Need Help......Just purchased a 67 H.P. 440 Magnum ( UPDATE 10/01 WITH PICS )

[MoparMotel]

Hi,

I started another thread on this motor about making around 500 Horsepower but need a different kind of help. I went and looked at the motor tonight and the guy fired it up. I asked him about rebuilding it and he said it has no more than 10,000 miles on it. He said he rebuilt it in high school and put a cam in it, and drove it for the rest of high school until he got a 1971 Charger when he was in College. His dad is Jerry of Turners Auto Wrecking so the car sat there since then. What i am wondering is should the motor be gone through again or just clean it up and repaint it and put it in the car? He poured a little gas in the carb and it cranked right over.

Any suggestions would be of help! I am going to pick it up on the trailor Saturday morning.

[SpudRacer]

I would change the title of the post for starters... a 67 H.P. 440 is a tad underpowered.

TOm

[max]

if i were looking at the engine myself i would watch the exhaust for smoke of any kind then i would put a mech oil pressure gauage on it and see what that is doing then maybe pull the valve covers and see how clean the heads look.

i guess i am weird but when i rebuild an engine i paint the parts and leave the paint off of the mounting bolts that way people know it has been rebuilt.

[Chryco Psycho]

Prsonally I would go through it ju8st to make sure it was done correctly after seeing how many are not built right , , I would also pick my own cam as most people pick cams I am not a fan of , but it fi runs well & does what you need it to you may want to just run it for a while

[Ghoste]

How long was it sitting and did it just sit or did they turn it over once in a while and keep it lubed up?

[MoparMotel]

Not exactually sure. They did do a compression check on all the cylinders and the lowest number they got from one of the cylinders was 140 in cylinder 5 or 7 i cant remember, the rest were in the 150-160 range. I am going to pick it up tomarrow morning. If pictures will help you guys tell me what you want a picture of and i will post it on here. I am not the greatest with motors and need help on what to look for. So far ill take a picture of both heads and see how they look. When i get it home i want to pressure wash it and check for any cracks in the block.


Ghoste- as far as i know when he got his 71 Charger he just put it in the wrecking yard. They have over 100 acres of cars including two 70 Chargers, a 70 Challenger 440-6, 69 Coronet 500, and many 68-70 parts cars. The ones i mentioned are ones i could identify and ones they had in their private shop. I questioned him about any Hemi's and he said that he doesn't remember any, but he sure remembers the 440's.

Thanks Nick

[cudaken]

 Nick, that is a good 20 pound spread on the 440. New rebulids may not be tighter than that. Have they pulled it yet? If not, run a oil pressuer test, if you have 20 to 40 PSI warm and at idle I would say you have a good street 440.

You can also check for timing chain streach as well. Bring the engine to TDC, pull the distributor cap. Watch the rotor as you turn the engine backwards. When the rotor moves stop and look at the blancer. If he moved less than 4 to 5 degress timing chain is good as well.

How long did the 440 run? Was it brought up to full temp?

                                  Cuda Ken

[MoparMotel]

cudaken-

I am not exactually sure on everything he said. According to him he rebuilt it with new pistons, rings, lifters, and all that stuff. He said he drove it for around 10,000 miles and then got his 1971 Charger and parked this car. I got the engine home and it is sitting on my trailer waiting to be lifted into the shop. It was only running for around 10-15 seconds because i guess the car didnt have a gas tank in it so he was feeding the carb with a mountain dew bottle with a hole in the cap so he could not keep it running for that long. Looks all original to me. original exhaust manifolds.........7.5.66 intake manifold.......Carter #4329 which goes to a 66-67 HP 440.........and the transmission is a 2801541 which means it was a pre March 15 1968 727 that was not stamped with the VIN.


I will have pictures when we get it into the shop

Thanks for the help so far!

Nick

[firefighter3931]

Sounds like a good engine...nice score !

