440 pistons Help
Ok now that my piston questions are answered. Im trying to utilize as many stock parts as I can.
Im running a stock cast crank. What needs to be done to make this work? I am changing out pistons to the L2355s. Using stock rods.
Whats the best way to go about this. Build combo should put me at or close to 500hp. I have lots of questions about this but dont know how to ask.
whats better internally or externally balanced?
Can a cast crank be balanced either way?
If its able to be intrenally balanced do I need a new damper?
Will the old damper work?
There may be lots of questions im not asking thats because as of now i dont know of any other variables if Im forgetting something let me know.
Ok, heres the deal, your goal is 500hp, the rods should be re-sized with ARP bolts, but by the time you do the machineing & bolts on the stock rods, for say another 100.00, you can get a nice I been rod thats much stronger, now i'm not saying the stock rods won't hold up, i ran stock rods with ARP wave-lok bolts with 520hp, had about 250 passes on them, never an issue, but if i ever build another BB at that HP level, it'll get new rods. Now this was on a lowdeck 400 with 440 internals, the crank throws were cut way down, & the pistons were ross light weights, so the rotating mass was much lighter, i'm sure thats why the rods survived.
For the balanceing, just have it externally done, use the same balancer, get a B&M flexplate for the build, take it all to the machine shop & let them take care of it, most machine shops send there stuff off for balanceing anyways, heres a tip, if you don't pull it up passed 6000, you might not have to balance it running the TRWs, because they were a stock type "weighted" forged replacement piston, so there just about the same weight as the stockers, running the B&M flexplate allows you to run a "neutral" balanced converter, no weights!! But if you really want a long lasting engine, have it balanced, another option is finding a steel crank & matching balancer, then its alot easier.
I beleive there were 440s that came with cast cranks that were internally balanced, i think this was around 71-72.