Build me an Alky 440
A 440 should be able to get into the 10's without alcohol or something is very wrong. As for the 440 you will need at least 10.0:1 compression with a carb and 11.5:1 to 12.5:1 with injection as the amount of fuel that the injection shoots in will need all the help that it can get to burn that amount of fuel. The camshafts are very different also to make the engine perform and they vary from carburated to injection. Because of the fact that alcohol weigh's 1 lbs more than gas per gal. or there about's it will take a larger jet or smaller pill to compensate for the heavier fuel as it moves slower, than the lighter weight fuel. But this is the same with race gas as the higher the octane the slower it burns and moves, thus the reason for higher volume pumps and larger fuel lines. Also if injected the fuel tank will have to be mounted in the front of the vehicle and a minimum fuel line of #12 to feed the belt driven pump with 2 returns. The simplest injection system is the ron's injection, the hardest is the enderle or the hilborn systems. As for the camshaft you will need to have the centerline moved back to 112 or more up to 116 you can use a 4* advance as long as the centerline is where it should be and this will help the cylinder pressure out greatly. In my alcohol engines I generally like to have 180 - 210 psi in the cylinders. A flat top piston works the best with a good set of cylinder heads and alcohol likes heat so either iron or a set of thick decked aluminum heads are best. The rods and crank and pistons are the generally used type's and it's the preference of the builder as what he/she prefers. I have used cast cranks and stock rods and cast pistons in my engine without any problems, and this is why I say that it's up the end user to make his or her decision. I just wanted to get out as cheap as I could and make it work, alcohol is easier on engine parts than gas is so this helps out on the parts selction. This is what I run in one of my alcohol engines
400 block .020
pistons are .017 out of the deck
block is square decked
comp cams 280H
stock rods and crank
balanced to +/- 0
452 heads w/2.08/1.74 valves
heads gasket matched and bowl blended
heads flow 318 int./ 242 Exh.
2" hedders hooker's fenderwell's
M-1 Intake without modifications
1.6 roller rockers
chrome moly pushrods
hardened shafts
750 alcohol carb with 103 jet size
9475 list # carb holley
Then the rest is in machining and where the clearence tolerence is set. This engine is a copy of a 383HP roadrunner engine and a alcohol carb. The engine makes 535 HP and 507 ft. lbs. of torque. I have run a 7.07 @ 102 1/8 mi. with this engine in a 2865 lbs car, the engine can be built for $4,500.00 or less depending on what the end user uses for parts.
So a 440 should be able to easily get in the 10's as the stroke is .370 more, we have a few around here that run in the mid 9's so it isn't real hard to do.