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Those 915 heads will help boost the squeeze. The 1977 400 and 440s were rated at 8.2 for standard and 7.8 for police. I have no explaination why the cop cars got less squeeze.


They didn't. All 440's in those years had the same 1.912 compression height smogger pistons.

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The 915 heads will likely raise the compression ratio by 1.0 to 1.5 points.


No, not even close. A 77 440 with stock open chambered heads comes in to a calculated 7.8:1 compression. Slap on a set of closed chambered heads brings you up to around 8.3-8.4 compression. With pistons far enough down in the hole to need a yard stick to measure, you are not gaining 1-1.5 compression by cutting 10cc out of your cylinder heads. 8.4 compression with that performer RPM cam is STILL going to be a complete and total dog!

Like I said, I ran the lunati voodoo 60303 cam with smogger pistons and 3.55 gears and it was too much cam for that low of CR and a stock converter. And that cam is only 226/234 @ 050 versus the 238/246 of the performer rpm cam. That rpm cam would work well with 10:1 compression, not 8:1.

What rear end ratio and torq converter do you plan on running?