Big Block (440, 400, 383) vs. Small Block in A-body?

Patients is the key here. Both have pros and cons.

I have a 470"/400 in my 69 B'cuda with CPPA headers(much like the TTI) It's a tight fit but not all that bad. I run a 4 spd with the stock clutch linkage..again tight but can be done. The low deck choices will give you a little more room to work. The only plug that's a real challenge is #6(Eddy heads)Valve covers come right off for valve adjustments,etc. The blower motor is a tight fit but there are some work arounds for it.

I put Hellwig sway bars(frt and rear) and homemade frame connectors on mine so it drives just fine. Also did the disc brake/big bolt pattern conversion. Don't let guys scare you with the nose heavy talk...they handle just fine!

Obviously I'm a little biased but IMO BB A-bodies are a little less common a WHOLE lotta fun to drive!! Good luck with your project and post some pics as you go!!

440 in a '72 Dart. Fenderwell headers make starter and plugs an easy change.

If I ever did an a body, and the wife has said she'd like a Demon one day, then I would go small block stroker. They can have very similar power to a healthy big block, 450hp/500+tq. You can use a magnum core to get all of the benefits of a roller setup at no extra cost. It would keep the nose lighter which makes it easier to make it a handling car, and you would have plenty of room under hood for a/c, plug access, etc...The power you can get out of them would move an A body nicely IMO.

It sounds like you want a big block for the wow factor more than anything else.

With headers, the low deck versus tall deck will not make much difference. Number 6 is a pain. The low deck does fit slightly better, but it is not like having a small block in there.

If I were to do it again, I probably would do a small block stroker OR gen 2 or gen 3 hemi instead of a BB wedge. I'm not upset that I did the wedge but at the end of the day it was probably more trouble than it was worth considering my car was setup for a SB and at this point it will likely never be anything else than a street car.

If you want to do a BB make it worthwhile and get the extra cubes if you can. If you are not planning on anything more than 430 cubes or so I say to the SB stroker (i.e. 408).

IF you go BB, you can get 383s pretty easily. Get one, stroke it, and even with stock heads or Eddy RPMs, or Stealths, with a mild cam, it will be a blast to drive.

"Street/Strip" covers a lot of territory. With the 6 speed I'm guessing you want to have fun driving it on the road. Weight distribution and balance is a lot better in an A body with a small block... preferably lightened. Lighter front=more fun to drive. An aluminum headed SB stroker would really work well in an A.

Of all the combos you are considering, one to avoid would be a stock stroke 400. It is hard to build compression and power with this setup. Worst of all worlds... heavy and lower power than a SB stroker plus poor parts support. If you do go BB, suggest 3.75" stroke minimum and lowdeck for fit.

Slight sleeper to me means sb, I would build a 426" or so sb, use tti headers RHS X heads nice big solid ft or roller use a port matched and worked ld340, 950 carb under a stock air cleaner with stock valve covers paint it and dress it to look stock. I think an easy 500 hp can be had if the comp ratio is up at around 10.5 to one

I'll guarantee you a 408 stroker will put a smile on your face. It is an easy install and relatively less expensive to build compared to building and fitting a big block in an A body. It can have good street manners and handle well. I had a 408 a518 3.55 combo in a D100 short bed. it was nice daily driver and would surprise the crap out of the mustang and camaro crowd.

Internally this engine is nearly identical to the one in the Valiant above, (different heads but similar flow #'s) with a stock carb, intake, ignition, and exhaust manifolds, it's only down about 70HP but makes the same 500lbs of torque.

Find a good 360 block go with a 4.125 crank and a set of Airwolf heads.

As a owner, builder and racer of many different Mopars, 318, 340, 360, 383, 426M.W.,426 Street Hemis, 440 and so on the most fun street car, and fastest was a 400 block pump gas stroker motor, 512 C.I. and then 518 C.I. in a 1971 Duster With your goals I would put a 512 stroker, 400 block with a 4.250 stroke crank with after market forged steel H beam 6.700 BB Chevy type rods Put a 3.54 gear in the Dana and go have some fun with good mileage, if you can control the right foot to get good mileage My 512 pump gas stroker, which became a 518 C.I. later with a crank swap to increase the stroke to 4.300 to get some more compression after changing the iron 906 heads for a set of Eddy RPM heads was a blast to drive and way faster and more powerful than I had hope for With the Eddy RPM heads and a low deck sixpack intake and carbs. with 10.29 to 1 compression ratio with the 4.300 stroke that motor made over 700 HP at 5600 RPM and similar ft. lbs of torque at 4500 RPM on Oregon pump gas With the big C.I. stroker mtors you can run the RPM a lot lower and still have way to much torque and HP for most street tires

You can make power with factory iron heads. The Dart pictured in my first post runs 10.04/131mph in a 3,000 lb. car with 1967 915 heads. NO NITROUS.

