Cast crank and stock rods?

[RCCDrew]

How much power can a cast 440 crank, cast Pistons, and stock regular rods handle?  500 hp at 6000 with ported, decked, stock heads and a solid cam would make for some cheap thrills. Think this engine would handle 500 hp? Would it make 500 hp?

[rUNCHARGER]

My son is making an easy 500HP with his 440. Stock 68 bottom end with new bearings and rings, used the original pistons. Has ported, big valve iron heads, RPM intake, Lunati camshaft, headers. He has the rev limiter set at 6000RPM and holds it there coming out of mud holes and last winter pulling a loaded Mack Super B (140,000lbs) up a hill.
We don't expect the engine to last forever but it's had two hard seasons on it so far. He spins those 42's (welded rear diff) on dry pavement in high range. His crank is factory forged but a factory iron crank will last too. Just that cast crank engines have low compression pistons in them.

Sheldon

[HP_Cuda]

Too many variables to say yes, if you are using stock parts I think you are pushing the ragged limits.

If you had said upgraded and balanced parts, H-beam rods, good pistons, springs, etc then you would probably be safe.

[jimynick]

500 hp out of a 440 is somewhere in the range of 1.13hp per cu" and that's not crazy. IMHO, the real potential weak link would be the cast pistons. If you had forged pistons, I think everything else would probably do. They'd also give you the opportunity to take advantage of modern ring/piston/coating technology. RPM would be a consideration and I think 5500 would be safe as a church. Just my   

[cudabob496]

Drive it until it grenades, then upgrade. May last you years!

[Moparal]

Foegive me friend, as im not myself, and I seem to ask different wondering questions.   But as it stand, a cast crank 440 never had comp ratio above 8-1  I know you would do cam change and head work, but at bext, you'd squeeze maybe 240/250 hp im guessing, cause they were around 195 hp stock i think, but could be wrong. tq was ok, but hp wise, they were pussies.  If you are planning on a rebuild with a fresh bbore, good quench a decent gead, good cam, bigger valves and all the talk the talk/walk the walk. then yes of course you can have a 500 hp cast engine. But at the same time 400 buccks more and ir is forged. You see what I mean?  and for 2k I have a 69 road runner hp 440 fresh new for 2k  that would be a better choice. But I do not ship

[RCCDrew]

Yes I see your point.  I am thinking about going with new Pistons, but this engine is already .040 over and don't want to bore again. I do know that a stock piston is way down in the hole. I was also thinking that decking the heads and maybe the block would remedy this. The goal for this engine would be cheap thrills.  That and I have to find something to do with all these leftover parts!

[TelisSE440]

My son is making an easy 500HP with his 440. Stock 68 bottom end with new bearings and rings, used the original pistons. Has ported, big valve iron heads, RPM intake, Lunati camshaft, headers. He has the rev limiter set at 6000RPM and holds it there coming out of mud holes and last winter pulling a loaded Mack Super B (140,000lbs) up a hill.
We don't expect the engine to last forever but it's had two hard seasons on it so far. He spins those 42's (welded rear diff) on dry pavement in high range. His crank is factory forged but a factory iron crank will last too. Just that cast crank engines have low compression pistons in them.

Sheldon

Pulling a Mack...  Now I would love to see that! 

[rUNCHARGER]

He had a video on Facebook about a year ago. It was a loaded SuperB (two trailers) and it couldn't climb out of the back lot with all the snow they had. So Sean hooked up to him and pulled him up and out, full tick for a minute or two at least. He'll build a stroker if this one ever breaks but I think it's got a lot left in it yet if I know 440 Mopars. There was a reason they were so popular in industrial marine applications before diesels took over.

Sheldon

[RCCDrew]

Interesting point about the industrial applications. I believe they were all forged crank engines though.

[Moparal]

Angle cut your heads .120 thou. we used to do this on low compression 360's to raise it up to premium fuel. Works good intake fits, no valve clearance problems. let a machine shop do it for you. I don't feel good

[RCCDrew]

Can you give me more info on this? A link? Anyone else back this up?

[Moparal]

Old guy trick  lol  prob not a link.  lol picture it in your mind. ask a good experienced mopar machine shop. It is not the first time.  I wish I was young again. I have thought about showing some, but cant harding walk now or stand up or keep focused around people especially strangers very long. I got a friend...Dick Brown   Lakeview Michigan  Around 65 yrs old. Maybe he might take the time, but maybe not. In the 80's when we had nothing, we had to experiment ourselves to make them run.  I was running in the 10's on the street in the late 70's. That in itself was really hard. Late 80's I was in the 9's on the street with 355 gears and a 5500 stall.  Gotta spend money and lots of reasearch though.  There was always a line of friends waiting for me to discard what I decided wasn't any good. I would have cam motion make me 5 cams at a time back then just on an Idea. Back then 50 bucks a race 4 races every sat night , just like street outlaws was all we did. Again, Do the math if you do not want to buy new pistons.

[RCCDrew]

 thats a cool idea. I'm going to research it.

[DetroitMuscle]

No problem making the HP numbers, but not to sure how long the stock parts will last