440 help needed

Mopar-Man said
I have an older race 440 motor I have swapped into a hot street '74 Duster. The problem is the 440 has 11.5:1 pistons and angle milled iron heads. I guestimate the CR to be 12.5-13:1. It has a nasty Crane solid cam that specs out at 324 duration (forgot the @ .050 sorry!) and .620 lift, it is a single pattern. It idles at 1500. When I rev it it is like an on/off switch. I have a 4,000 stall JW converter behind it. Now for the questions. *** HOW *** do I get this thing to run on pump gas (93 octane)?

I just bought TRW forged flat tops with flycuts, LY rods, and a forged crank all balanced. I am thinking with the milled heads it will be 10.5:1. Is this an accurate guess? What solid cam should I run to keep cylinder pressure down or with the loose converter do I need to worry about it? Oh, I have 3.91 gears and the car weighs 3400lbs.

Thanks for ANY suggestions!

I think your quest to tone this beast down is probably correct for a street application on 91-92 octane. I wouldn't go any higher that 10.5 and personally would shoot for 10 to 1. With the TRW flat tops you're going to have to mock things up and then measure your CR cuss you can't say whether the block deck has been altered and if so by how much. At that time, using your shaved heads and a .060" head gasket, clay 1 piston on each bank to determine your final piston to valve head clearance and if you've got at least .060-.080" clearance I'd go with this cam.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CCA-21-248-4/

You may even want to consider toning down the converter to a 3000 RPM stall, again for the street.

Terry