Low deck 540, Indy aluminum block, Indy 440-1 heads, Indy 400-2 intake. Roller cam but owner didn't have cam card, thinks it is an Indy cam. 1050 carb. Drag race engine. Owner was told it makes 900 hp but we'll see. We're getting it ready to run now, should have numbers later in the week. Engine has some good parts in it, Jesel belt drive, T&D rockers, etc.

900 hp with 440-1 is doable, but a high water mark. This will be interesting, especially all the parts that went into it. If i remember correctly your 514 build left few stones unturned in the quest for NA power at that level .

Exactly. My 514 hit 900 once with Q16 fuel but that engine was very, very well sorted out. I think we had over 100 dyno pulls on it and everything had been touched multiple times. My 514 was dry sump and had a Wilson ported intake and custom built Jesel rocker arms and a ton of stuff like that. I'd be surprised if this engine makes more than 850 hp but who knows, we'll find out. It is a combination that has been together a long time so it is sorted out.

I say 838.

Assuming it's one I saw listed not long ago with car and performance numbers... I'd guess 800. Like has been said it has some pretty nice pieces and still not a bad motor performance-wise!

That is pretty much exactly what I want to build for my car.

Any idea on compression? Will have to be pretty high to get 900.

Awesome.

Agree with previous post, I'd expect a 13:1 compression ratio and up.

Very similar to mine. My heads were old version of indy 440-1 ported by Larry Smith. Same intake with adapter to dominator also ported by Larry. mine made 890 hp at 7200rpm and 755tq at 5900rpm. This one should be around the same. My compression was 13.9.

Only way it gets close is if the heads are fully ported equal to the 345CC versions and the cam is large enough to support the airflow needed to make 900hp. I think its gonna be good but fall somewhere in the 850 range give or take 20.

It does have the CNC 345 heads on it and the cam specs on the old build sheet are 282/290 R113. I'm not sure if that is an old Indy cam or not. Customer's carb is a Holley 80672 1050 three circuit. It was way too rich so we swapped on the dyno room 1050.

Curious to see how this one does. My low deck 528 Indy block and 440-1 heads ran well in my Demon. Best of 5.43 at 125mph at 2825lbs. We are currently in the process of making it a 540 after the 20 year old eagle crankshaft gave up on me at the Mopar race in Norwalk last fall.

282/290 on 113 LSA sounds good to me. With at least 13.0 CR, it should make good power 840-875
Close to Indy cam specs, but not a match.

What size dia & length are the dyno headers. That will affect things too.

Andy, patiently waiting for an update . I assume something unexpected is holding up testing?

That engine didn't do as well as expected. It made 815 hp at 6900 RPM. The vacuum pump that the customer brought was wore out so it didn't pull much vacuum. Once he gets his pump rebuilt the engine will probably make around 825. Not sure why the power was down. The parts he had seemed capable of more. I'm not a fan of using a 4500 to 4150 adapter on a 400-2 intake but the customer was told that the necked down intake made more power. I would've liked to see what a ported 400-3 intake would do on the engine but we didn't have one to try.

One interesting footnote is that we're currently running a 428 inch SBC on the dyno that is making 795 hp. Cam specs are almost identical between the two engines, and we're using the same 1050 Dominator dyno carb. The 540 Mopar had less rocker arm ratio than the 428 SB so that could've been part of the issue.

Next motor on the dyno is a 540 inch BBC with very similar specs. Same compression, cam specs, carb, etc. It will be interesting to see how it does. I think the heads on the BBC are bigger so that might work in its favor.

Always going to make more power with a dedicated 4500 intake. Seen it a number of times for sure.

Frankly, the 815 seems about right to me for that combo.
On the dyno here, a similarly built 572 with 14:1 made 878……. So at the same hp/ci a 540 would be 829.

A 14:1 542 with 572-13’s and the 440-3x made 860.

-1/345’s flow about 380 on my bench.

In the BBC world, those would be pretty mediocre flow numbers for heads getting used on a 540” build.

What was the peak TQ, and at what rpm?

The Mopar 540 torque peak was 700 ft-lbs at 5700 rpm. I bet his truck will be faster than it was last season even though the engine is making a lot less power than he was told.

Sounds like he should look into getting his carb reworked.

Yes, his carb needs to be reworked. It is a 3 circuit Holley that hasn't been modified and the intermediate circuit floods the engine at certain throttle positions. Evidently it runs okay from him at the track because of his two step and then being WOT down the track, but it was super rich on the dyno when we were trying to start the pulls. But the engine showed some signs of being run rich so we told him to either buy a two circuit, or to get someone to rework his carb.
The dyno carb is a box stock Holley 1050 XP. It works great on every engine we use it on. Usually don't even need to change jets in it.