440 Stroker Assembly Ideas

mikedrini

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Happy Birthday 'Merica. I don't care if it's the 3rd. Like any good American on their birthday, we show up early, kick names, take *** and we're gone before anyone knows what hit 'em. Commando1, I am looking at you when I say that.

Now, onto the real reason I am posting in here, my stroker build. I have the short block assembled for my 505 Stroker Kit courtesy of 440source with the dished pistons and need some suggestions on where to go from here. It's a long, arduous, costly journey, but I want to do this right the first time. The fact is, I have been all over the map with what what I want-typical. Ultimately, I think I want to keep the freeway-ibility of my 64 New Yorker, but add as much oompf as possible stoplight to stoplight on 93 octane.

Although I don't know the rear gears (I don't see the tag on the housing), I'm guessing it's 2.74 given what my factory manual says in regards to my 742 section. Stock 727 tranny, but up top is now where I need some direction from you sage-like, wunderkinds.

Cam-thinking something in the 1500-6000 range? Is 2000 too high for a baseline? I feel like once I narrow down the cam, the rest tends to fall into place. I know hydraulic rollers are expensive, but wouldn't mind shelling our for one.
Intake-thinking Edelbrock RPM, but have heard good things about the Torker and Trickflow ones.
Carb-thinking Holly/Demon 750-850?
Heads-REALLY like the appeal of the Trickflow 270's, but it sounds as though the 240's are the better option (assuming money is no issue)? Not sure which ratio rockers 1.5/1.6.

Fact is I am not taking this thing to a drag strip (at least not as a competitor) and I do some occasional highway driving here in NH. Appreciate the help as always lads.

Mike

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Happy Birthday guys!
 
Look to my thread on my engine rebuild, it was built for a 72 C body, but for 3.50 or so gears. It is 505 Rebuild in the Engine and Drivetrain section of the forums. 505 Build
 
My 66 new yorker 505/512 build. Post #3

My car is 3:23 geared and has ferocious bottom end and breathtaking midrange, and pulls to 6300 like a rocket. It has power brakes, runs on pump premium, dosent overheat, starts easily, and i drive it daily, year round, even in the rain and snow, i do not put it in my garage. And after driving it to the drag strip 80 miles away at 75 miles per hour, it runs 12.30@110 mph

505 ci Build
 
Have you thought about asking 440 Source that question and seeing what they have to say and recommend? You'll get a better answer then here. Good Luck
 
Unless you want to spend a bunch of money fitting keyed lifters, stay with a flat tappet cam for street use. Most of the after market roller cams have cross linked lifters and the cross links break. That turns the roller sideways and cam is wiped instantly. The are a couple of threads about this happening with comp cams on this site. Roller cams are fine for strip use or in engines that had them as a OEM feature. They are nothing but trouble otherwise. On 93 octane, you should probably plan on staying at a compression ratio of 9.5, so plan you choice of heads and head gaskets accordingly.

As far as the choice in rpm range for the cam. A 505 is going to need plenty of feeding. You need to ask your self at what rpm range you want peak torque for starters. Once you have the cam dialed in for you performance range, you need to figure out how you are going to get rid of all that extra exhaust, a lot of factory high performance manifolds have been cracked because of the extra load. A cam with a 2k or more rpm range on the low end is going to need a higher stall speed for the torque convertor. If you are going to do that, you should plan on a transmission valve body upgrade as well. This would be a good time to do the high performance clutch packs and bands while you are at it.

A fan shroud and a 26" max cool style radiator are also going to be a must as well as a high flow t-stat. High volume water pump and housing should also be installed. You should also plan on installing a windage tray that is compatible with the stroker and a high volume oil pump.

Just a few things to think about.

Dave
 
Unless you want to spend a bunch of money fitting keyed lifters, stay with a flat tappet cam for street use. Most of the after market roller cams have cross linked lifters and the cross links break. That turns the roller sideways and cam is wiped instantly. The are a couple of threads about this happening with comp cams on this site. Roller cams are fine for strip use or in engines that had them as a OEM feature. They are nothing but trouble otherwise. On 93 octane, you should probably plan on staying at a compression ratio of 9.5, so plan you choice of heads and head gaskets accordingly.

As far as the choice in rpm range for the cam. A 505 is going to need plenty of feeding. You need to ask your self at what rpm range you want peak torque for starters. Once you have the cam dialed in for you performance range, you need to figure out how you are going to get rid of all that extra exhaust, a lot of factory high performance manifolds have been cracked because of the extra load. A cam with a 2k or more rpm range on the low end is going to need a higher stall speed for the torque convertor. If you are going to do that, you should plan on a transmission valve body upgrade as well. This would be a good time to do the high performance clutch packs and bands while you are at it.

A fan shroud and a 26" max cool style radiator are also going to be a must as well as a high flow t-stat. High volume water pump and housing should also be installed. You should also plan on installing a windage tray that is compatible with the stroker and a high volume oil pump.

Just a few things to think about.

Dave
This happed to me, however i disagree with the statement about roller cams being for strip only. I put a different roller cam in mine with different design lifters and beat the crap out if it with no problems. The problem was with comp cams design, not hydraulic roller lifters and cams in general.
 
mikedrini are you going to run headers or manifolds? I am researching my 512 build and want to keep 3.23 highway gears and power brakes etc. If you are going to run cast iron exhaust manifolds and have logs consider maybe a set of HP cast iron manifolds. They are a little bit better than logs and look pretty cool too. I will be running those and as a result am a bit worried about having too much cam,too much intake manifold,too much head flow and too much carb that the exhaust manifolds will be unable to flow enough to make these up stream parts work correctly because of the inherent restriction of cast iron manifolds compared to headers. To be efficient you should decide what your exhaust strategy is and work backwards from there cause you can have a big straw to blow in on one end but it is only as good as the size of the other end.
 
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mikedrini are you going to run headers or manifolds? I am researching my 512 build and want to keep 3.23 highway gears and power brakes etc. If you are going to run cast iron exhaust manifolds and have logs consider maybe a set of HP cast iron manifolds. They are a little bit better than logs and look pretty cool too. I will be running those and as a result am a bit worried about having too much cam,too much intake manifold,too much head flow and too much carb that the exhaust manifolds will be unable to flow enough to make these up stream parts work correctly because of the inherent restriction of cast iron manifolds compared to headers. To be efficient you should decide what your exhaust strategy is and work backwards from there cause you can have a big straw to blow in on one end but it is only as good as the size of the other end.
I initially ran the stock log manifolds on my car, with the xr280HR hydraulic roller cam, aluminum heads, it ran great, i think it also went 13.50 with the manifolds if i remember correctly.
 
I initially ran the stock log manifolds on my car, with the xr280HR hydraulic roller cam, aluminum heads, it ran great, i think it also went 13.50 with the manifolds if i remember correctly.

Did you ever run HP's mev? I am assuming you run headers now.
 
Did you ever run HP's mev? I am assuming you run headers now.
I did not, i researched them extensively and talked to people who ran them, the consensus was that the HP manifolds are expensive, do not produce measurable power gains, cook the valve cover gaskets and all of them eventually crack. I looked into porting and exude-honing the log manifolds, but found that to be expensive and produce tiny, if any gains. I would still be running the log manifolds, but the car was initially faster than i thought it would be, and I could not resist trying to get in into the 11's so i installed the full TTI system. I also ran the stock single snorkel air cleaner, i have noticed no difference between that and a full k&n air cleaner. Hood clearance is very tight with both air cleaners, they both were smushed into the hood blanket.
 
What kind of rocker arms you using and ratio?
 
It would be an interesting change of pace to see a max torque build.
A guy could start with a stroker bottom end, use TF 240s that flow so well in the lower to mid range, keep CR to about 10:1 and have one of the cam wizards grind a split pattern cam with extended exhaust duration to use logs.
If a guy could keep the RPMS on the lower side, he could use a stock or stockish convertor, fuel system, rear gears maybe in the 3.23 range, and something like a Performer RPM intake and a 750-800 CFM carb.
It wouldn't be out of reality to get 600-650 FT LBS of torque, and let HP fall where it may.
THAT would be interesting to watch.
(disclaimer, yours truly did NOT follow this build recipe, and it cost a lot of money to upgrade all the other systems, the old 509 cammed 440 with 906 heads was cheap and fun).
 
This is exactly what I told Dwayne Porter to help me with. When I’m done, should be 650 ft lbs of torque. Never even discussed hp. See build above.
 
It would be an interesting change of pace to see a max torque build.
A guy could start with a stroker bottom end, use TF 240s that flow so well in the lower to mid range, keep CR to about 10:1 and have one of the cam wizards grind a split pattern cam with extended exhaust duration to use logs.
If a guy could keep the RPMS on the lower side, he could use a stock or stockish convertor, fuel system, rear gears maybe in the 3.23 range, and something like a Performer RPM intake and a 750-800 CFM carb.
It wouldn't be out of reality to get 600-650 FT LBS of torque, and let HP fall where it may.
THAT would be interesting to watch.

Well here I am. That's what I was speaking of with my worry of over camming ,carbing,to big an intake etc with HP exhaust manifolds. I have spoken a few times to 440 Source and made it very clear when speaking I was using HP exhaust manifolds. They said with the 512 stroker bottom end 10.3 to 1 ratio with the stealth heads and their roller cam which is the exact same one Mev used [a Comp roller Hydraulic and the smallest 440 Source offers] it will make 600 ft lbs no problem and 500 to 550 hp. Reason I am blabbing about it now is I have to pull the trigger on the parts to use.
I know Mev said he really liked the Comp roller cam with his log manifold exhaust until it puked. I am thinking maybe if the cam is such a good grind for this application I should buy this cam and use better roller lifters like Morel. Also I may use the 440 Source rockers too.
 
Well here I am. That's what I was speaking of with my worry of over camming ,carbing,to big an intake etc with HP exhaust manifolds. I have spoken a few times to 440 Source and made it very clear when speaking I was using HP exhaust manifolds. They said with the 512 stroker bottom end 10.3 to 1 ratio with the stealth heads and their roller cam which is the exact same one Mev used [a Comp roller Hydraulic and the smallest 440 Source offers] it will make 600 ft lbs no problem and 500 to 550 hp. Reason I am blabbing about it now is I have to pull the trigger on the parts to use.
I know Mev said he really liked the Comp roller cam with his log manifold exhaust until it puked. I am thinking maybe if the cam is such a good grind for this application I should buy this cam and use better roller lifters like Morel. Also I may use the 440 Source rockers too.
That sounds like a good recipe. I asked around a lot about cam grinds before settling on an off the shelf Howards Cam. There was quite a bit of different recommendations, that cam your looking at seems to be a good choice though.
Build the car to run stout without extreme gears and cam so it is fun to drive, and keep the reliability intact.
 
That sounds like a good recipe. I asked around a lot about cam grinds before settling on an off the shelf Howards Cam. There was quite a bit of different recommendations, that cam your looking at seems to be a good choice though.
Build the car to run stout without extreme gears and cam so it is fun to drive, and keep the reliability intact.
I have no idea how much torque my car makes, but it is absolutely ferocious. It is extremely traction limited .....even with drag radials....even with cal tracs, and with my detroit locker. like I have said, it idles well, starts easily, does not overheat, runs on pump gas. And it weights 4767 lbs with me sitting in it and half a tank of gas. The midrange and top end is, to put it lightly, breathtaking I have a straub custom cam and morrel lifters, i have posted the specs here before.
 
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