Recommendations building a 440 to live at 3500-4500 rpm?

Hey Guys,

I'm building a 4.10 geared car and was wondering how to get the 440 to live at 3500-4500 rpm when I drive it to cruise-ins or car shows? I don't usually drive more than 2 hours to a show or cruise-in. For those times I do drive at highway speeds it will put the engine RPM in that range for an hour or so. How do you build a 440 to spin those RPM's and live?

Thanks for any input!

I like and make sure that I have at least .0030 bearing clearances on both the rods and mains and full groove main bearings along with a oil pan that holds at least 5 quarts in it along with a windage tray and crankshaft scraper
You know the cooling system needs to keep the cooling temps under 230 F also, correct If it is hotter you may want to add a engine oil cooler also to help keep the engine cooling system not works as hard as it is now
Do you have a good oil temp gauge for the engine now? If not it can't hurt to know how much the oil temps are going down the road half way to the track or journeys end

Build it like a boat motor, they often run like that out on the lake. You might consider an oil cooler but other than that a good high performance build should handle it. Keep the compression reasonable, clearances on the high side and use high quality parts in the valve train.

Exactly. Nothing special. Just understand that it will wear our much faster. That you really cannot change.

Cruising at light throttle uses a small fraction of your max power, slightly more than 2.93 gears due to friction/pumping loss.

i'd use as light of pistons, rods, and valve train components as possible. good oiling, good cooling. personally I think the goal is unrealistic, but never say never. I drive a 440 that has all these things and i'd never consider cruising it at 3500+rpm for hours.

In 1968 my dad bought a new ss396 Chevelle with a 4 speed and 4.10’s.
It was the family car.
We lived in nyc at the time and would go to Vermont to go skiing 3 out of 4 weekends a month all winter long.....and it was about a 5hr trip each way.
You drove around at 4K on the highway...... that’s just how it was back then.

One of his good friends had a 67 427/435hp Corvette with 4.56’s for his everyday car.

It just wasn’t that unusual to be turning fairly high rpm as you motored down the road “back in the day”.

I guess what I’m saying is....... what you’re talking about doing was being done day in and day out when these cars were new.

Did you ever consider buying a lower 1st gear for your tranmission and installing say 3.55 gears in you axle? It will still launch hard and save your engine.

413 truck engines ran that RPM range day in and day out on mass production tolerances and that was under constant load. That's the DNA of your 440, a dump truck engine lol. They ran ten lifetimes of going to the Dairy Queen by comparison.

Basically build it for endurance. A boat engine is a good description. Good quality internals, lighter than stock would be good but not NASCAR light. Lots of oil capacity and cooling capacity.

You spin it faster, it wears out faster. Synthetic oil and a good filter will mitigate that some.

Don't get crazy with the camshaft. Big springs and aggressive lobes beat the crap out of the valvetrain. Not such a big deal on an engine that idles and then runs WFO for a few seconds and then idles again. Another thing entirely running 2 hours at half of WFO.

Built like this it will live as long as you can afford to pail fuel into it.

Kevin

A fairly well known recco maximum for extended continuous use is 2,500 feet per minute piston speed.
For a 413/426/440 etc. (3.75" stroke) this occurs at 4,000 RPM.
The noise would bother me more than anything else, 50 years ago my DD was a 383/727/4.89 '63 Belvedere.

You must be young. That is the RPM every muscle car with 4:10s used to drive down the freeway at. Every day. All day. You had no other means of transportation.

Cars came the factory with 4.11’s. Pontiacs could come wi5h 4.33’s....
And people drove them daily.

I'll drive my 440 Cuda at 3500 rpm for however long it takes, which in my case is an hour or less. Longer than that and I'm not really interested in going to a car event. That could change though.

That’s where the power is on a street motor right? No downshifting necessary for passing!

I run 4.30's with a 30" tall tire and when I run the highway and cruise at 60 to 65 mph I turn around 3200 rpm's. I have driven to Carlisle like that which is all the way on the highway and its almost 2 hrs as its about 90 miles. I drive the highway a lot around my area also and have not had any issue's at all. I have been driving on the 493 like that since 2011 and on the 440 like that from 2006 to 2011. Ron

I have built 5 engines that have went into drivers. Interstate driving mostly. I use NAPA brand cam, lifters for a 1975 Dodge or Plymouth police car application. These are hydraulic and have lots of mid range get up and go. Birdtracker

I'd sure want to run a big oil pan and keep the oil away from the rotating assembly, and I wouldn't skimp on the valvetrain.
Early '70s my only car for awhile was my '57 Chevy, 3.00" crank 292, 4.88s & 27" tire. Drove it back & forth about 15 miles each way on a SoCal freeway turning 5000 - 5200 RPM 5 days a week. I don't think I have that in me nowadays, but that car made enough money to put me through computer school and feed itself.
Nowadays, my 1st thought reading the OP was "why do that?", haha. I'd be thinking OD or tall tires...

