Motorhome 440's... factory seconds?

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Gotta bee heresay from a MoPar hater,...I worked in a SoCal Dodge/Winnebago dealership back inna early eighties,....had 8 bays just for motor homes, and they were always full of new and old road warriors,...never heard of this before,...like most, I doubt Mother MoPars would put seconds in these rigs.

Saw alot of motor jobs, mostly on the ones with sbc 350's or 454's,...rarely did I see a 440 come out,...almost never saw a 413 come out,...but we did put in a fair amount of 360's in both motor homes and CHP Diplomats/Fury's,....back then It was the same ReMan short block assembly.

Most motor home mills were replaced cause they would run for hours/miles and then sit for months,...then run long term again without so much as a dipstick check,...ususally resulting in spun bearings on the big blocks and small blocks with extra holes inna side of em,...(CHP diplomats/fury's were good for rod vs.block issues, those guys were just brutal on those cars.)

Seen alot of guys grab up the motors(that weren't warrenty returns) and use em for street rods,...can't tell ya how many perfectly usable 350/4 bolt blocks I tossed,...
 
Blocks that were remachined for some reason got a marking like a surfers cross or other no matter what the application would be. Majority of motor home engines were actually a 413 rather than 440.
 
RedFish said:
Blocks that were remachined for some reason got a marking like a surfers cross or other no matter what the application would be. Majority of motor home engines were actually a 413 rather than 440.
Click to expand...

That would be a "maltese cross"
 
A big rod 440 hp engine i had in my super bee had a maltese cross and an X on the pad.
When i opened it up, the crank was .010 under on the rods and one of the mains was .002 undersize as well. I don't think the engine was opened up until i did it.
I never had a problem with it after i re ringed and re bearinged it all the same way it came apart, and i drove the car pretty hard for years. It always had good oil pressure etc.
 
My dad and cousin went to rebuildin the 400 that was in his 74 Adventurer SE and didn't bother to check the numbers on the rods and caps because usually they were all numbered from the factory. Motor had never been into that they noticed.

Well.... when they went to put it back together, they noticed something whacko with the rods.
Instead of numbers, they were marked with a maltese cross, spaid, heart, diamond, club, etc, etc!! No numbers!!!

Ended up just putting whatever in whatever hole. Sounded like a diesel when they first started it from the amount of rod chatter.

Been driving it since with no problems and that was in 2003 or 4.
 
Alot of motorhome engines were factory reconditioned industrial blocks... there is a service bullitin that exists on the web somewhere stating this...

I have a 30,000 mile 72 440 out of a "one owner" 76 motorhome that has never been touched since new... no repairs!!!

This 440 has helicoils in both heads and the valve springs are random with turquoise and blue overspray...and the block being 4 years of build date...

The motorhome was a winnebago.
 
I run a junk yard here in nocal and I've disasembled hundreds of mopars in the last 40 years it's all pig do do
 
I love knowledge like this. I remember a friend that worked for Chrysler as one of guys that helped dealer techs problem solve over the phone. One of the calls he got was that all of the then just introduced fuel injected cars (this was in '84) he had problems with were silver. So only the cars painted silver has problems? Yep! So watch out for Mopars that have been re-painted!
 
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