440 rebuild time. Doing it Good!!

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 5..Installed the upper crank bearing shells..All of them have the access holes for the oil..

Pic 6..Laid the crank in with NO oil..did not spin the crank at all

Pic 7..Plastigauge and 1 cap installed to 85 foot lbs..

Pic 8...2 thousands for the clearance..

I am Happy!!

[RockwoodMike]

That goes to the cam...oh well do you have a compcam build? Things are NOT going good for there cores let's say. It makes one wonder if a call inquiry about cam failure and what is there response..

As for the cam..I decided on a new cam from Summit..Pictures show it all

All I hear is bad things from a company that rhymes with Stomp cams..

I see nothing on the world wide interweb about Summit Cams..in regards to wiped cams..

Here is a couple of videos of a very satisfied customer of the 6401 cam

[RockwoodMike]

Here is the bottom line for me in regards to wiped cams..They all have something in common...

Starting then stopping the 20-25 minute time by shutting down the engine for a problem..

A radiator leak..a fuel leak..off timing..cranking the engine to fill the carb fuel bowls..no spark at the plugs..

The break in grease that is applied to the lobes and lifters is there for only a few revolutions..then it is spun off or wiped off..

The flinging oil from the rods and crank is the only lube the cam gets..

If you stop the engine during the break in time the restart, you spin the cam dry till the oil is flinging again..

You MUST prep your engine where there is no reason to stop the engine at any time during the 20-25 minutes..If you do stop the engine you run a very high risk of wiping a cam..

You will see a video of some smuck that has lost his cam and blames it on the manufacturer..looses 2 lobes lets say..

The manufacturer hardens and makes the cam ready to install..If it is a bad cam being soft, why didn't all the other lobes go bad too?? And not just 2 lobes??

I blame the engine builder!! And the "procedure" he uses to get the job done..

[RockwoodMike]

I have really SKEE-RUUUDE up!!

I decided to change out the cam original to the build..A Comp Cam..

Why? Not because of all the wiped stories..But because I didn't like the numbers of it..It was basically a stock cam..

Also because of the new high compression pistons..I now have a need to lower the dynamic compression with a slightly radical cam..

So trying a test fit of the new cam, the bearings are tight to it..In fact so tight that it would not install!!

The new cam has about .001 thicker journals..After installing the cam bearings, they usually need work to fit the bearing to the journals..

The machine shop did just fine with the Comp cam..

After trying to fit the new Summit 6401 cam into the block, it was stuck tight..With the palm of my hand I hit the cam at the front end and jammed it into the bearings and I couldn't get it to rotate nor move back out..

So I tapped it on the distributor gear with a brass drift..

And this is where I F   ked up..I broke the gear!!

I got the cam back out but it was ruined..

Read on line how machine shops will cut a groove in the cam journal of an old cam to act as a reamer.

And I did just that as the pictures show..And it worked like a charm..

I just got the new cam..Same cam but a replacement..

After the old cam is cut like the picture show, you just slowly insert it and turn it and it will fix the new bearings to fit the cam..

This mistake cost me money..plenty of it..

[RockwoodMike]

The new cam fit just fine after the reaming of the bearings..

Using "Driven" break in grease..I like it because it will be a while before this gets started and the grease will be there..Unlike oil that will drip off..That red drippy stuff needs to be started quickly or it just drops off..

This grease will stay there for a long while..So now the cam is in and ready..Spins real nice!!

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1..Crank in and caps torqued to 85 Foot Lbs..Spins so smooth!

Pic 2..End play of crank..006..Nice!!

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1..Hastings rings..

Pic 2..All laid out ready to install on each piston

Pic 3..The ring gaps were fine.. No filing needed.

Pic 4..First piston ready to be fitted..3/8 rubber fuel line to protect the crank journal as the piston goes down to the bottom..

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1..Bought this piston installer..It is a tapered ring..Wide at the top and tapers down to the finish size of the bore..Works Great!! Can only be used for 1 size..nothing else..That is the draw back of it..

Pic 2..Set the piston into the ring..The piston skirt comes out the bottom of the ring and you can get the piston started in the bore..Holding the ring tight to the bore, light taps on top and it just pops right in..

Pic 3..First piston in

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1..Rubber hose guide the rod onto the crank as you are tapping the piston down..

Pic 2..shows the clearance..Right at .002 for the rod bearings.

Pic 3..With the piston at TDC, it measures .021 "Down the hole"..Lot better than it was at about 0.150 originally..

