question about crank and pistons for 440 stroker

[hard-charger]

hi everyone! i have a 440 engine in my 69 charger.  i got from a friend for a good price. it had like 20 miles on it. brand new flattop pistons, and new rods. but then  I took a ride in a mopar with a stroker, 493 or something, and hell......im in love   my question is: what would i need to make my motor a stroker? i herd my friend say he had stock rods. but he doesnt know about the pistons.
would i be able to use the rods and flatop pistons i got now, and intstall a 4.15 crank with my exsisting assembly?  if it is possable is the compression gonna be outta control?  id like it to be around 10.5.1.  am i gonna have a piston to valve clearence issue? 
gotta admit im retarded on this subject. never built a stroker.  ohh ya...and im poor
id like to use as much of the stuff i have, if at all possable. its brand new.  mabey buy a new crank and main barings for it.  i think the rods will work, from what ive herd.  but not sure about the pistons. 
any advice?

[andyf]

You would need new pistons but there is a good chance you could re-use your existing rods.  It just depends what rods you have in there at the moment.  Take a look at www.manciniracing.com or www.440source.com for some ideas on stroker kits and prices.

It might be cheaper and easier for you to put some Edelbrock heads on your 440.  Those will add some power and you won't have to pull the motor out of the car.

[Mike DC]

   
If you're gonna go to 500 cubes, then you might as well consider the Eddy heads as part of the buy-in price.  The stock heads are really too small for a 440 to start with (just think of how perfectly they're suited to 383s), so putting them onto 500 inches is hopeless. 

Oh yeah, the motor will fire up and run fine with stock heads.  But you already paid for the crank & pistons, and you're still paying for the extra gas . . . might as well be getting the other half of the power that those stock heads are choking off.

Eddy heads would be good.  Indy EZ's would probably be even better.

 

[hard-charger]

ya..im saving money for the heads.  hopefully soon

[andyf]

 On my 432 inch short block the EZ heads made about 80 hp more than the Eddy heads BUT they moved the torque peak up to 6000 rpm.  That is way up there for a street motor.  A set of CNC ported Eddy heads would probably be the perfect call for a 500 inch street motor.

[hard-charger]

80 more hp than eddys!  damn!  i did some looking around, and the indy website said that ez heads were for A bodies or something.  do they work well on 69 chargers with 440 engines? will thay have header clearence issues? and they cost more than eddys.
but if thay rock that much harder out of the box, then hell ill save a couple hundred and three hundred.....five hundred more??  are they that much more? damn!
i rarely dive my car on the street.  its more strip than street. powerband at 6 sound good to me.
did you have any aditional work an the heads done?

[firefighter3931]

Don't get too caught up in the horsepower game....bigger hp numbers don't necessarily translate into a faster car.  If you re-read Andy's post you'll notice that the torque peak came in at 6k....not the hp peak. So basicly to run a head like this on a 440 ci combo you'd need a stallspeed of 6000+ rpm and shiftpoints approaching 7500-8000. To make that work you'd need some pretty deep gears in the 5.13 range. Factor in the suspension upgrades as well as the parts in the engine to allow it to live at those rpms and now you're paying a big price for those extra 80 hp. 

It's more important to think about and look at average hp and torque over a usable range when sorting out a combo. Just because it makes more peak power doesn't mean it will be faster than a less powerful motor that wasn't so "peaky". The port volumes on a cnc sr/ez head are gonna be pretty big for a 440 ci combo. I'd have to agree with Andy's last statement about a cnc eddy head being just about perfect for a street/strip 500ci build.

Ron

[Mike DC]

Agreed. 

The EZ heads would probably be too big for most 440 motors.  I was thinking in terms of the 500-incher. 

To tell you the truth I'm a little surprised about the EZ heads pushing a 432-ci motor up to a 6000-rpm torque peak.  I would have expected the peak to be high with a motor that small, but not quite THAT high.

 

[hard-charger]

thanks all, for your advice!  i guess im gonna go with the eddys.  just wanted some options and opinions.  $1,350 is alot leaves to pick off the magical money tree.  so i wanna make it count.
one more question,  im buying a cam this week.  ive been looking at the comp cams magnum and extreme energy solid. whats the difference between the two? 

[andyf]

I'm currently building a 505 cross ram motor and I'll run the Indy EZ heads on it.  I'm expecting the torque peak to drop from 6000 down to 5000 rpm with the bigger cubes.  It is still going to be a fairly high rpm motor though, more of a drag motor than a street motor.  The Indy heads are all fairly large and are aimed at drag racing.

I'll have dyno data in a month or so, article should be in Mopar Muscle later this year.  Here is a sneak peak.

[Chryco Psycho]

great lookin Engine Andy

[MOPARHOUND!]

thanks all, for your advice!  i guess im gonna go with the eddys.  just wanted some options and opinions.  $1,350 is alot leaves to pick off the magical money tree.  so i wanna make it count.
one more question,  im buying a cam this week.  ive been looking at the comp cams magnum and extreme energy solid. whats the difference between the two? 

Solid, look at an Engle KV-2 or a KV-3. 

www.englecams.com

Hydraulic, look at the Comp XE285HL, or XE295HL.

www.compcams.com

The CID volume of an RB stroker tame down what would be a big cam in a 440.

The Eddie's on my 493 RB stroker have had some basic port work, and were a very noticeable improvement over the stock "452" heads with oversized valves and some basic port work.

[hard-charger]

Thanks again!!
i was looikng at the engle cams.  do they come with lifters?  if not where can i find a good reliable set?  whats a good brand lifter for that cam? one more question a little off the subject.
i am going with the eddy heads, but i had my block zero decked, and 906's milled, and the tunnel ram matched to the set up.  am i gonna have issues with the new heads and intake matching up? i dont really know what they grinded off the decks to get them to zero. am i gonna have to get a new intake? or does zero decking a block not change things enough to make a difference?
thanks! H-C