First off, I'm a dumb noob so be merciful.

I bought an Ebay car and the seller couldnt tell me anything about the motor other than it had a fresh rebuild.

What I do know about it is that its a 70 440 hp block, rough idle cam, 1 7/8 Hooker Comp, Eddy Performer 440, Eddy 750 Comp Series carb, is only happy running on 94 Octane, and no, it doesn't blow blue.

I had a reputable race guy put it on his chassis dyno and he said, "It makes good power. Who ever built it really new what they were doing. The air fuel is perfect." and hands me the sheet.

279 max hp
358 max torque

I said, "I was hoping for more." He said, "You dont really wanna be making much more than that cause stuff will start breaking, besides, thats about all these things make."

So I called my cousin who's been drag racing all his life and he says you lose about 100 hp through the drive train. If I want more I need new heads, most of the power is in head design.

I dont doubt what these guys are saying. I'm just scratching my head reading all the posts here where people are saying you can get 500hp out of a 440 by sneezing at it and I'm lucky if I'm making stock HP with better intake, headers and whats got to be a lumpier than stock cam.

If my compression was way low, wouldn't I be able to run lower octane gas? How bad can my heads be if thats the issue? Are people exaggerating their hp estimates here?

i am sure you can get more HP.figureout what you engine has in it.

The Edelbrock 750 is not that great IMO. But I think that dyno guy is full of BS. Something must be wrong for it to be that down on power

on a chassis dyno my 383 made 325hp and 350tq. bored 30, almost zero deck, eddy performer rpm heads, 6pk, hughes 510 lift roller cam, tti's. i agree can't fix it until you know whats in it. you culd have parts that don't work well together.

Do a compression test (& post what you get) and what heads are on it/vac at idle/timing/idle speed?

Thanks guys, I'll get on it.

What kind of dyno was it? I had mine dynoed on a mustang 1000 dyno and had similar build and I made 305 hp and 416 torque on the dyno, but changed up carb and timing quite a bit and it picked up an additional 20 hp. Their is still more in it. I just have to find time to play with it more!

Here is some ideas. I use to run a 750 eddy carb, and it needed to be jetted up 2 sizes. I also found that my 440 was best after setting timing at 35 degrees at 3000 rpms.

If it was me I would call Don Gould over at FBO and discuss with him your build and see if you can get more out of it. He does a lot with mopars and could give you some clues.
He's currently building me a distributor for my set up and I think I'll get more out of it.

Mike

The 440 "in the day" was rated 350 HP SAE gross at the crank. With 20% loss for accessories and the driveline that's 280 HP on a chassis dyno.

Sounds like you are close to the original factory rating... and super premium fuel requirement.

PS... 500 HP gross/400 at the wheels is doable with a 440 with pump gas. Piston, ported aluminum cylinder head, quench, cam and intake all have to be matched up.

There is probably more in your combo with tuning but unless you know more about what's inside its hard to tell how much. If it were mine, I'd enjoy it for a while and in the meantime take some time to plan a higher power build from the ground up. I bet it moves that car well as it is now.

Obviously your numbers are down, so something is amiss somewhere with your combo. At the same time, welcome to the land of "happy numbers"

imho...

Dyno numbers are BS. 1/4 mile times are the true judge...

If he's giving you horsepower at the wheels, thats not a horrible number. Probobly represents around 365 - 375 crank horsepower. If its a low compression 440, with stock heads and a few bolt ons, I'd say thats a real world number.

Just because we say that its easy to get 500 hp out of a 440, doesn't mean that every one on the street is making that. Sounds to me like all this motor has on a bone stock 375-horse motor from 1970, is a little cam (that may not match up well with the intake and compression), and a good set of headers. If the last valve job was done by a yeah-hoo, and it was built, compression-wise, to live on 80's pump gas, then I think it all makes sense.

You guys are gods. Honestly I wouldn't have bought this car if I didn't have the ability to reference here FBO and Roadrunner Nest.

ANd it was a Dynojet chassis dyno, so ya RWHP thank god or I would be in serious trouble.

It still moves the car very well, not as well as my old 340 Duster or 440+6 4spd Challenger mind you.

need more info...

Were those numbers the uncorrected HP and torque, or were they SAE corrected numbers? If they were uncorrected numbers what Temperature, Humidity, and Altitude when tested?
What were the RPM at peak HP and peak Torque?
If it has the standard Performer intake, it is not much better than the stock intake?
To get 500 crankshaft HP with stock heads, the heads are usually ported and have larger 2.14"/1.81" valves. With aftermarket heads, 500 HP is pretty easy to get.