440 fitment in my 73 (originally a slant 6 car)

[73-Charger-Canada]

Hello all,
I'm currently building a 440 for my 73 charger. The car was originally a slant 6, and the guy before me swapped the K-member and put a small block in it. SO I know I need the Schumacher conversion mounts first off, and that may put the engine slightly higher than a stock charger 440 mag would have been. With all this being said, do you think the 440 will fit under the stock flat hood? I don't plan on running a tall intake or going wild with carb spacers/air cleaner spacers. Just wondering if I should be looking into a bulge hood, or getting another flat hood that I could cut a hole in and run some kind of shaker/bird catcher.

Two other things concern me: exhaust and drive-line.

With the big block, can I use stock manifolds to mate up with the exhaust pipes that were there for the small block? I know this will take some figuring out and being hands on, but I just wondered if anyone had already tried this. I wouldn't worry if the exhaust was junk, but it's mint so I'd like to use whats there (Minus the ridiculous Wal-Mart exhaust tips the PO put on there...yikes).

Finally, the trans that's going in is an A833 with OD (this was previously in the car). I have the driveshaft that came with the car, and this worked with the a833 and the 360 the guy had in the car. I'm wondering if the 440 and the different bell housing will change the position of the trans such that the driveshaft will no longer be the correct length/angle. I know that when it all together I'll need to measure it up and check the angles, I'm just trying to get a heads up from the pros! Thanks guys, looking forward to hearing from you.

Ian

[73charger440]

If your going from a small block to a big block transmission the bell housing is a different size but as for your other questions I'm figuring this out myself. I'll be putting my 440 this spring when the temp goes back up need to paint the firewall. If I figure out anything ill let you know and you can do the same

[RallyeMike]

With the Schumacher mounts and a low-rise intake, the flat hood will be fine.

The 440 sets the exhaust manifolds much farther apart than a small block, so it is not going to mate up. That doesnt mean that you can't bend up and weld some pipe to make it transition, but are the existing pipes big enough diameter for you?

An A833 OD never came in a 72 Charger, but if stock mounting brackets were used, the conversion from small to big block should not alter the length of the driveshaft. As far as the angle goes, I'm convinced that the Schumacher mounts change the angles a little bit, so you'll just have to check them and adjust if necessary.

[73-Charger-Canada]

thanks for the input guys! I've got the 440 almost built up, built the short block last week and will have the heads together by the end of the week. I ended up going with the 911 springs. I checked the retainers though, they seem to be too small diameter to use with the new springs. I went with the 748 comp retainers. So hopefully the engine is going in with this weekend! I got the mounts from Schumacher so the engine should line up right. I'll see how the exhaust lines up, but I'm not against setting up a whole new system with headers and dual straight pipes 

[73charger440]

Let me know how it goes, I'm going to be doing the same thing this spring