Posted by Russ Roth on Wednesday, December 25, 2002 at 3:49PM :
In Reply to: Re: 76 W200 w/ 5.7 ltre Hemi??? posted by Todd Wilson on Tuesday, December 24, 2002 at 4:51PM :
Todd,
For the most part you are right. The really good part about one of these engines is you pull several pounds of weight out of the crank to make up the balance for the much lighter reciprocating assembly. The extra machine work is not too bad. Cut the mains down to 383-400 size and the crank counterwights to 7.25". If I am not mistaken, the 6 Pak cam has identical specs to the standard 440 cam. Different lobe taper was the main change if I recall correctly. The HP/torque I gave is my estimate of as installed in the rig #'s. I have had 440's in the past and even with some work would not hold a candle to this one given everything being equal. The lighter rotating assembly allows it to wind like my 340, even in the heavy pu. The cam is a very mild grind for torque and that is the main reason the #'s are not bigger. It is a Comp Cam with 218-226 degrees @ .050. I can pull smoothly from a near dead stop in third gear. My desktop dyno shows about 400/500 which I believe is a bit much. Yes, it does cost more to build than a standard rebuiild but not a lot and IMHO there are some gains to be made over a 440. There is a lot of controversy over whether the gains are worthwhile or not.
RR