With the t56 the sb will be cheaper. You can use a stock t56 bellhousing instead of aftermarket. Also the t56 will need less in upgrades to handle the power if you build for 450 torq instead of 550.

We run a stock stroke 400 in my sons 72 Dart. He uses Eddy RPM heads and the MP .557 cam and a 750 DP. With 3.91's and at 3550 lbs it has run 11.40's on good days. Ron

I have a 1968 Barracuda convertible. A lot of the stuff you need to do to your car to get it ready for whatever motor you are going to run needs to be done first for several reasons, the #1 reason is safety because it sounds like you are going to have a powerful engine combo in a car not really designed to handle and stop that much power.

Things like installing the full US Cartool chassis stiffening kit. Upfrading the disc brakes and rear end, give Dr Diff a call and decide how much you want to spend on stopping. I have the unicast police taxi rotors in the front and his econo Mustang Cobra R kit with a small bore master cylinder. I also had him drop ship me an 8 3/4 rear end with big bolt pattern forged axles and a 489 case with 3.91's and a truetrac diff. He can also drop ship all the stuff Strange sells, including the S-60.

Decide if you want to run 15 inch factory style rims or go with some 17's or 18 inch rims. I've never seen a set on a car I liked as much as the 15 inch black factory steel rims with Dog dish hubcaps, but that's up to you.

As far as motors go, my car started out with a Slant 6 and a 904. I upgraded the rest of the car then pumped up the slanty and one day decided to put a 2001 EFI'd 5.9 Magnum and a 727 in it.

It was just a junkyard motor, but I re-cammed it, match ported the intake and threw in some new rod bearings , valve springs and timing set. I should have re-ringed it, as it only had 90 psi cranking compression in cylinder #2. I ran it like that for a year. With 3.23 gears I had in it at the time, it would run in the mid 13's.

A few months ago, I began building a mild 408 stroker motor with a bigger cam, CNC ported Eddies and 10.2 to one compression. I have 30 lbs 2-hole injectors on a deep ported Hughes Airgap with their Big Gulp throttle body. It should put out around 500hp/500tq. Nothing to radical with a streetable cam and a reflashed 1998 truck ECM with a tune from Hemi Fever aka Sean.

This is going to be hooked to a bellhousing from a 2 piece Powerglide racing trans, a 1/2 inch adapter that lets it bolt to a 200R4 transmission that is built to hold 750 hp & 650 ft lbs of torque.

It will have a 3000 stall converter with a three carbon fiber disc lock-up from Precision Torque Converters. The lock-up is controlled by one 12V wire. The transmission is entirely hydraulically controlled internally and once it drops out of 4th the lock-up disengages automatically. The other nice thing about this transmission is that it has a 2.76 to 1 first gear and a .67 overdrive.

You will have to notch the drivers side of the torsion bar crossmember to fit the 200R4, but its one of the the smallest, strongest overdrive transmissions you can put in a Mopar. You'll probably have to remove most of the crossmember to put in the Tremec, but it can be easily reinforced again, especially if you go to an Alterkation style front end. You'll also have to make your own rear transmission mount. Hotchkis is doing a sweet build with that transmission in an A-body now. Those guys are master fabricators and their build is awesome.

I also put two passenger side rear Super stock springs in the rear with a sway bar and 1 inch lowering blocks. In the front, I run 1" torsion bars with a welded up K-member, big front swaybar, reinforced lower control arms, Firm Feel upper control arms and Hotchkiss adjustable strut rods. I also made a custom Monte Carlo bar to help stiffen the front end. I welded the shock towers solidly to the inner fenders too. I had a 4 core radiator made by US Radiator, and put in A/C from Vintage Air.

My fuel tank is a new stock tank with a pusher pump that feeds a surge tank with a high pressure pump at the front of the car. The main tank has no baffles, but it will run hard all the way down to the last few gallons, because of the surge tank system.

The car starts and runs like a modern car, has A/C and on paper it should run in the mid to high 10's and still be able to go faster than I have the nerve to drive it. It should even get good gas mileage on the highway.

There are many ways you can go, but having modern technology working for you like EFI, A/C, overdrive, power windows, well-balanced disc brakes, a stiffened chassis, good floor insulation and sound reducing materials, Corbeau VX seats and a low maintenance motor sure makes what ever path you choose to go down a lot more comfortable.

You can read about the transmission install over on a-bodies only. Here's the link.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=274161

Well a lot will depend on how hard it will be to hook up that 6 speed.

A friend of mine just assembled a plain jane duster with a 440 with 440 source heads, Holly street dominator intake to keep it under the hood with no scoop, schumacher headers and a 518 overdrive trans and out of the box at the track with zero tuning ran 11.6's

And it has power steering too. Car is a pure street car that can be driven anywhere, anytime. Car was raced through the exhaust and with the tires it runs on the street.

