Do yourself a favor and look up my profile - look at my recent posts and you'll find TONS of threads regarding a 440 build. I'm looking in the 550 to 600 horsepower range, but I'm doing a 505 stroker with mine.
RV blocks work fine - that's what I'm starting with. The biggest question to start with is do you want to keep the 440 displacement or stroke it. You should be able to get 450hp with the factory crank, rods and pistons (hone the cylinders and replace rings, etc - maybe aftermarket, lightweight pistons at the factory size.) Use steel heads with a good port job and an aftermarket intake (Holley is recommended around here pretty strongly,) upgrade to headers and probably an 850cfm carb, and you should be set.
For the 500 range, probably a .030 over boring of the cylinder with new pistons, factory crank and rods should be fine. Use Edelbrock RPM aluminum heads pretty much as is or a mild porting, get a nice aggressive cam (can't help you too much there - still researching that myself) and intake, headers and maaaaybe a 950 cfm carb - 500 should be pretty easy there.
I'm doing a 505 stroker with RPM heads, aggressive cam and roller lifters and rockers, single-plane intake (considering use of nitrous) and a 950 "dual-pump" carb. My research says I should hit 550 easily.
I spent $300 for a complete RV 440, intake-to-oil pan. I think I wasted some money though 'cause really all I'm keeping is the block... At least all the remaining parts I can sell for scrap.
Jeff
