I have been told told that it is possible to put the head gaskets on wrong on a 440 motor...This would block the flow of coolant to the heads, thus cause overheating problems....Has anyone heard of this??? anyway to check to see if this is the case???
IF I take the water pump housing off and put a water hose in one of the H2O holes in the motor block---will H2O come out the other hole???
How does the coolant circulate through the block??? Any help would be great---at this point I am looking at just taking the motor apart and starting over.....Thanks Again

Head gaskets can go on either way that isn't your problem. Maybe a vapor lock. Pull thermostat housing and thermostat fill block from there and run without stat at first. If you are breaking in the cam at 2200 with no load they often run lean??
maybe up the jets in the primaries till broke in.
vacuum advance should be unhooked and total timing at 38 or 35 good to break in.

the motor has about 600 miles on it for break in time...The H2O temp has come down as we have tried things to help, but the top of the motor get so hot that it wants to Vapor lock on me---(boils the fuel right out of the carbs)....

How far out are the cylinders bored?

.040 over on the bore with flat top pistons----edelbrock 750 cfm carb electronic ignition ---mallory mechanical advance

What carbs?? and what jetting?? Have you tried a different stat or no stat. what shape is the rad in. I once had what I thought was a good rad and it would over heat re cored it and world of difference.
Lean will make it run hot as heck. TRW/Sealed power/Speed pro Power forged pistons with less than .005 clearance will run hot and be hard to start??
Have you checked for a rad hose collapsing??
timing is right??
good fan and shroud???

What cam and vacuum??

New 5 core type radiator-------larger cam--pulls very little vaccuum around 11 pounds I think....standard 750 cfm Edelbrock carb...I'm thinking of taking the car to a Chassis Dyno to see if they can help---does this sound like a good idea or waste of money???
Cam size is the next larger than a six pack size...

Well if your rad hoses are not collapsing and water pump is good and circulating water well (is it) I would look to a lean condition. What kind of head gaskets??
The chassis dyno will give you an O2 reading??

What kind of water pump??

Not to sound too dumb----but what do you mean by heat riser???? I have installed the valley pan metal gasket where the heat crosses under the carb are blocked off....

On the passanger side exhaust manifold the is a flapper that's called the heat riser. If it's closed it will block of the exhaust flow on that side and up goes the engine temp.

Not a dumb Q at all, I learn here every day. the heat riser is the flapper valve on the outlet end of the pass ex manifold but w you having a blocked gasket that would take care of most of that potential heat source. When you start it how soon is it acting up? What do your plugs show? Water flows into the lower holes in the front of the block and flows around and to each cyl from front to rear and goes up into the heads via the holes above and below the cyls then circulates and exits the head(s) at the front of the heads into the large hole in the front block deck & a short turn to the 2 large top horizontle holes at the front of the block & into the pump housing. If you pull the heads I'd block the large hole at the rear of each block deck and drill a 1/2" hole in the deck and heads between cyls 2 & 3 between the head bolt holes (& punch a hole in the gasket) as this is the hottest area w 2 ex valves being paired side by side but I dont want to encourage you to do that at the moment as there is something else going on here

Thanks for the info----------as far as the heat riser goes---------there is none on the passenger side manifold....the set of manifolds I have, had the riser taken out at some point...

OK no heat riser. Is the timing in the ballpark and what do the plugs look like? On adding an additional cooling passage on each deck/head it is needed between cyls 3&5 and 4&6 sorta between the outer head bolt holes (I'll have to post a pic). The 2&3 I posted was meant to mean between the 2nd and the 3rd cyl rearward from the front (on each bank) which is very misleading. Almost forgot, does it heat up around town or on the interstate or both. EDIT add a 1/2" hole between these 2 head bolt holes but upward in a triangle

What kinda fan??? I knew someone that chased overheating problems and it was as simple as a bad clutch on the clutch fan...Would run hot down the highway and really hot in traffic and vapor lock...Could be something simple and not "motor" related. Radiator cores pinched off from leaks and not cooling as much as you think??? Any cool spots on the radiator when the engine's hot? Just a few ideas....

It seems to be better on the interstate at highway speed, but once slowed down in traffic is when the vapor lock situation starts....As far as the fan goes-----I have a 7 blade big pitch after market direct drive fan-----it pulls air through the radiator like a vacuum cleaner.....

Do you have a fan shroud?? makes a huge difference at low speeds!!

My new motor was running hot, what made the single biggest difference was a Milodon high volume water pump. for what it's worth