I was there in the '60's and drove a low geared car every day. we didn't cruise them 4000rpm on the highway. the engines had a life span about half of true daily drivers; which didn't have a long life span.

If you can find a factory build that doesn’t burn too much oil you should be fine.

This is what I recall too Lew. Cars with 3.23 gears were pretty much wore out at 100,000 miles. They were burning oil at 60,000.

The flip side is that today, it's rare for me to actually put more than 2000 miles per year on my muscle cars. So life expectancy never factors into it for me. Like someone else mentioned, I cannot stand listening to them running at higher rpm for extended times.

Also bear in mind that tire diameter offsets gearing to some extent, so if your car was originally equipped with 26" tall tires and you go to 28" tires and a 4.10, you're roughly at only an effective 3.78:1 ratio when you compare the tire roll-out. The engine rpm at any given speed is easy to calculate the offset in ratios. Note: assumes a 1:1 manual trans, obviously no compensation for converter slip.

A good cooling system is essential for sustained moderate-high rpm, a higher capacity oil pan with a thermostatic cooler is the best, trans cooler as well. Oil does roughly 1/2 the cooling of an engine and the water and oil work together to wick away heat.

Lots of great suggestions
Built lots of Bus and Boat Motors so here goes
Oil cooler -detail oil system corners and the windage tray etc suggestions
road race pan
tranny cooler (100 plate and fin) no S tube type) with half inch in and out and half inch oil proof lines) (Ford truck at pick a part)
Throw some tall tires on it
If the motor is not built yet build it with some quench and keep the overlap down if stock heads use the motorhome 352 heads with the cooling holes for the exhaust valves if stock heads use the motorhome valves viton seals light dual springs bronze guides with the spiral
if roller tip rockers go to the B3 page and read the 4 tech articles
get your geometry spot on (even if the motor is already built this is an easy fix)
if stock rockers lash caps (stock rockers are not what they used to be)
and oil through the lifters (Magnum style) and pushrods for the rocker cup
I'd recommend at least Iron rockers if any spring pressure and do not like aluminum rockers for any endurance build
once broken in think 0W-40 Eurospec synthetic (MB and BMW approved made from natural gas)
earplugs or headset for your tunes
you should be able to run a normal thermostat temp of the stat does not control maximum engine temp- if you are running hot something else is wrong
plug all holes in the core support and run a spoiler/ valance

My Hemi Cuda has a four speed, 4:10 and 28" tall tires and turns 3500 @ 70.

My 327 corvette has a four speed,3:36 and 7.75 X 15 tires and turns 3000 @ 70.

Only 500 rpm difference and they're both happy at that rpm.

Many good suggestions so far, but i don't see running a 440 in bone stock configuration at 4,000 rpm all day long as a problem. Just use a great quality oil, the proper tune and octane for the motor, and don't use any fast rate of lift cams.

The original cooling capacity is more than adequate for 4,000 RPM.
Oil temperature tracks load, not RPM: stock is more than enough.
Why are any special pieces needed to do what the engine was designed for in 1959?

Ever heard of Gear Vendor

My brother's 340 Dart had 4.10s with a 26.5 rear tire. On the haighway it was around 3000rpm @55mph.

How short is your tire and how fast do you plan to drive where 3500-4500rpm enters into the equation???

At 3500, 28" tire and 3.55's I'm at about 78-80. I cruise at that on the freeway, usually.

Thanks for the ideas guys. I neglected to say that the engine will be in a stock resto car. So, no bigger oil pans or anything external that is not stock. Speed limit where I live averages 70 mph.

I have. Are you buying?

Any other minor details you care to share?

Kevin

Crank scraper. Johnson/Ishihari is good, have two of those. IDK if you can use one of the carb looking, throttle body EFI units, avoiding too much fuel, diluting oil/washing the rings would be important. If not, carb tuning and getting the timing dialed in are obviously extra important. Can you use a fuel/air monitor like an Innovate? S/F....Ken M

I would recommend using a vacuum advance distributor. With light throttle high RPM Cruise conditions, the motor will be much happier and run cooler with some additional advance.

I would recommend using a vacuum advance distributor

This^^^

I agree....... if for no other reason than the noise!!

