Those specs look to be more in the neighborhood of what that engine might need. Although the heads were terrible too.I'm sure Dulcich and Freiburger would have hit their 400 hp goal with a cam close to that range.

Thanks for clarifying Jim. I seem to remember some naysayers suggesting you must have had a friendly dyno with some of the results you had with other setups - I was thinking it sounds like the dyno wasn't that friendly. The head swap was big for sure, I really liked that thread!

Was there a write up on the 404 HP to 658 HP testing?

How did those sidewinder heads hold up? I am thinking of getting a set for my old 440 motor with l2266f pistons in it to replace the mp ported 452's.

Any details about how it ended up at 7.4:1?
What heads are on it?
What sized headers were used?

Now that they have the ultra low buck part covered......I think there’s a nice opportunity here to show how a little old school “hot rodding” can work out.

If the first step up from stock “required” the use of an off-the-shelf cam....... I think the XE275HL would have made a little more power, especially since it looks like moving the cam from 101 to 107 was worth 10hp, and the fact that the motor is peaking so early, the fast rate of the XE/HL cam shouldn’t keep the motor from reaching its natural peak(as opposed to its valvetrain rpm limit peak).

I’d try a “not off the shelf” cam, mill the heads, and about 2hrs worth of bowl blending.

It was a stock bore '78 440 that they resealed and painted orange and put a composition head gasket on (assuming .039 fel pro?). Heads were stock 452s that they cut the guides and changed the springs on. Dulcich mentioned he measured the pistons .155 down.

Headers they mentioned were TTI, they are under chassis car type headers. They appear to be stepped, which I think would mean they have to be 2" to 2 1/8" unless TTI offers something else?

Okay..... I come up with 7.5:1 with a 90cc head and pistons down the hole .155...... close enough.

If you milled the heads .060 and ran a shim gasket it would raise the CR by one point.
A little different cam, 2 hrs bowl blending, 1-7/8” headers....... shoot for an honest 450hp.

If they really used 2” headers for that test....... there was probably a little power left on the table.
Smaller tubes should have pumped the tq numbers up....... and since the hp peak is at such a low rpm...... it usually ends up that if you start with a higher number(tq), you end up with a bigger number(hp).

[quote=GTX MATT]It was a stock bore '78 440 that they resealed and painted orange and put a composition head gasket on (assuming .039 fel pro?). Heads were stock 452s that they cut the guides and changed the springs on. Dulcich mentioned he measured the pistons .155 down

Ok, I guess I missed the part where they specified 452s being used. I thought they used the stock RV heads.? 452s are actually pretty decent in stock from.. Relative to what was available back then. Perhaps some RV engines came stock with 452s ? The 1973 RV 440 I have on the stand in my garage has 213s on it i believe.. the ones with the extra coolant passages = junk.

MH 452’s can also have the extra coolant holes...... and those usually use tapered seat plugs.

I’ve had a few sets of 213’s here........ they didn’t have the extra coolant holes.
They looked like 346’s...... but flowed a little less(which kinda surprised me).

Ootb, 346’s, 902’s, 452’s....... all flow basically the same.

Actually it looks like they never stated it, I thought they said it had 452s on it but I just re-watched it and they don't specify. I thought the late motors all went to 452s and did away with the extra cooling passages so I must have just ASSumed it since its a '78 engine.

A 78 440 should have 452’s on it.

Yes, that's what I attributed to the difficulty of hitting their 400 hp goal. 7.4-1 combined with probably some variant of poor flowing
RV cylinder head ? Pretty much the 1-2 punch recipe for a poor performing V8.

Coles bookstores were around WA-A-A-A-Y before Chapters and were the originators of Coles Notes.

Basically it took a 300 page book of BS and condensed into 30 pages of relevant facts.

So if you applied the Coles Notes process to a one hour reality show you'd end up with 5 minutes of programming !!

The heads are fine but have a really low short side like a 516 head. I don’t think you would gain much over your current heads without a decent amount of work done to them. They have a 84cc chamber so you wouldn’t gain much compression either.
I feel that these days you might as well get trick flows for a few hundred more than you’d have into these and have more flow and a better combustion chamber and spring choice. I only used sidewinders because my head guy owed me and labor was free. I’m In mine 1200 dollars.

At $1200 bucks, you'd have about twice that much into Trick Flows. I'm not saying the TF's are not the better choice, but for twice the price ?? There in lies my logic behind going with the Promaxx's I chose, ..or Sidewinders or Stealths.. etc. Even though the TF heads are clearly superior, they're still out of reach for the average "Street/Strip" guy. For about half the price you'll be way ahead of what a stock head is capable of and only about 40 hp down from what the TF's can provide, going with somthing like a Sidewinder. Just my