What do you think fellows?

Instead of welding and filing, a company at... www.4secondsflat.com makes and sells a nifty drop in disc with several different length slots to dial in the mechanical advance on a factory distributor. Only costs twenty bucks!

1 3/4 or 1 7/8 headers will bring back some low end/mid range and part throttle response.850 vacuum secondary isn't too big but a 750 with the smaller throttle bore would help the responsiveness also.
I would keep the rpm intake,any other dual plane is a step down.
That cam should be fine but you can advance it 2-4 degrees for more bottom end.
The more work on the heads(air flow)will help everything.No reason that thing shouldn't fry the tires.
Make sure the timing is right as well.

He was lucky though, we only needed to have crank polished and change all the bearings.


Now we will have it zero decked. It has flat top pistons (don’t remember brand) and now the slugs are about .050 - .075 down the bore. Crank has been balanced some time, there's signs of that.


What do you think fellows?

Several things are needed to help identify why your parts aren't making a heap of torque and HP Did you check the pushrod preload on the lifters to see if they had .015 to .030 preload? If not do that Also did you degree the cams or line up the dots? If lined up the dots degree it now Install it so it is installed between 105 and 107 on the intake lobe center(max lobe lift at 105 to 107 after top dead center ) You have the parts needed to make real near 500 HP and over 500 Ft lbs torque Do you know how much valve spring ressure you have on the seats and opened? If so post that also What do the spark plugs look like? Can you post a picture of them? If so do that. Little things can kill the performance of a good combination, been there done that to many times Keep after it, you will make it into a real street stomper like your looking for

First of all, the combination isn't that far off.

Performer RPM - great choice

Holley 850 Vacuum Secondary - Plenty of carb but not too much for a 440. If it's like almost every other 850Vac Sec carb I have read about, it needs tuning. Badly.

Comp XE275HL - Not a bad camshaft. I'd leave it in. Do take the advice to degree it in advanced. It was ground to be advanced four degrees if installed dot-to-dot and I could see going six. The advice to degree it in is right on.

2" headers - More suited for a stroker. I'd think they could be reduced in diameter to get more torque below the torque peak.

Distributor advance curve - speed it up if you're running a stock distributor. And limit the mechanical advance so you can run more initial. There is a lot of apparent power in the distributor, just waiting to be let out.

440s with open chamber heads generally do best at 38 degrees total advance.

Pistons 0.050 or so in the hole - this is typical for a higher performance 440 piston. Only the SixPack L2355F piston would be higher. I agree with JRR.....Don't cut the block 0.050. If you must cut something, cut the heads. There is no advantage to putting pistons at zero deck with an open chamber head like the 452s, or 346s, or 213s, or 906s etc. A stock 440 needs 106cc above the piston to get to 9.5:1. Your heads are probably around 92cc. There's 12 cc in the gap between the piston and top of the deck. If the engine builder bought a Fel-Pro kit with a composition gasket, that gasket can add as much as 12cc. So the engine would be somewhere around 8.7:1 right now. If it has a steel shim in it it's probably around 9.1:1.
I calculate you'll need to lose 0.042" from somewhere if running the thick gasket and if running the thin gasket more like 0.020".

I'd suggest putting it together taking care of all the details and trying it with the current headers. If it still needs more poop then maybe swap for smaller header size.

There is a lot of torque hiding in tuning the cam, carb and ignition.

R.

If the crank and bearings were wiped what do the piston skirts and cylinder walls look like ?

LOSE THE DEEP PAN , put a 70-71 hemi 6qt pan on it unless he wants this to happen again!


and DO NOT ZERO DECK THE BLOCK WITH THOSE PISTONS , by the time he pays to ruin an intake and make it only ever fit that block head combo and pay to take that much off the block and the china walls he would be well on his way to the correct parts and a better running engine .

As said smaller primary tube headers and a smaller CFM carb will make it more STREETABLE ...

We will loose the deep pan. Not needed on this kind of ride. I have a windage tray I will install, I think it makes more sense.

If it's a stock Mopar windage tray either leave it out or drill a bunch of 1/4" holes in it as it does little more than slow the return of oil to the pan.