440 cast or steel crank

I need to know how to tell if the crankshaft in my 440 is cast or steel while it's still in the car? Thanks for the help.

If the motor is stock and has never had any work done on it then you can look on the side of the block for the casting date, if it was cast after 08-30-73 it will be a 1974 motor and it should have a cast crankshaft with the oddball looking front balancer that says for cast crankshafts only
Mopar used forged steel crankshafts in some of the 1973 440 motor home motors and some cast crankshafts.
The word is that Mopar switch to cast crankshafts in all the passenger car motors in 1972 or 1973, not truly so on the BB stick shift pickup truck motors
What are your concerns on wanting to know about this?

Forged crank has a thick parting line. Cast cranks have a sharp parting line.

thin dampener... forged
thick dampener... cast


( on this pic the thick one is very lates cast called "bullet" kind, but earliers cast pieces are straight about same thickness



on TC
unweightened TC forged
weighted TC, cast

As said the dampener should tell you but worse case you could run a borescope up in the oil pan drain hole & directly eyeball the crank parting lines.

I'm going to do a 4-speed conversion and need to know which crank is in the engine before I order the kit. The engine was in the car when I bought it. It is not the original engine.Thanks for the info.

Thanks a ton, I will eyeball the dampener.

Great idea. Thanks

Thanks, I knew to check that when the crank was out of the engine, but this engine is still in the car.

If it breaks above 600 hp, it's a cast crank. LOL

^^^ Ding ding ding I (do) believe we have a winna

You should make absolutely sure the flywheel and balancer are match for the motors type of balancing
I bought a 1976 400 short block out of a 1976 dodge 3/4 ton pickup, it had a forged steel crank and a thin balancer
I didn't get to see the flywheel so I'm not sure if that motor was internally balanced or not The balancer had a bunch of holes drill in the back side of the outer ring, all on one side