440 Mopar - The 505ci Wedge

With the Speed-Pro 1/16-inch ring package in place, Taylor used these nice ARP chopsticks to guide the rod over the crank and not scratch the journal. The rods use ARP 8720-grade 7/16-inch capscrews but can still be measured for stretch the same way as standard ARP rod bolts.

Flow Chart
Edelbrock 440 Mopar PN 609292.14/1.81-inch valves84cc chamber210cc port volume (214cc measured)Tested on 4.385-inch bore

Cam Selection
The plan here was to make excellent overall power. With a large-displacement street engine, it didn't seem like any fun to just stick an average hydraulic cam in this beast, so we elected to step up to a complete Comp Cams mechanical flat tappet cam just to make it more interesting. The Edelbrock heads are designed to retain the stock Mopar rocker shaft valvetrain, but we opted to include a set of Comp Magnum roller rockers that gave us a lash adjustment system on the pushrod side.

The Comp Cam custom grind is based on the Comp MM solid flat tappet profile family, which is designed to take advantage of the larger Mopar 0.904-inch-diameter lifter by giving the profile more valve velocity. To duplicate this cam, order PN CRB3 6583/6585 S 109.0.

Part of the mockup procedure involved installing the crank, piston, and rod assembly on all four corners, both to measure for piston deck height measurements and to check for piston-to-valve clearance. Even with the 0.585-inch lift on the exhaust, clearance was more than adequate. A minimum clearance on the exhaust side is 0.080 to 0.100 inch.

Dyno Testing
We wrestled the big-block Mopar motor out to Westech Performance and bolted it to its SuperFlow 901 dyno. After warming the motor up and running through a quick series of pulls to optimize the timing at 32 degrees and jetting set for best power, the big 505 made so much torque that Westech's Steve Brul had difficulty getting an accurate read at 3,500 rpm. This test eventually saw a massive 640 lb-ft of grunt and 562 hp. While the torque was impressive, we considered just how difficult it would be for a street car to manage all that tire spin.

Because we had so much torque to work with, it seemed a good idea to sacrifice a little for perhaps a bit more horsepower by switching to a Victor single-plane intake manifold. After the swap, the engine wanted more jetting, moving the primaries to 84 and the secondary, with the power valve in place, to 91 jets. While we lost as much as 20 lb-ft of torque at 3,700 rpm, the swap to the single-plane added a solid 30 hp at the top end. Despite the loss of torque, the big Mopar still pushed out 634 lb-ft at 3,400 rpm, which is close to where the stall speed would probably be on a mild street automatic-thus losing torque below that point costs nothing in terms of acceleration. At a peak of 583 hp, this 505 is shy of the max horsepower generated by the 440 we ran earlier this year ("New Victor 440 Heads," May '07), but this is a much milder, totally streetable pump gas package that makes amazing power at very reasonable engine speeds. This torque would be especially useful in a B-Body like a Charger or Super Bee with a Torqueflite and a streetable 3.30- to 3.50-series rear gear. Even at 3,500 rpm, this 505-incher is pullin' a massive 601 lb-ft of torque. All that torque is guaranteed to push even a heavy B-Body well into the 11s at 115-plus mph. Better find some sticky tires, because on the street, torque rules.

This 505 will eventually find its way into a '63 Plymouth, which demands a special Milodon oil pan. The windage tray required trimming the front third of the tray in order to clear the leading edge of the oil pan.	Next, Milodon supplied an external oil pump pickup system that placed the oil pump pickup in the sump but redirected oil through an external-10 line to the external oil pump. This reduced the restriction on the inlet side of the pump, which improved pump capacity. Careful routing of the oil line kept it away from the header pipes.
This 505 is intended for a '63 Plymouth, so we also included the price of a set of Tube Technologies Inc. (TTI) 2-inch primary tube headers that fit a '62-'65 Mopar B-Body. TTI is acknowledged as offering some of the best Chrysler headers on the market.