Terry, you've been a lot of help in this thread, thanks! I'm a little confused by the above statement though. The stock crank and rods in my '72 440 shold be cast iron, right? Was the rotating assembly forged from the factory?:dontknow:
Well no Chris, the cast cranks didn't come into vogue until 73, by then Mopar had taken all the balls and HP out of these engines and forged guts weren't required, but I'm assuming that your bottom end is forged. Like I said we gotto varify what you got there before deciding what the engine can safely be built to and in the link below is a picture that shows both cranks and the difference is plain as day. Why don't you start off by posting the casting number off the side of the block and drop the pan and take some pictures of the crank and rods. Some people will also go by the crank balancer as the unit for the cast cranks is stinking wide compared to the forged unit but again you're assuming the the builder before ya got it right. I've found cast crank balancers on forged cranks before as I assume a few others here have. Also at the front of the engine, infront and slightly inboard of the drivers side head you'll see a 2"x1" flat area of the block, it's right across from the distributor. There should be a stamping there that starts with an initial then 440. For a 72 it should be H440