I am building a 440 for my 74 club cab long bed that will be used occasionally to tow a trailer with a car or tractor.

78 motor, 452 stock heads, cast crank, rebuilt oem rods w/ arp bolts, stock 71 pistons, hooker comp headers w/ dual exh and flowmasters, compression around 9 to 1. Hughes cam:
Hughes HEH1928BL Camshaft
Intake Valve Lift 1.5 .489
Exhaust Valve Lift 1.5 .524"

Intake Duration at .050" 219°
Exhaust Duration at .050" 228°

Lobe Separation Angle 111º

Intake Opening at .050" 1.5° BTC
Exhaust Opening at .050" 48° BBC

Intake Closing at .050" 37.5° ABC
Exhaust Closing at .050" 0° ATC

I will be using a 4.10 gear with 30" tall tire, and upgrading to 518od at some point. Plan on using an 850 Thermoquad. What intake should I get? Read that Performer is basically an aluminum copy of the oem cast iron piece. Is the Performer RPM a better choice? Any other suggestions?

Thermoquad won't work on the rpm intake without an adapter.The Performer intake will be fine and it is a spreadbore design to accept the thermoquad.

RPM is a better intake but you need a aquare bore carb.

Buy one from Hughes and have them do their deep port match on it.

Thanks. I am planning to run a phelonic spacer with either intake, so getting one to adapt from square bore to spread bore should not be a problem. Any idea how much Hughes charges for the port match, and if it really makes much difference when combined with stock heads with no port work done?

Unless you plan on spinning it above 5800 rpm on a regular basis, anything more than a Performer is overkill. You want torque, especially off idle to about 4500 rpm. The factory engineers did a pretty good job with the stock intake design and since you are running unported heads, having Hughes work the intake is probably money that would be wasted on your build. Just my opinion of course.

any used dual plane 440 intake that you can get for a good price would be a good plan. Holley street dominator intake would be good cuz it'd have the spreadbore flange for a direct TQ bolt on but the adapter does work, just adds a bit of height

forget the Street Dominator, it is a single plane, not good for low RPM towing.

Why so much cam? I would think close to stock would be better for low end torque.I am running a complete stock from a 74 Titan motorhome 440 with the trans in a 86 pickup and it pulls great as is.

An early Sonoramic long ram with dual quads. Those 30" runner produce some major torque.

Stock spreadbore cast iron intake if you have one, otherwise an edelbrock performer. RPM intake would be a waste as would any intake porting. Also that's too much cam for a tow rig IMO.

Those would definitely up the cool factor of the build. I gave it a thought when a set was for sale here locally on Craigslist a couple months back. Decided against it as I would like to try to break double digits with the gas mileage.

the street dominator works surprisingly well down low for a single plane & they are pretty cheap & you'd get the spreadbore flange. Other than the SD the cheapest dual plane you run into will work pretty good

Really think it is a lot of cam? Comparing it v/s stock magnum cam used in 383 and 440 it is barely bigger @.050

383/440 Magnum Stock Cam:
Intake Duration @ .050� = 208�
Exhaust Duration @ .050� = 221�

Hughes cam HEH 1928bl
Intake Duration at .050" 219°
Exhaust Duration at .050" 228°

This is my first big block build, and I want to get it right the first time. Swapping cams used to be fun, but I am old now and my back is even older!

I know a lot of guys run those and like them. I wonder about fuel distribution w/ the thermoquad on it?

9:1 compression with stock '71 pistons and those heads? How far are they down in the hole? I'm assuming you mean stock Mopar pistons and not aftermarket.

A 440 needs 113 cc above the piston tops to get 9:1. The heads alone could be as big as 93cc. The steel shim head gasket is around 5. That leaves 15cc which means pistons can't be any farther down the hole than 0.062".

I'd go one step smaller on the cam. A friend built a 9.5:1 440 with KB "quench dome" pistons and used the HE1423BL. He loved the combo and it along with all the other work about doubled the mileage and he lost nothing on the bottom end. That seems to be two generations ago in Hughes cams. The closest thing in their catalog is the SEH 1620BL-12. As you are giving specs for a cam not on either list, I think maybe you already have the camshaft and it is in the middle group, part number starting with HEH. If you already have the cam use it, just get it degreed in accurately and expect to lose a little off the bottom end.

When I've been towing, my engines spend quite a bit of time in the 4000rpm range. I think a lot of folks here just think about the off-idle stuff. That I accomplish with gearing. But drop down into Second and it's nice to have a responsive engine, not one that's running out of air at 4500rpm. I drove a 3.08 gear midsize car for a few years with a single plane intake =on a smallblock with no complaints. The Street Dominator should indeed be on your list, as Blazin' Bob says, and also about any older dual plane intake would work. An Edelbrock CH-4B would be good for a starter.

R.

Get the intake lobe of the cam you are looking at on both lobes, the extra exhaust duration is contaminating the incoming charge as well as opening while there is still some cylinder pressure burn down pushing on the crank.

As for the intake manifold I agree with the stock spreadbore intake, they are a lot better than generic motors or ferds intakes were in both performance and fuel distribution and depending on the size of the tractor you are pulling the extra weight can be a good thing on the front of the truck. Just spend an hour or so smoothing/rounding the carb to port transition and smooth out any bumps/protrusions/casting flaws, block the crossover with epoxy and be done with it.

Thanks Dogdays. You are correct that I already have the cam mentioned, as well as all of the other parts sans intake. Sometimes it pays to be a packrat and horsetrader- it is the only way I can afford to have several toys at once. OEM 71 440 pistons advertised as 9.7 to 1 compression. Just like the rest of these parts I got them in a deal. I have not assembled to measure exact, but do anticipate having the heads cut to get somewhere around 9.1. I still have to have a valve job done anyway. It would be fine if it wound up at 8.75 to 1 as it will be true compression- not the 8.2= 7 that the factory smog motors are.

Dogdays, do you happen to know what piston your friend ran? Did it require a lot as far as extra machining to set the quench correctly?
Hell you have me thinking now, I have another 440 w/ 6 pack pistons out back, maybe it is time to get it out and 0 deck it and get a set of a/m aluminum heads for the quench effect. I could build this first 440 and sell it to offset the cost. Did you friend tow with the quench motor he built? Any idea what static compression/ cranking pressure I should target with .040 quench and building for a tow rig?