Hello moparts

Last weekend I got my dream engine, that being a 440. Its a 73 year 440 with a steel crank, 213 heads, no emission garbage as well as a 727. Got the engine and transmission as a complete assembly, from air cleaner to oil pan, as well as all the linkages hooked up and present.

Before it gets put in the car I need to change out the oil pan to the car style, going to put new gaskets/seals on it and possibly will have to put hardened valve seats in the heads.

While I got it all apart I plan on doing some engine upgrades and this is where I need some advice. I'd like to do a cam upgrade, ignition, carburetor, and intake while keeping the engine street but on occasion it'll see the drag strip.

So, what do you think.

Cam upgrade - How much lift/duration, any brands that stick out the most? Would like to have some street manners so nothing too radical.

Ignition - I was thinking some sort of 6a box with distributor. Is Mallory or MSD better?

Intake - Is the stock style fine as is? If not, what's your opinion?

Carburetor - Right now it has the thermoquad 850cfm. Should I go holley or edelbrock? What about AED or Barry Grant?


Hopefully that is enough info for everyone. If ya need any other info I didn't list/think just ask and I'll post it.

I wouldn't fool with changing the seats. Just run it until you have trouble. Might try some lead additive but some say that is crap so...

That is a low comp engine, so stick to a small cam. I would stay away from anything MP sells. Hard to pick you a cam, it is all really about how much you can stand personally. Just a guess but I will say to look at ones close to stock HP grind, just not from MP.

Get a good chain and degree kit.

The Thermoquad will be fine unless it is melted. Maybe the best carb you could hope to have, they have been some of the best for me in the past. If you need a new carb, look at a 3310 Holley or 800 AVS Eddy.

Intake will be fine if you want to hold off and spend the money later. Easy to change for sure.

Ignition is really all about what bells and whistles you want. Petronix sells some good stuff, or maybe a new Firecore model.

Yes, you have low compression pistons. If you can slow things down a bit, this is the time to rebuild the engine proper with new 10:1 pistons. I put a cam, 440source heads and headers onto a low cr 440. It did okay for what it was but the stock 7.8:1 compression pistons leave a lot of power on the table.

I wouldn't put any money into those heads. By the time you do exhaust valve seats, have the shop clean the heads and valves, and new springs for your new cam, you will be a good chunk of $ of the way to just buying a set of edelbrock rpm or 440source heads.

I ran a thermoquad and a lunati voodoo 60303 cam with 3.55 rear gears. I ran it with a stock converter but it really needed a 2800rpm converter to cover for the low-cr pistons.

That would be a tough one, to rebuild the entire engine after spending $850 on the entire setup. Oh I don't know... If only it were as easy as removing the old pistons and installing new ones onto the rods, then I'd be doing it in a heartbeat.

After reading the Stock smogger 440 thread, seemed like they had some good results on their smogger motors. When I get done with the Charger I'll drop it in, see what can be done with it before I drop the money and tear it all down and rebuild it.

This would be the time to rebuild it, but I understand that if that's not in the cards, then it's not in the cards. Unfortunately it's not as simple as just swapping pistons. You'd have to buy new pistons, get the block bored, hot tanked, new cam bearings installed, have them check out the crank, grind if necessary, recondition the rods and balance the rotating assy. Adds up in cost quick. Just keep in mind if you skip this part now, someday you will want to go back and redo it.

At least objectively evaluate your heads before investing into them. Weigh what you'll have to invest into them, installing hardened exhaust seats and new valve springs, cleaning heads and valves versus buying aftermarket. At least if you spring for aftermarket heads now, that's something you can reuse later on down the road.

I had decent results with my smogger 440. I found with mine the key was ignition timing. You're going to NEED to recurve your distributor for your new cam so you need to plan for having to do that. I couldn't get mine to run well consistantly until I dialed in the timing correctly.

What rear gear ratio are you going to be running? You need to decide that first before you can pick a cam.

Thanks for all the good advice, very helpful

As for gears, I'm planning on either 3.23 or 3.55, something to give good take off while allowing me to still cruise on the highway. The rear end currently has 2.71 gears. The 727 transmission is supposedly the HD model like the engine is and has the lower gear ratio for 1st and 2nd.

Decide exactly what rear tire size and rear gear ratio you want before choosing a cam. It does have an affect and smogger 440's can be quite sensitive to this.

Also there was no such thing as a factory low gear set 727 as far as I am aware.

I'd probably have the heads checked out, make sure all the valves are good. Have it milled .030, Then call sumit and buy their 488 cam, t-chain set, and headers. Top it off with a used dual plane intake like the CH4B and a Holley 750 and roll. Should build decent power from just off idle to about 5500. What gear and stall?

Tires are 225 70r 14 all the way around, 3.55 gears is what I'm leaning towards. Stock stall rpm, not sure what the spec on that is exactly.

225/70/14 is a pretty dinky tire for a charger like yours. Won't take much to blow those away. I'd suggest something more like a 275/60/15 which is what I run. Anyway, are you willing to upgrade to an aftermarket higher stall torq converter? Comming from someone who's been there and done this already, I highly suggest you spring for a torq converter in the 2600-2800 stall range.

Ah ok good explanation, makes much more sense to me now than what it did.