Hey Guys Finally getting my 440 Apart for my Tow Rig. Heres the Specs 68 440 out of a Newport, stock everything, I plan to tear it down and hone cylinders,rering and replace crank and rod and cam bearings if they look bad. Also have a fresh set of 906 Heads Im gonna throw on it. Now the Vehicle its going in is a D300 that weighs real close to 10,000 lbs (It has an 18' steel Rollback bed on it) it has the NP435 4 Speed Transmission, and a Dana 70 Rear with 4.56 Gears, will be running a 32" tall tire. Any Recommendations on cam for this Rig? Thanks

The Summitt house brand cam/lifters would be dirt cheap (I have one/ain't run it yet). If you are going that far what about boring/honing for new pistons? It'd get the SCR up which you need & if you milled the 906 recessed areas flat you could achieve quench with KB pistons. Might then need rebalancing & it($$) does kinda add up (always does) but with a decent SCR plus quench you'd have the most efficient long block you could achieve then you could mix/match intakes/carbs/ignitions but your foundation (the efficient long block) would be rock solid & it would not be with 40+ year old pistons/bores/low SCR/no quench. definitely pocket port the 906's

Leave the stock cam in there. It's close enough in spec to any aftermarket "towing/rv/mileage" cam that spending money on one won't net you anything. The stock cam in that thing is what the factory put in the luxo barges, trucks, industrial engines, etc.

I would find some 915 or even 516 heads and get some tight quench and more compression in it. If you go 516 get bigger ex valves put in with a tiny bit of deshrouding in the chamber and round out the transisions in the exhaust ports. Like has already been mentioned keep the stock cam for very heavy loads like that thing will see. When dunnuck racing built a towing 440 they found big gains adding quench and compression, I am positive from my personal testing that would help with MPG also. If you need a new cam than get a custom cam with about 200@.050 and as much lift as possible on a 108 LSA. No off the shelf cam is going to give you much gain over what you have. That gear is not much with a very heavy load and very tall tires typical of a rig like that so you need help at very low RPM you can get.

just drop a stroker kit in it with amid range cam...torque monster

I recently rebuilt and dyno tested a pump gas 440 motor, 3.91 stroke with 9.6 to 1 compression, it made 570 Ft lbs at 4200 RPM with a Comp Cams XE275HL cam in it degreed in at 106 LSA on the intake lobes. That was on Oregon 91 octane pump swill at 2500 ft elevation I have used smaller hydraulic lifter Comp Cams than that one in stock stroke 440 motors with similar results

i doubt with 10:1 pistons and open chamber heads that this will make a good tow engine on todays gas no matter the camshaft.

I built a 440 with a cast crank
And 9.6-1 KB pistons with quench pad and ported 452 heads with 2.14 intakes......
cam was a racer brown small solid around .500 lift and not crazy on the
duration.... torker single plane intake with 2 1/2” free flowing exhaust with 1 3/4”
headers.... the torque that thing made was unbelievable and very surprising!
2600 stall converter and 3.91 gear in a B-body just about gave me whiplash!

With that rig and the gear/tire combo you can forget about anything below 2500 rpm. You're going to need mid range torque. Get as much as possible between 3000 and 4500. You will not be going down the road at 2500 rpm. When you pile 4500 lbs of car on top of a 10,000 lb roll back you're chugging 14,500 lbs down the road.

Lets do an acceleration run with your 14,500 lb rig.
32" tires, 4.56 gears, and in NP 435 (ratios of 4.78, 2.39, 1.37, 1.0)
Select first gear from a stop.
Run it up to 5500 rpm and you hit 24 mph.
Shifting to second drops you to 2800 rpm.
Pulling second to 4500 rpm gets you to 39 mph.
Shifting to third lugs you back down to 2500 rpm.
Running it up 4000 rpm gets you 61 mph. (You'll clear the 1/4 mile mark somewhere in here)
Shifting into fourth drops rpm to 2900 and puts you into a somewhat comfortable rpm for a torque monster.

You now have 14,500 lbs rolling at a somewhat freeway compatible speed. If you want to roll up to 70 mph for the open road you'll be looking at 3300 rpm cruise.
Crap! Here comes a long hill. You can't pull that climb at 2900 rpm weighing more than 7 tons. You're shifting back to third and running 4000 rpm to hold 61 mph.

Notice that you spend almost every waking moment in that truck spinning more than 3000 rpm. Building the bottom half of the rpm isn't going to get the job done. You need power from 3000 to 4500 rpm.

A stroker kit will add 50-60 lb/ft over a similar mild 440 build. You're going to be looking at 6-9 mpg so the extra fuel consumption of a 500" engine isn't going to be that much of a difference.

You need to look hard at compression. You want all you can get but without quench it will be detonation city. A mild cam will make a ton of cylinder pressure and hurt you with the iron heads. A set of aluminum heads would do you big favors but not everyone can spring for a pair.

My cam selection for the 440 I'm building won't suit your needs because I'm building bottom end torque.

I suggest you evaluate the speeds and loads you intend to pull then call Comp Cams or another cam company and lay it all out for them. The service is free and you can usually get a custom cam for the same price as an off the shelf piece.

this post is from 4 years ago, I was hoping to see a final result in here

So it is. Silly me.