440 Piston Recommendations

[mr gtx]

maybe your heads will come in closer to 86 cc. your block and heads should be milled to run the .017 head gasket. my 1965 L was faster than the 300H I rode in. when he kicked in the 2x4 you could hear the air going into the carbs but did not accelerate very fast.

 

[JimmyG]

It occurs to me that fuel is getting less friendly towards our big blocks, and expensive in the higher octane,...so, grab a set of the old closed heads off of a 361/413. Machine the valve size to the larger valves, use the shim gasket, dual exhaust, an 800-850 carb (I used Edelbrock), 36 degrees of distributor total timing, and hang on! I have used this exact combination with great results. Not too expensive, not hard to find, and not hard to do. Enjoy!

 

[wyrmrider]

I helped design the MT and now Icon pistons the are the only way to go
mock it up to get tight quench like .030 035 with your milling, decking and gasket selection
measure twice cut once


6 pack pistons with a wedge 915 head will most likely give you too much compression unless you D Dish the piston liuke the TRW "Turbo" chev piston
I've do this to get 9 9.5 with .030 quench

for street use in a heavy car, stock gears and converter get Mike Jones motorhome ccam or similar from Howards 256 @006 205 @.050 big at 200 about 305 lobe liftexhaust lobe and LCA depends on your exhaust system If you do not know let Mike pick it
properly done the above combocuts the exhaust temp by 800degrees in a motorhome or cordoba

 

[Darby]

Your 440 will be really close to what I built several years ago. I'm not concerned about driving my car at over 6000 feet though. Mine started as a low compression 440 with a cast crank and 902 heads. I went with Ross Pistons, part #437RB (flat top .030 over). I don't think they're available anymore. The stock rods (pictured) are polished with ARP bolts. The machine shop had to remove just over a 1/2 pound to balance the steel crank I had for it. I also used the Comp Cams EX268H (part #21-223-4). I liked the 1600 to 5800 rpm operating range because 70 mph is 1950 rpms (according to the Tremic website with all my numbers plugged in). I have several sets of heads, but I cleaned up the ports in the 902s because of the induction hardened seats. On the dyno it did 450 hp and 530 tq. The torque hits 500 at 2700 rpms which is great for our heavy cars. We'll see how long the Tremic holds up. I wanted the compression to be in the high 9s to 10 because of fuel quality, I don't remember what it ended up at. On the dyno we started with regular gas and after several pulls and tuning, we switched to super unleaded. The egt's went up a little but the numbers were the same. We could have given it more timing, but I was happy with the numbers and thought staying concervitve would be best. If you want to hear what your engine will probably sound like, the video is attached. I'm running a Sniper 2 w/Hyperspark - it will adjust a/f ratio if I do drive it at high altitudes or add nitrous (I already have the kit, but not sure at this time if I want to use it. I don't think I'll need it). I'm hoping to have it finished in the spring, I've only put about 10 miles or so on it. It pulls hard, but will be much better after dyno tuning the Sniper when it's finished. Good luck with your build!!!

 

[mr gtx]

D Dish the piston

only way to go with 516 or 915 heads