500 stroker build newbie questions?

First I want to thank 3404spdvaliant for putting up with some of the stupid newbie questions that I ask him last year.  But now I am once again in the need of an experts advice with a few notches of experience under their belt.


This is my first stroker build, hell my first engine build from the ground up. I have never built the bottem end of a motor and want to ask twice and build once. Any advice will be well appreciated. Last week I picked up a 77' 440 that I would like to drop in my 74' W200 3/4 ton 4x4. Apon tearing it down I found that it is one of the few 440's with the thicker main bearing saddles and support webbings, so why not make my first complete build a stroker. I plan on taking it to the shop to get it tanked, magnafluxed, bored .030 over, honed, lined bored and honed, square decked, and retaped for the larger hemi oil pickup. Probaly have them enlarge the oil galley connected to the lifter galley that feeds the bearings and grind the clearance for the stroker crank as well. The stroker kit I plan on picking up is the one found from 440source with the flat top pistons (http://www.440source.com/strokerkits.htm). For the top end I planned on picking up the Eddy top end performer rpm power package (intake, 84cc heads, cam) which is ranged from 1500-6500 rpm's and a 800cfm dual feed thunder series AVS. My truck is running dana 60 full floater w/4.10 in rear, dana 44 full floater w/4.09 in front, a divorced 205 t-case and 235/85 trailcutter tires on 16" rims (not shown in pix). This truck will not be a rock crawler or a towing rig.  It will be used for the occasional mud race, mud bog, winter storm driving, and the weekend warrior.  Now that you got the info, here are most of my questions.

1. Do you think this combo will work and if so what kind of HP, Torque, and comp. ratio am I looking at?
2. Is this too much grunt for the streets? Would this setup be more of a drag engine?
3. Is there better improvements that I should make to this build? (Cam, Intake, Flat vs Dished Pistons, ETC.)
4. Could I run my stock rockers? Any rocker recommendations?
5. Stall recommendations?
6. Would this be a reliable build?
7. Any other improvements I should make to my chassis?
8. Last but not least, any recomendations on a transmission thats already built to handle this kind of power? Or a kit to put in my 727 torqueflite?

Sorry for writing a book but as you can see there are a lot of which I couldn't answer myself. I hope you guys and gals can lend me a hand so I can start calling around and getting a torque monster in the making. Also I will probaly be posting this on the rest of the sites I frequent the most. Thanks, Jamie.  

Monster,

This sounds very similar to my build I did a 440 to a 498 for my 74 'cuda I have yet to get the car to the dyno but I can tell you it has more than enough power and was built for street/strip use. The combo works great mine has a .060 over bore and runs a bit hotter than I would like but other than that no complaints. I also went with an eagle rotating assembly as apposed to the one on 440 source. I have the same heads you are looking at and the Eddy Victor 440 intake with a demon 850 and I am right at 10.5:1. I ran roller rockers with my set because I went with a BIG cam but you should be fine with stock rockers. I have a 3600 stall conv in it and it seems to be just right. I also am running a 727 with a reverse valve body and a shift kit this is more for drag racing but the trans seems to hold all of the power fine. One thing that did happen with build is that the crank came over and hit the oil pick up it may be something you want the machine shop to look at. If you want more specifics on my build I am more than willing to share and I hope this helped some. Good luck!  

Yes, it helps a lot. being that you are running 10.5:1 are you running race gas or 93 octane? You mind if I ask what times you're running in the quarter mi. The guy I got this engine from was also running a 498 in his Dart and I think he said he was running high 10s but I think he is using a 383/400 block. After I get the cash after this build I'm thinking of finding a car to drop it in instead of my truck. You think Milidon or somewhere else would make me a custom 1/2" inlet oil pickup?  

The car runs fine on 93 but it runs cooler on 110, the local machine shop that did my work said anything under 11:1 would run fine on pump gas. I have yet to get it to the strip as I am doing the body work now I have only had it on the street again the guys at the machine shop (who are former IHRA Champions) said it should run mid to high 10's. For my oil system I used a moroso 8 qrt oil pan and moroso pick then ground a flat spot in the pick up and the crank cleared. I also recommend using HPBooks Big-Block Mopar Performance book and their Big-Block Mopar engines book. Both were handy resources when I did mine.  

Hah hah, Great minds do think alike! I finished big-block mopar engines and am on ch13 in the performance book.  I based most of my choices from these books such as starting with the biggest possible cubic inch that I can afford.  They seem to be great resourches IMO.  Wow, 11:1, I didn't realize you could run'em that high off the pump. Thats good to hear though. I thought about running 10.35:1 based on advice given to me from hotrodders forum but was sceptic because I've heard race gas is expensive. He basically advised me to use -17 dish pistons and eddy perf rpm xt heads.  If the techs at edelbrock will give up the flow chart to the heads he's going to dynostim the specs for me.  If I get the chart I will give you a heads up for helping me out for future reference if youre interested.  

Another great resource is the Mopar Performance book Mopar Engines Part # P5249010 it tells you what parts to use to go however fast you want to. I am definitely interested thanks  

The eddy tech told me that they are still testing their port designs and havn't been able to choose which one they were going to go with. So I couldn't even squeeze a educated guess out of him.  I would guess somewhere in the ballpark of 10-15 percent better then its little brother the original rpm due to its enlarged volume and bigger intake valve, but thats just a guess.  But he did tell me that they should have the port design chose and the flow chart posted within 2-4 weeks.  So now its time to sit around like little kids when christmas is right around the corner, LOL.  I was hoping to get my build dynostimed with those heads for cam selection but now its the waiting game.