Ron

[BigBlockSam]

change the fluids, clean the gas tank and lines and run it. keep an eye on oil presure and water temp. you might be lucky. my sloth has a 69 hp motor. it was laying for about 10 yrs. when i first got it running it smoked out the tailpipe and alot of blow by coming out of the oil cap but i got looky. it all cleared up. she runs great now and feels nice and tight. good luck Rene

p.s. after you run her for acouple of weeks, change the oil and filter. then your good to go 

[MoparMotel]

Got it in the shop and started to take it apart. My dad wanted the 727 for the 68 R/T and was going to sell the 440 but i told him i wanted to keep it as a project. I have it pretty stripped down. I can't decide on what to do with it. Take it totally stock or make a cool street motor with it. I am paying for all parts so would like to keep it on a budget but want some good power out of it. Right now all i am thinking is a mopar performance cam,  intake, and holley 750 carb. Anyone else got any suggestions?

heres some pics

[MoparMotel]

more pics.....the first one is the motor for the 69 R/T charger. the rest is the parts that came with the motor. its all original.......dated 2.3.66..........intake 7.5.66.........carter AFB.........and the rest that you see in the pics.

[cudaken]

 For 10,000 miles looks just a little nasty on the inside. But with sitting that long it may be normal. Hook a tran's to it on the floor and run a compression test. Hook a starter u and hot wire a battiey to it. More thank likely it will be fine.

                           Cuda Ken

[MoparMotel]

well ive been continuing to play with the motor and taking it apart. The machine shop i went to said i am looking at about $1,900 to completly rebuild it. The guy i talked to is the owner, very nice guy talked to him for about an hour. He said hes not trying to scare away buisness but if he were me he would just put it back together. Maybe a new cam, intake, and carb and just run it and see how it goes. He said if something is wrong or starts knocking real bad then that is the time to rebuild it but for now just run it the way it is?

Anyone else got anything they would do?

[Ghoste]

For me personally, that would be fine for a grandfathers pickup.  If the engine is something you need right ow, then driving it until it makes a noise is an option.  If it is something you don't need right away or there is a worry about it blowing the budget or you plan any performance use at all, then NOW is the time to rebuild it.  Not after it starts making a noise.
The last part would also make me look at using another machine shop.  It makes me think he's not going to give it any more respect than a four cylinder Cavalier engine.  I would want the extra attention.  That is just me though.

[BigBlockSam]

make me look at using another machine shop

[cudaken]

 My self, the owner telling you use it and rebulid if there is a problem would make me respect and turst him more! Not looking to just get in your wallet.


                                         Cuda Ken

[Ghoste]

I'd agree with you Ken if I was buying it just to throw in something for the sake of being able to drive it or if I were tight for a motor because there was someplace I wanted to go and I had just blown mine.  But going by the pictures, that one has some nasty junk hanging on it and if you plan to push it at all or if it is for a resoration or the plan is to rebuild it eventually, why not do it now. 
It's impossible to understand the gist of a conversation I wasn't privy to and I admittedly don't know any bnut a couple of the relevant facts here, but, when I read it and try to picture myself in the scenario, I guess I just envision a guy who knows a lot about stock old time passenger car rebuilds giving me bad advice on a performance rebuild.
How about some details Nick?  What are your plans?

[MoparMotel]

Thanks for the Adivce guys!

As of now i just want to put a cam, intake, and carburator on it besdies the ovious( plugs, wires, freeze plugs, ETC. )

Anyone know of a good intake, carburator combo for this motor?

Also i was thinking mopar performance Cam but anyone know of a better one?

I want the most performance i can get and want the lope sound also.


Thanks for the help!

[firefighter3931]

Anyone else got anything they would do?

Maybe pull a couple of rod and main caps off and have a look at the bearings for signs of wear.....i would do that as a minimum.   If everything looks good, just reassemble and run it. Cam selection will depend on the rest of the combo....stall speed, gearing, exhaust system etc...

It depends on what you plan on doing with the car. If it's just a cruiser, just check and reassemble it with a few bolt ons to improve the performance.  

Ron