Here's a interesting (to me) long winded update.

I found a older Holley Dominator "9375 HP" 3 circuit carb at a swap meet I couldn't pass up for super cheap. I added the QFT bowls and blocks. Then sent it to Dominic Thumper for mods. Great customer service by the way! Thanks Dom. While he had that I had the oil pan off to fix a leak and discovered the boss in the block that the oil pickup tube threads into was damaged. The top two-three threads were broken off. There was iron dust covering the crank counterweights and rods. So I took the whole engine apart and cleaned it and reassembled it with the Milodon 21010 external oil kit.

Then as I had it back together I found another good deal I couldn't pass up even though I probably should have. A comp cam RX296/303 solid roller cam. It's 263/270@ .050, .650/.651 lift, 108 LSA, cam with Comp 96829 sportsman lifters, and original 1.5:1 Harland Sharp rockers. I asked Dwayne Porter if it was a good cam for a street/strip 440 and he said yes. I degree'd it in at 104. Installed Trick flow 16943 springs (which are the same as comp 943's and pac 1243) @ 1.9 with 260 seated and 620 lbs at .650 lift with my tool steel retainers.

Then as I was setting up the rockers with checking springs I found the lift was .676/.684 so the rockers are approximately 1.55:1 but the sweep pattern was .125" wide. So I called up Micheal and B3 Racing Engines and ordered a geometry kit. Another great guy to deal with! His kit made the sweep between .030-.035 wide. Lift checked in at .650/.654 now, so the ratio checks out to about 1.5:1 now. He explained why a loss of rocker ratio might happen before I even bought the kit. Because the rocker is built wrong and the heads have the rocker pedestals in the wrong location, especially considering the increased valve length that are in Indy heads. so after fixing the valve side by relocating the shaft, that the error built into the rocker arm goes to the push rod side which is a compromise but the valve action is less stressful on the valve train now and under control.

After a bunch of grinding rocker shaft bolt holes and clearancing the heads for push rods. I got Manton "series 3" 7/16" straight .120" wall for the exhausts and "series 3" 7/16 tapered to 3/8 with .168 wall on the intakes that are an effective length of 9.75" (9.9" overall length). Lift was now .637/.639 with zero lash after deflection with the actual springs. I lashed the valves to .016/.017 cold (about 20-30 degrees in the garage hah) after the checks.

I figured with a roller and a Dominator this engine would be 650+ on the dyno. But wasn't sure how my Doug's D452 with 2" primary pipes and 3.5" collectors would stack up to the old hooker super comps with the same sizes (but a better performance header that wouldn't fit my car well). I figured with no valve float I'd be happy with even the same power as before. I didn't the the cam and rocker swap was gonna be worth too much for peak power because Dwayne picked a great cam for the 1.6 Mancini/Harland rockers and I read this was mild for a solid roller but I don't know for sure.

What I do know is this upgrade combination picked up the torque 40 lbs feet to 550 at 4000 rpm, dropped the torque peak to 46-4700 and the peak number was down to 555 but still had 550 at around 6000. Ron and Brian at R&R performance said that's as flat as a torque curve gets. Peak power was 6600 at 649 after adding the wooden 1/2" 4 hole spacer on the dommy adapter and jetting the front down two sizes. The power maintained 649 and 6800 which was the highest we went to because time ran out.

A real nice perk to top it off is the AFR light throttle cruise test between 1800-2900 rpm. Thumper knows his stuff!

All in all it looks like a nice 10.3:1 446 with heads that are too big, a carb that's too big and maybe slightly over cammed lol. Thanks to R&R performance, Dwayne Porter, Micheal at B3 racing engines, and Thumper.

446 dyno graph with roller and dommy.jpg446 dyno sheet with roller and dommy.jpg446 dyno cruise with roller and dommy.jpg

'68 Coronet 500 w/ Indy EZ-1 headed 446, 727 trans, 9" rear
First day at the track with SUV street tires and no traction: 1.688 60', 7.24 @ 101.79 in the 1/8 mile

Great customer service from: DominicThumper Carbs, B3 racing engines, Porter Racing Engines, A-1 torque converter's, Quick Performance, Racer Brown Cams, R&R Performance, Manton pushrods