OK stock looking so stock looking big pan, windage tray, scraper
vac advance
what fast68 says about cams
Engle .904 series, Mopar Performance, Crane .904 series are not excessive
Howard and the Comps HL are more so
Voodoo somewhere in the middle
Bullet has both available
Chevy profiles like the XE series are fast action but since they use a smaller portion of the lifter they do not look like it in their specs
do keep the overlap down so you do not blow heat out the exhaust
do not open the exhaust early long rod engines are more sensitive to BDC valve events than short rod engines like chevy
stock 440 Magnum cam runs hot in this application due to long closing ramps
stock no quench pistons also runhot
In 440 buses we dropped EGT 800 degrees with quench and cam change (Moon)
Endurance 440's tend to run the center two exhaust valves hot so I stand by the head suggestions
You are better off with a long rod and light piston as someone suggested compared to a six pack rod and heavy piston (which will live- but not as quick
I like the efi if not AVS or TQ (better) make sure the secondaries are not opening at cruze
Lots of improvements in valve springs since 440 was new
I'd rather have stock rockers with oil through the pushrods and lash caps than cheap aluminum roller rockers (given no fast rate cam and moderate springs)

Going from (fading) memory here... With my 4.10s, 275/60R15s (loaded radius is actually shorter than advertised 28"-ish diameter, more like 27.5"), loose converter... 60 MPH is about 3000 and 65 MPH is closer to 3500. I'll drive it steadily at 65, but not any faster for any extended distances. The noise factor above that gets on my nerves.

Not sure what exactly you'd do to build it to live longer at a projected cruising RPM, vs how it should be built to handle the peak RPM. My junk is built for a performance goal: the cruise RPM on the highway is a byproduct of the package of compromises I've made to achieve that performance goal.

My goal isn't a projected cruising RPM, but rather how to improve it's longevity if and when I drive it for extended periods of time at those RPM's. With today's technology, I'm sure there are things I can do internally to improve it over stock.

Thanks for the input guys, lots of good stuff here.

Longevity to me would imply:
- precision machine work
- measured rod & main journal clearances to select the oil viscosity that is best suited to them
- 4032 forged pistons (I don't like cast or hyper-casts) for tight cold clearances and reduced hot expansion
- file-fit rings, NOT generic "drop in" rings where the gap sizes are like rolling dice
- plate-honed bores to allow fitting the pistons at the proper clearance
- oil system mods along the lines of what others said before
- smooth cam lobes (hydraulic or solid) that won't beat up the valve train and don't require heavy spring pressures
- building the engine w/ reasonable quench/squish to help offset detonation with "street octane" fuel
- getting the tune dialed in to keep the car out of any detonation
- getting the carb dialed in (along w/ during the tuning phase) to make sure the engine runs clean and doesn't put excessive raw fuel down the cylinders

I dunno... just a bunch of things that came to mind.

Why do you think a stock build would not live? They did back in the day. Even if it's worn out again by 100k that sounds like a lifetime's worth of driving for a show car/weekend warrior.

[quote=Dixie...... With today's technology, I'm sure there are things I can do internally to improve it over stock.
[/quote]

Today's technologies are: 1) 6+ speed transmissions, 2) computer controlled efi.

stock rockers with oil through the pushrods?

And variable cam timing........so you have the right sized cam(sorta) cruising at 1900 in double OD, and at 6k+ while you’re ripping through the gears.

All true, but I also look at lighter pistons with better skirt designs, narrower ring packs that conform to the cylinder walls better, reduced journal sizes to reduce rotating resistance, and improved oil management (scrapers and effective windage trays) as comparatively "modern" tech vs what some of these archaic platforms used when they rolled off the assembly line decades ago.

Best advice on here, Gear Vender

I agree that way the OP can add even more gear and get even more acceleration whitout having to spinn that thing higher than 35-4500RPM driving down the road at the legal limit.

Those things turned that kind of rpm on the road back when they where new its not some kind of rockescience.

But that does not answer the OP's question.

IMO, it’s really pretty basic......

It would do what the OP is asking if it were bone stock.

If you build it with higher quality parts and better attention to machining detail and clearances, surface finishes, etc, than the factory did....... it will hold up better than it would if it were like it was when it rolled off the assy line.

If it’s not being raced in a class where stock displacement was a requirement, then I’d build a stroker...... which doesn’t alter the appearance at all...... and run 3.23’s instead of 4.10’s.
This way you get the added performance of the extra cubes to offset the taller gears, which greatly improve the streetability of the car.

More power, more streetability...... looks 100% stock......win,win,win.