Lots of good ideas covered. My : Offset ground 440 crank in a B block/440 rods. this is 470 cubes & as you noted it is a better fit in an A body tho an RB is easily doable & the 3/4" higher deck on each end of the V ain't the end of the world for fitment. Headers or 68-70 HP manifolds or max wedge iron manifolds (flow good/heavy/pricey) are the biggest decision/problem area. Alum Source heads. No actual exp but I hear the stroked 360 (408) is a killer. It would weigh less but you still have a small big block cubewise. Noone that I have ever spoken with with a properly built/setup big block A body has ever regretted going that route

A big block A-body is really awesome but a bit more work and weight added to the front end of the car. Stumpy and Scott
made great points about big-inch small blocks, which 100 percent. It does make better sense to have for the weight distribution. And
the power can be made to rival the big-block. HP wise, a big block is a tad bit cheaper and they put out TRAINLOADS of torque. The small block does hold a big key factor - more
HP in rpm power. Combine the lighter weight of the engine in a A-body chassis, properly prepped and you can take down 90-95% of the competition (similarly equipped). Small-block underdogs (Mopar A-bodies) DO have the BIGGER TEETH for the competition. They just BITE a lot HARDER (off the line, of course!)

I went stroker small block. 418 ci, Eddy CNC'd heads, Air Gap intake, pump gas, tight 10" converter, 3.91 gear. Best of 11.26 at 119 with plenty more left in it. It's a beast in the low end torque department. Dyno'd at 485 hp at the rear wheels. Pop the hood and it looks like a stock 340 to the layman. It's the sleeper I've always wanted. Good luck with whatever decision you make.

Just my

Another vote for a big inch small block. With all the excellent parts available for the A engine these days they are above par with a stock cube big block without making your car a nose heavy pig. There are a ton of 360's in wrecking yards, add an economical stroker kit, a decent set of heads and enjoy. There are a lot of well sorted out small block combos on this site, take some notes and duplicate a proven combo.

Small block all the way. I have never seen the romance of a big block A body even though I love big blocks.
With the parts available today it just doesn't make sense to run a big block in an A-body.

Sheldon

Although you can make an RB engine as light as a stock LA engine, I'd stroke a small block. I met a guy a couple weekends back at the Goodguys Northwest Nationals with a beautiful 66 Satellite vert. Stroked 360. I believe he had 3.91 gears. The car goes 0-60 in under 4 seconds. For street driving you'd get great handling and acceleration like a scalded ape.

4.25 cranks are available for the SB now days and at 4.060 bore gives you 440 cubes. Spark plugs are way easier to change, headers fit better (no need to cut fenders), more efficent heads (better valve position, fast burn chambers, better plug location...) are easily available, rotating parts are way lighter, overall weight is a lot lighter where it matters... SB just makes more sense all around unless you are considering real awesome BB heads like a B1.

I have allways been a big block guy. But for my dart I built a stroker magnum and I am glad I went small block. The powerband with a stroker sb is amazing. You have to learn to take your foot out of it because they will not stop rpm-ing. Easy to work on, lots of room, makes big block guys shake their head ticked off when they see tail lights.

Easy to get to distributor. Nice to work on.

I'm building a B engine A body that I've been working on for a long time. If I was starting today it would be Gen 3 hemi all the way.

This 427 inch small block weighs 449 lbs with a super heavy 340 resto block. A stock block engine would be another 50 lbs lighter. It has the same power curve as an early Viper engine. It costs roughly the same to build a stroker small block as it does to build a stroker big block. A 451 or 471 big block will make a little more power than than a 427 inch SB, but the SB will weigh less and take up less space.

I'd go SB or Gen3 in an A body car these days. I don't see any reason to put a big block into a street driven A-body anymore. It was great idea 30 years ago but these days there are better options.

I was struggling with this same dilemma for the past couple of months, I have a lot of serious big block parts and nothing to put them in.

I just can't bring myself to cut the inner fender wells of my Valiant for a set of headers so I have decided to just go with a stroker small block, easier to work on and to me that is a plus.

Good Luck with what ever route you go, if it involves big blocks I have some good deals on parts, LOL!

Joey

I have a 440 in a 68 Dart. At the time I built it, that was about the only way to go. We didn't have all these stroker kits for small and big blocks. If you wanted power, you needed to stuff a big-block between the fenders. Now, today if I had the opportunity to do it all over again, I would go with a stoked small-block. You would save a lot of $$$ plus time and aggravation. Also it won't be front heavy. That's my $0.02.

This is the Swinger of a member on here.

The car has a late 70's 440, mild roller cam, 727 and 3.91's.

He can drive it anywhere and it's a torque monster! Traction is non existant even in second gear on the street.

He used a motorplate on the front and tti headers and it really works well. I was surprised as he plate doesn't shake the car at all. Very fun car with a cheap powertrain.

A subtle splash of color that sets the car off: