440 Engine Swap

MightyMats

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Good day everyone.

I was home from the middle-east on leave a few months ago and I managed to pull off an engine swap in my 67 Chrysler 300 during that time. My wife was nice enough to give me five days to work on my old junk. It took me three days to complete the rebuild of my transmission and full engine swap by myself. The rest of the days were spent breaking the engine in, rewiring the engine, fixing breaks, fuel leaks at the tank, and other small things.

I rebuilt a later model 727 with the larger stator bearing with some other trick parts. I was able to stuff more clutches in the transmission by using a different drum from a later transmission. I did not install a shift kit in the car regardless of what you see in the photos. It has some 5 pinion steel planets installed as well.

The Engine is a .030 over block, zero decked, ported heads, and stock stroke. I have a single plane on it right now because that's what I had laying around. I purchased an Edlebrock dual plane for it but that will be getting installed later alone with a 850 Holley w/ vacuum secondary's. It will be enough to spin the tires but still cruise good without overheating which is all I really want for this boat.

It also has a massive duel core aluminum radiator with two electric fans and an aftermarket derale oil cooler mounted to the grill to keep the temps down. I used to overheat in traffic in Massachusetts on 95 in the summer when it was 93 degrees. So anything I can do to keep this ole' girl cool is good in my eyes.

I had a spare engine rebuilt at a local shop while I was away so all I had to do was swap it in.

Removing the engine and transmission took me 8 hours total, the 727 rebuild took me around 12 hours to complete. I went to bed at 3am that night. Then the following day I woke up at 9am and stuffed it all back in with a few choice words.

I broke the engine in and drove it around the block. The alternator died and then it experienced an ignition problem. I could not diagnose it before I had to fly back here to the land of the sand. Either way it is not happy and does not want to RPM, idle, and misfires. The cam on the distributor was slightly worn but i still had enough of a gap although maybe the points were just toast from trying to get the thing started the first time. Either way it now has a new probillet distributor and MSD waiting for me when I get home. The points are going in the trash.

I managed to stop and take photos of the entire debacle throughout the job. It was a mad dash to get the job done, there was no "not finishing" the work. It had to get done period. I was happy to go back to my wife and apartment after 5 days. Even when I am on vacation I have to work.

Anyways, here are the photos. I hope you Enjoy.
 
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Photos

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The original 67' 440 block may get rebuilt when I go home again at the end of November for another project. For that I am thinking about another .030 over engine, stock crank, stock rods, flat top pistons, ported 516 heads (that's what I have laying around), and a .560 lift cam. Eventually I would like to stuff that into an old 60's D200 crew cab but unfortunately with the way prices of old iron is these days I don't know if that will ever happen. Either way it wont be for at least another decade. I need to transition out of my current job working for uncle sam, buy a house, and at least have one kid that is going to ruin me financially.

I will try to remember to update this thread when I go home next month. The 300 will be getting TTI headers, MSD ignition overhaul, an exhaust, and I may finally get around to running all new brake lines and other misc things. I am having a hard time trying to justify buying TTI's full exhaust system. In truth I can buy everything I need to build an exhaust for under $600, TIG weld it all together, and paint it. My only problem is that I have time constraint issues due to my job and I am never home, so when I am it seems that everyone wants me to do x, y, and z when all I want to do is get grease under my nails and flash burn on my arms.

Exhausts are one of my favorite things to fabricate right next to roll cages. So I might just do it myself, sorry TTI. But I will see what I decide, either way I need to place my order soon.
 
Everything looks really nice, great pics and thanks for sharing! It's difficult to get all the things you want to do done and see everyone on leave, that's for sure! Keep up the great work and best of luck :usflag:
 
The original 67' 440 block may get rebuilt when I go home again at the end of November for another project. For that I am thinking about another .030 over engine, stock crank, stock rods, flat top pistons, ported 516 heads (that's what I have laying around), and a .560 lift cam. Eventually I would like to stuff that into an old 60's D200 crew cab but unfortunately with the way prices of old iron is these days I don't know if that will ever happen. Either way it wont be for at least another decade. I need to transition out of my current job working for uncle sam, buy a house, and at least have one kid that is going to ruin me financially.

I will try to remember to update this thread when I go home next month. The 300 will be getting TTI headers, MSD ignition overhaul, an exhaust, and I may finally get around to running all new brake lines and other misc things. I am having a hard time trying to justify buying TTI's full exhaust system. In truth I can buy everything I need to build an exhaust for under $600, TIG weld it all together, and paint it. My only problem is that I have time constraint issues due to my job and I am never home, so when I am it seems that everyone wants me to do x, y, and z when all I want to do is get grease under my nails and flash burn on my arms.

Exhausts are one of my favorite things to fabricate right next to roll cages. So I might just do it myself, sorry TTI. But I will see what I decide, either way I need to place my order soon.

Dayum! You are an animal! I did the same swap you just did. It took me six months. . .
 
First, thanks for your service.

You're making me remember back when I had ambition like that. Pull the car in the shop and pull it back out finished with no fanfare or extended drama. I miss being able to do that when I wanted to.

Anyway, pull the valve covers and check valve lift etc. I'm reading about way too many lifter failures lately. Seems there's a lifter face hardness problem along with a bleed down issue. Kind of a double whammy.

The lifter face issue is self explanatory, but the bleed down issue can screw up the valve train.

Hopefully, its ignition as you are looking at, but its a few minutes to pull valve covers.
 
Must be nice to be young with energy! Congrats. And nice 67 300 with a great color.

One thing that may help your car run better. Remove the fuel line hose that is zip tied to the heater hoses and run a metal line by itself. And that glass screw together filter is a fire waiting to happen, the solid metal canister filters are very safe and fool proof, it won’t melt form heat or fire..

If it’s that hot where you live it doesn’t need that heat in the fuel.

also those heater hoses need to be moved away from the exhaust manifold.
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Dayum! You are an animal! I did the same swap you just did. It took me six months. . .

Thank you, I will be honest though. It was a few days of calling it quits at 3am.


I believe I used a glass filter because I wanted to make sure I was not sucking any rust from the tank into my new engine. No like I could do anything about that anyway now that I think about it. I will make sure i get that changed out.
 
I believe I used a glass filter because I wanted to make sure I was not sucking any rust from the tank into my new engine. No like I could do anything about that anyway now that I think about it. I will make sure i get that changed out.
Get a clear plastic one, at least the are a solid piece. Mount it right out of the fuel pump then, so the leak and fire is down low not above the hot exhaust manifold.
 
Nice build! What engine paint did you use?

It was VHT Chrysler blue over a VHT white primer base. I went over all of it with a red scuff pad to get all the crud off and prep the parts. Hit it with some paint prep degreaser and sprayed two coats. I am pretty happy with the results. It held up good to the installation. I got some greasy fingerprints on it and they wiped right off. No clear was used.
 
I was in the Marines, part of the Navy 1984-1988 active duty.

Semper Fi, thank you for your service. We transported y'all at my first command onboard an amphib. That was fun. I am coming up on a decade here in a few months. It has been a wild ride for sure. Currently awaiting to see where uncle Sam will give me orders to next. Fingers crossed it is not California. I will take another overseas tour before i go back.
 
I was stationed in California. Camp Pendleton. Even then it was impossible to afford on an enlisted Marine's salary. Can't imagine what it's like for a Marine or Sailor there now.
 
It is almost that time again!

I am going back home in a few days for another month. WOOOHOOOO! I can't wait to get home! I've been working 12 hour shifts and it has been brutal!

I'll have to remember to update this thread. I have a ton of parts going on the old girl. New shocks, Tie rod ends, MSD ignition system, TTI headers, full stainless custom exhaust I will have to TIG together! I can't wait to thrash on the car again!

But first I get to see the wife and pup. We are taking a trip down to florida so she can get away from work too. We were supposed to go to disney but we cancelled that due to covid. Thursday can't come soon enough.
 
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