since high school shop class..

Thanks Jay

Yes, they will work with your rods.

Thanks, tried to find a pic of the boat this is the best one i could find.

Yes they will fit once the engine is bored out to the appropriate oversize , the smallest overbore they have is .030. One issue you will have is your 76 has a cast crank so with those pistons it is going to be external balance , the engine is external balance anyway so it's not that big a deal .

Well crap, i didn't see that they start at 30 over... looks like the stock junk is going back in for another try at it! O well...

Good catch, at least this makes it even more of a budget build!

I wouldn't go too big on the cam in cars like these.
The bigger the cam, the more torque you give up at the lower rpms, but that's where you need them the most in a heavy car.
Build the motor for torque. Perhaps find some closed chamber heads (pre '68) to gain an half point in compression. Maybe step up the rockers to 1.6:1 for some added lift in the cam.

I would also forget the higher stall convertor then. It makes the car feel like a turd everytime you 'cruise' away from a traffic light.

The best bang for the buck would be a strokermotor, but that's in a different budget-league...

Re-ring it, clean up the heads , a good valve job and get a double roller timing set with the extra keyways and advance the cam 4 deg. Add a set of 2.5" dual exhaust and it will perk right up.

Kevin

That piston comes in 4.320, i'm getting them . This is the cam i'm using



if a stock converter is good enough then i'll just through a shift kit and filter in my old 727 and let her eat!

The only issue is ramming the rings into the old ring ridges. That not happening is like winning lottery.
And the cam looks to have a huge amount of seat duration for its size... but Im not familiar with those grinds.

The cylinders were mic'd and cleaned up, they measured good so they just cleaned the cylinders. If i remember right this thing didn't even have a large lip... or a lip at all, more like a carbon ring... Old ladies car.

I'd have the machine shop rehone the cyls....

for cam, I wouldn't use that one, it's got a lot of seat duration and overlap for not a lot of lift and .050 duration. for a torque build, I'd be looking at something like a lunati voodoo, the old 60301 or 60302

http://www.lunatipower.com/Product.aspx?id=1577&gid=287

http://www.lunatipower.com/Product.aspx?id=1578&gid=287

comp cams #911 springs _should_ work with these cams. what rear gears are you running? the stockers (2.76ish I presume?)

I'd go with at the very least a stock high stall converter, maybe even looking more towards a tight 2500 RPM stall converter (to minimize slip at cruise)