1968 charger engine options

[NGC414]

I am new to mopars, so trying to learn as fast as possible. I recently bought a 68 charger that was originally a 318 car with a 440 from a late 70s passenger car. Im not sure what has been done to the engine. (Attached is a pic) I pulled the engine the other day and have been racking my brain on which direction to go. I was just courious what some other people on this site would reccomend. I am just looking for the best bang for buck performance.
I was thinking of a good head, cam combo and engine rebuild. Reccomendations? or
Stroker kit?
supercharger?
What is a good source for after market mopar parts?

[TylerCharger69]

It all really depends on what you wish to spend on that engine!!

[RECHRGD]

Well, it looks like it already has some after market stuff on it.  Do you have any information on what has been done to it?  How quick do you want the car to be?  How's you bank account looking?  Welcome aboard.  Bob

[Mike DC]

          
stroker kit + low/moderate compression ratio + buy the camshaft/carb/cylinder heads/exhaust all about one good notch bigger than stock = fun street motor without headaches.  



Doing this is basically taking the stock 440 Magnum setup and growing the whole motor a notch bigger than stock.  It keeps all the major parts in about the same proportions to each other as the stocker, which keeps the whole thing well mannered. 

The only downside is that it burns more gas than the stocker (it's just a bigger motor, remember?).  But if you keep the compression ratio low then it could be fine running on the crap 87 octane stuff.

[1BAD68]

Look on the machined pad under the coil and see what letters/numbers are listed.

[NGC414]

Im would like to make at least 500hp. As far as budget, Im just looking at the best bang for buck. Im not concerned with gas mileage, and only plan to run high octain reguardless.

Im not sure what has been done to the engine, I was told it had upgraded performance heads.

[G-man]

The higher the compression the more power and more efficient the engine will run. So try and run around 11.1, that will go hard and be more economical than 9:1

Usualy a 440 stroked is good bang for buck. Supercharger costs and then intercoolers etc to keep it cool, not worth the headache or the dollars unless your going racing.

[NGC414]

Thanks for the input. Sounds like a stroker with some good heads/ cam might be the way to go. Any reccomendations on good 440 heads? Cam? Striker kits?


Thanks again for the advise.

[Mike DC]

   
If you don't mind having to buy race gas 100% of the time then I also agree to run higher compression ratios.  It gives power and the higher octane gasoline demand is the only real drawback. 


------------------------------


   A 200-cubic-inch motor spinning at @ 4000 rpm  =  A 400-cubic-inch motor @ 2000 rpm.  If each motor is correctly built for its intended job then they're both ultimately burning the same amount of gasoline to make the same amount of power.   

Basically, the cylinder heads & manifolds govern how much power the motor can make.  They are the bottleneck; the motor can't really make more power once they are too stuffed to flow any more.  The size of the displacement below those parts is what determines where it happens in the RPM band.  A bigger motor completely fills a set of heads & manifolds at a lower RPM than a smaller motor does. 

This is why the factory took the 440 magnum's cylinder heads & manifolds and put them onto the 383 magnums too.  The resulting 383 was almost as fast as the 440, but it had to revved a bit higher in the RPMs to do it and it didn't make quite as much low-end torque as the 440.  (Modern 4-cyl import ricers are an extreme example of this principle.  They'll take a 2-liter motor and scream it up to 8000 rpm to make it fast.)



But 2 liters @ 8000 rpm just isn't as much fun as a musclecar.  You spend most of the time at 2500 rpm goofing off around town, so a street cruiser is a lot more fun if that's where the power is hitting all the time.  Aside from the permanently bad gas mileage, bigger motors are pretty cost effective and fun and low-maintinence in the big picture.

   

[Challenger340]

The possibilities & combinations are endless.

When you say you plan to run High Octane fuel regardless, are you referring to Pump Premium fuel, or aftermarket Leaded Race Fuel at BigBucks per Gallon ?

Regardless, 500 hp is easily doable, even on a Pump Premium fuel 440 Engine(non stroker), which is still cheaper to build than going to a Stroker Kit.

If you want the Stroker Kit and extra cubes for the added cost, the 500 hp level power events, are simply easier, and "earlier" attained in the power/rpm band for a given Cylinder Head used.

There are many various Engine Combinations on this Site that you may wish to research, under the "Proven Engine Combos' thread.
See here;
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/board,30.0.html

[NGC414]

Thanks, Thats the info I was looking for. I am starting to get a game plan together. It looks like the 440 has a lot of potential without stroking it.