Ok. I've always heard they were Forged crank when factory 4spds. There's a guy saying his 77 bought new was not forged but cast. Did they have both than?

I have never seen a external balance Crank in a 400 or 440 with a Factory 4spd..The Autos where external but all the manual were internal to My knowledge. Ask him to look at the balancer

Well he's saying they never existed. Theres a guy selling a w300 400/4spd and says its forged and has the thin balancer. Balancer was mention it the post. It was on this site I read 400/4spds were forged

Ive also heard there were never any 440 4spds from the factory but a few guys claim to have them
Id just like to further my knowledge on these trucks.

I've never seen a cast BB crank that was drilled and reamed for a pilot bushing. I have seen one 440/4 spd truck and it was forged. I have seen 2 400/4spd combo's, one in a truck and one in a car. Both had forged cranks and are sitting in my parts garage somewhere.

Mopar, never say never!

R.

hah I know, I've never seen one but I'm sure they could exist. I have only looked at a small selection from Canada. Different plants could do different things etc. We had the same discussion on behind the seat tanks, it was hard to put a time on when they stopped putting them in.

This is the same argument that revolves around cranks, period; some swear there were no forged BB cranks after '76 regardless of transmission. If cast cranks were the rule of the day in '77 and '78 then it follows that stick shift vehicles would have cast cranks in those years.

A parts book should confirm that Forged were indeed standard with a manual trans. I don't think there was a flywheel available for a cast 400 or 440, no flywheel means they couldn't have made them.

Sheldon

The one guy says his is cast and the part number was different for His 400. There's another guy saying the balancers were different for different years so a thin balancers could still be cast crank

I saw one once stories... with out pics its BS

You all realize we are talking about a time period where Chrysler was facing financial hardship, and all big block production was coming towards an end, right? I suspect Mopar was raiding every nook and cranny to use up anything that may have been hiding on some shelf someplace. Really, how many big block, stick, trucks were produced in 77 & 78? Would have been easier to send someone off to the machine shop with a flywheel to get specially cut, then to make a run of special flywheels for a limited number of trucks. There were a lot of inconsistencies at Mopar between 76 & 78, covering a whole range of things. It was a sign of the times. Gene

The cranks are cast originally. I have a 440/4spd truck, when I bought the 77 440 core from the original owner, it had the original flywheel with the 3 big balancing holes drilled in the back for the external balance and was also drilled for the pilot bushing.. The flywheel was unusable, bought another from Brewers 4spd parts. The donor parts truck was missing its 4spd bellhousing, so I found another guy wrecking a 78 400/4sp truck and bought his bellhousing. His 400 engine had the same flywheel.
The only truck big block I ever saw with a forged crank was a 413 my friend bought from from some late 60's truck.

Can't count how many BB 4-spd trucks I've had and all were forged cranks all the way through 78.

Now I did come across a 1978 440 industrial water pump. It had a cast crank with this 173T wheel balanced for the cast crank. It was direct drive with no clutch.

Sounds like the big block with 4 speed was a mixed bag. It would be interesting to determine if the cast crank 4 speed trucks were early trucks or late trucks. Might be such a thing that Mopar originally thought the cast crank was up to the job and discovered differently, or that the original plan was to use up the forged cranks remaining in inventory until they ran out, then hope the cast cranks were up to the task. I suppose a 3rd option was they started with the cast cranks, were somewhat disappointed with their service life and went to existing inventory until they ran out, then went back to the cast cranks as a last resort.

The possibility still exists that they grabbed whatever was handy on the production line as well. Two things are fairly obvious, nothing was consistent, and what the books say they did is not very accurate. Gene

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/brochuredisp...=13&scan=13
The only restriction I can see for engine/tranny combos is for California emissions.
I am of thinking that if truck engines were forged cranks in the mid to late 70's, every dodge truck would have been plundered for its big block by all the drag racers before the advent of cheap aftermarket cranks.

Just telling what I was told. Believe it was on here or RCC that I saw it too.

Had a 78 Ramcharger w/factory 400/4spd and it was a steel crank engine..parted out a 78 W300 dually and it was a 400/4spd w/steel crank.
Out of the roughly 50+ 74-78 D&W series trucks I've owned not to mention the 100's I've seen, I've never seen a factory cast crank BB 4spd truck or a factory 440 4spd truck.
But as many have said I've learned to "never say never" with ma Mopar.

Well, if MachoMan has two DOCUMENTED, that settles that.

My 72 3/4 ton 400 4/spd had a steel crank.Bought a factory 4 spd,truck 440 short block from the dealer in the 80's had steel crank,six pack rods with low comp pistons.Apparently they used the rods up in the 4 spd 440 cars and trucks to the mid seventies. I have a 78 440 crate short block sitting on the engine stand right now,LY rods,cast crank and no pilot bushing machining.

Just about anything was possible.