sorry guys. I shoulda given a little more history on the engine. The 440 is a 69 model. The engine had a HUGE overheating issue for the last 4 years. The first day dad drove it home from the builder, it overheated and vented fluid everywhere. Its been to many different shops. Still would bog on WOT. The 750 mechanical secondary carb was jetted and worked until it would dump black unburnt fuel and the engine would still shake, bog, and backfire through the exhaust on WOT....as well as overheat...it has overheated almost every time it was driven.
This spring myself and my brother in law decided we were sick of the beautiful car running like CRAP. The trans was a 727 that you could not feel shift and leaked everywhere along with a not so hot 5500 stall converter...yes...5500 stall as spec'd by the builder of the engine. I built a really nice non lockup 78 trans and put in a 2200 stall Hughes performance converter along with a bouchillon performance kickdown setup. At the same time I ran braided lines to its own external cooler mounted away from the radiator. Trans works AMAZING.
While doing that, the original radiator was a hemi 4 core. Unfortunately the builder had hot tanked the block for about 3 weeks....yes 3 weeks...the cooling passages had scaled and completely plugged the radiator. A shop tried to clean it for dad and blew the bottom tank out. In goes an aluminum 3 core unit from Champion along with a mopar shroud and a neat fan combo i made from the junk yard. Ford fan, chevy fan clutch and mopar water pump. Works amazing, looks stock, and pulls some serious air through the radiator. Original belts were shot. Replaced those when I did the rest.
Result was 180 deg F when cruising and will drop to 165 when driving through shade and will go back to 180/182 in stop and go traffic. Cooling issue fixed.
Had tons of exhaust leaks at the header where it meets the head....had a local place, kamer and kamer, machine the headers so the flange was flat and installed a copper gasket on both sides....leaks fixed...noticed something and will explain it later.
Wires and plugs. Oh God. Bird nest. I built wire separators and got 8.5 mm custom wire set and took out the iridium plugs and replaced them with champion plugs gapped at .035"....he had wires wrapped around shock towers and everything. Coil wire had infinity resistance when I ohm'd them. Got all of that fixed. Stock ecu had melted and ran down fire wall and had been replaced with an orange unit 2 years ago by a shop.
Distributer was replaced by original engine builder that hot tanked the crap out of everything. Never worked with vacuum connected and was advanced all the way around to where I had to lay on the ground with a timing light to find the mark. I have it set about 10 deg advanced now at idle. Runs sooooo much better. Still cannot hook up vacuum to distributer or it back fires through exhaust under any light throttle.
It has a single plane M1 manifold. Again. Bad idea for the street. I know it shoulda had a dual plane on it. It's what is on there though and I'm trying to make it work as best I can.
Ok. Did everything. Got it running really decent. Down to the carb. Talked with Holley about 2 hours. They swear for 5200 rpm on a 440, that carb is more than enough. Anyway, the same issue is present with the 670 as it was with the 750. Under WOT it bogs, sounds like the engine is trying to shut down, shakes and coughs. Only now it isnt dumping enough black gas out to repel mosquitos for 2 square miles.
I'm wondering now if the valves or springs were damaged with all the engine overheating. I mean constant overheating. I mean, get out with the engine running at idle to open the garage door and start spewing antifreeze overheating...which is now taken care of but the heads have already been exposed to this torture. I'm gonna do the paper test for a burnt exhaust valve today when I go to dad's.
I'm worried that either the iginition (accel aftermarket coil, stock orange ecu, still has ballast resistor, and after market proform distributer) has something wrong with it making it break up under load, or the heads/cam has something wrong with it. Remember, this engine has NEVER run right. It is now running the best it has since built.
Again the symptom is a bog under heavy acceleration or when climbing a hill with steady throttle and the trans downshifts, putting load on the engine. The engine will bog, shake, and act like its cutting out..lift off the throttle..ease back into it...then the car will eventually get past this weird spot and really take off...but not under load. only on level ground will it take off after the bog senario.
I can tell you that the vacuum gauge will fluctuate 2" at idle unless I get the idle speed up to steady it. I have not done a compression test yet. I hate that this has happened with an engine with less then 3k miles on it after a shoddy build. I appreciate any help and hope this kinda gives light on what I'm dealing with.
