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Okay, then.... so thats why the balancers got bigger around then? My 72 steel crank 440 had a small balancer, a 74 steel crank 440 a friend had had a much larger balancer... both internal.

As for performance drop... i mean that after 70 everyone assumes it was the compression drop. Engines going to heavier assemblies would play a small part too. Nobody today would dream ov building a performance 440 with such heavy internals.

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- 1) The '72 was obviously not an HP or truck motor and had the smaller rods if it was internally balanced and had the small damper. 440 source's info page I linked above has all the application info and pics of the various dampers.

2) as far as your "performance drop" thing goes; again 1970 has the same heavy internals as the lower compression 1972 HP motors. Only '69 and earlier 440HP's had the lighter rods (which includes the A12's). Yes the rods are heavier, but both have very heavy reciprocating assemblies and frankly, I don't buy into the idea that a 1969 440-6 has a significant performance advantage over a 1970 440-6. The pistons are the real culprit as far as weight goes IMO.

(for comparison purposes, my "new and improved" 50 fastest list has a '69 A12 'Bee at 13.56 @105.6 (HR 8/69) and a '70 Challenger T/A 440-6 at 13.62 @104mph....using 3.23's - so much for the lighter rod advantage of the earlier motors)

I will concede that everything matters, so depending of your definition of "small" you are technically correct but keep in mind that the high compression motors of 1970 used the same internals as the lower compression later engines...at least until the forged cranks were discontinued sometime in 1973.


Dave