someone gave me a big block crank shaft and said it was a 440 steel crank,im wondering how to tell if its a 440 crank and how to tell if its a steel piece or if its a cast unit,need to know how to tell the diff!thanks.

Forged will have a wide parting line, Cast will have a narrow parting line. Then you have to measure main bearing sizes to make sure it is an RB crank.

Sheldon

what do you mean by wide parting line?and how wide should it be?

Ooohh look at the pic I found

From the Tech Archive:

Crank Q's

Wouldn't all early steel 440 cranks have a pilot hole drilled into the rear of the crank?

just tap it with a metal object. The forged will sound like a tuning fork..like a ring for 3-4 seconds. The cast will sound like a tin bucket. The cast is also darker, forged are grey. Rounded corners on the throws are a giveaway unless someone knife edged a cast crank.

The forged crank is an ugly piece too, while the casting is fairly prettily machined. And the cast crank will have 440 cast onto one of the counterweights. AND as mentioned, the cast cranks don't have a pilot hole for a manual transmission. Might be one or two out there that do, but I've never found one. Even found a 400 in a mid 70's pickup that had a steel crankshaft because it was in front of a 4 speed. Everything else was standard so I know it wasn't a rebuild.