Should give right at 9 to 1 Comp

[RockwoodMike]

All pistons in and double checked for the torque on the nuts..45 Foot Lbs..

Totally smooth on spinning it  

[RockwoodMike]

Just doing cleanup of the pan..windage tray..and the timing chain cover..Having a sand blaster and a soda blaster is a must for this all..

[RockwoodMike]

More pictures of the before-after

[RockwoodMike]

Timing chain cover sand blasted

[RockwoodMike]

Rear main seal housing..This is original and filthy..

Second pic shows it all cleaned up and installed with a new seal..

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1..Oil pickup installed..

Pic 2..using the straight up timing on this..Notice the key way and the actual timing marks are  different places..

Pic 3 and 4 show the timing marks lined up..key way is 45 degrees to the right..Number 1 piston at TDC..

Actually piston 6 is at top dead center at the compression stroke..Number1 is at the point of the intake stroke..

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1..Getting the timing chain cover ready to install..Center cam bolt has been torqued down..Oil slinger an gasket ready..

Pic 2...new seal installed from the back side..

Pic 3..Installed..Nice!

Pic 4..Harmonic balancer all sand blasted clean then painted..Wait for it to dry..

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1..Shoved a 2x4 between the block and the crank to lock it from turning..Torqued the damper bolt to 135 foot pounds.

Pic 2..just getting an idea of the clearance of the pick up tube to the bottom of the pan

Pic 3..Bought a stud kit to bolt the pan ...also 2 reusable gaskets..No sealant needed.

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1..Windage tray

Pic 2..1 more gasket

Pic 3..Shows it all stacked up.

Pic 4..Fully bolted down..

[RockwoodMike]

These are before and after shots of the engine mount brackets..Sand blasted and powder coated..

[Eyez Open]

Ahh I've found that video again, this video demonstrated not so much go fast stuff but detonation issues. Casting imperfections are quite a thing, bad irregularities do cause detonation glow plugs as he calls it. Originally solved by low compression and very retarded timing...which again causes big heat issues. 440 truck engines were notorious for heat build.


Lol huh? Just take some time to look at your cast finish area especially in the chamber area. Your ability to understand tranny tolerances should play well here. Chamber pressures are enormous irregularities can easily create a unwanted boom.

Just bad casting in the end, a simple little grind can clean that up.A bit like filing your nails down. Easy Peasy comes to mind. This is about casting imperfections not porting in any shape or form


https://youtu.be/gqXW8CqCDEk?feature=shared

[RockwoodMike]

UTG has a lot to say in his videos..He has a very good talent of vectoring off in a different direction about any subject..but seems to come back where he wanted to go from the beginning..

Like you said towards the last part of the video, he was talking about smoothing the combustion chamber for any rough edges..

Taking a look at mine, they seem to be in pretty good shape, with what looks to be a bit of machining where the valves are close to the edge of the combustion chamber..

Here is 3 pics and I really don't have anything to complain about in regards to bad casting..seems pretty clean..

I am not going to be doing anything about the ports..exhaust or intake..

It's a Motorhome!! Not a 1/4 mile racer

[Eyez Open]

It's not about hotrodding what's so ever, after all how can one hotrod a engine under 4500 rpm. Aside from a good stroke kit...

APT precise fueling from idle to 3000 rpm.

Quenching increased tourqe and detonation reduction..less heat buildup.

Combustion chamber smoothing again reducing detonation and heat buildup.

These are merely tips/modifications that can be easily done and at little or no cost. With very good results...unless the heads cannot be quenched


Your work is very well done, and your shop/tool depth is quite extensive. Make no mistake here that engine will run quite well without any of those mods.

What those mods can do is increase the timing window, and there are both tourqe and horsepower there if one chooses to use it. Along with improved throttle response if you choose to tinker a bit.

[Eyez Open]

Watching all this rebuild is fun to watch. Just a WAT HERE, I am quite sure once your up and going you will find your gearing is way to low, I say that simply due to the fact Auto companies detuned/retuned there engine's so badly it's a wonder they could spinup/rev at all.

The answer was under gear them by large margins.

[Eyez Open]

Looks like Nick's just a few steps in front of you and almost a duplicate of your build. 485 ft lbs now that's some tourqe

https://youtu.be/pvIabz-L-nY?feature=shared

[RockwoodMike]

I could have been up and running sooner but I was to scared too do it..Did I get everything right??  

Here is an example..Poured a gallon of distilled water in..immediately had a leak
with only 1 gallon!!

It was the lower radiator hose upper clamp..Didn't tighten it

See what I mean??