Stroking a 440

[christophercouperu]

I am posting this for response from the more experienced mopar guys. I am starting my first charger project and want to stroke a 440. I am needing help on the following questions:
1. What are the pros and cons of stroking a 440?
2. What would be the best brand to buy from?
3. Where can I find it for the best price?
4. What stipulations am I looking at by doing this?

I am wanting to make about 550 to 600 h.p. with this engine and am looking to put a manual 5 speed TKO behind it. Any help would be much appreciated. THANK YOU!!!!

COUPE

[aifilaw]

1. Pro's are, more stroke, means typically more stroke, but more relatively, more cubes. More cubes means more air/fuel into the combustion chamber, which means more power. The cons are, you need a longer stroke crank, which means you need to sacrifice things to get it. you will also be pushing a lot further on that rotating assembly every time a piston fires, which means they need to be strong in order to handle that extra problem or sheer strength will damage said parts. Luckily most stroker kits allow for this with nice forged steel cranks, and I or H-beam rods. Lastly the pistons will have more wall contact due to mid-stroke being pushed further towards the cylinder walls. Once again, made up for by the kits. You typically need to weaken the block to put in a stroker crank by opening up the journals and cutting for the larger counterweights, typical 440 blocks are lucky to be bored out 60 over without hitting water. If its an older block, you could have problems unless you have the machine shop do some sonic testing for wall depths in every area.
2. best brand...asking the wrong guy at this point, I'm too poor to do such things.
3. same
4. ?

Honestly, your goal of 550-600 HP could be made with the regular 440 block, just by upgrading the bottom end to handle the power....but hell, while your down there, why not stroke it? You wouldn't be the first, and won't be the last, they will take it if done right. But power is made in the heads, and 440 cubes is more than capable of 600 HP with a good combination, its still nearly in the streetable range. However 550-600 is well within the streetable range of a stroked 440, while 750+ is reachable with that block.

[Chryco Psycho]

there are a lot of threads on this site with the exact same questions & answers
the rod ratio gets bad above 512 ci so personally I would limit it to that , baove that the longevity of the engine can be hurt
440 Source has a great price on stroker kits & uses good quality parts