440 with no power.

Hey guys, my 440 engine seems to have no power. I have 33 inch tires, and I'm not sure what axle ratio. I think it might also be straight piped because she is really loud. When I straight piped my gsxr motorcycle, she had no acceleration and no power. So when I bought a new exhaust system for it, it felt like a new bike. Any ideas on whats going on with my motor?

that backfiring issue you mentioned in the other thread could be the issue. my truck had no power and i changed the distributor. the old distributor was the computer controlled one. once i swapped that out and put a new HEI dizzy in it, it ran like a top. my power output probably doubled.

i doubt the exhaust would be the issue.

Is it easy to change the distributor to hei? And what is hei? Also, the straight pipe probably doesn't provide any back pressure. That doesn't matter?

it does, but only during certain RPM ranges. on a v-8 its less likely that the exhaust would effect the performance as compared to a motorcycle.

HEI stands for high energy ignition. its what chevy and gmc started using back when dodge was still using the ignition module. its a different set up is all. much simpler and less wires required. HEI needs just one 12v wire. where the dodge system has like 10 wires to complete the ignition circuit.

and ya switching that setup to HEI is easy. like i said, all it requires i one 12v wire to the coil, coil wires up to the distributor. done.

but you need to buy a whole new distributor that is set up as HEI. for a good one it costs around 100$. but there is a write up on how to buy just the HEI module and wire it into your current distributor. its a sticky thread on this forum

Haha, I never thought I would switch to something chev's used. But I will give it a go. Any recommendations on which hei to get?

i bought the skip white's HEI distributor (like 60$). but after 3 months the bearings went bad inside it. they replaced it but i am going to swap to a more high quality one like this.....

http://www.summitracing.com/search/y...style/male-hei

but of course, youll want one for your 440

a lot of people here will argue that the dodge setup works just fine. which is true. but i liked the simplicity of the HEI distributors. swapping to a HEI set up eliminates a lot of components.....wires....ignition module....ect.

That ignition if only for small blocks. I will look around and research similar ones. Thanks so much

for big blocks

http://www.summitracing.com/search/m...?Ns=Rank%7CAsc

You know what. I believe I have an MSD ignition already. I will take a look at it tomorrow haha. I'll take a picture too

Oh and another thing that may be linked to loss of power, is I get garbage gas milage. I know it's a 7.2L, but I get roughly 1.2 km/L. So like 1m/L. It's ridiculous, I have an 80L tank I believe, and I can travel not much more than 80km on a tank of gas

After getting your ignition repaired/replaced and timing set, you could tune your carb, replace/re-gap plugs, and check for vacuum leaks. That should get your engine running a little more efficiently.

However... These big blocks aren't known for mileage. Expect anywhere from 8-12 mpg, and you would have to be DAMN lucky to get 12 mpg.

My carb is running insanely rich, I haven't checked my timing yet, and I believe I'm averaging somewhere around 5 with my city driving...

I will try everything mentioned above to get more power and milage. If I can't get more power out of this big block, I am going to switch to a 360... No point on keeping a 440 if it weighs way more with no advantage in power. But, I will try to fix her.

my 318 gets around 10 miles per gallon. fairly common for these old engines to get crappy gas mileage

I totally understand bad gas milage, I dont like the fact that I get like 4mpg... it sucks.

I don't think there's much advantage in power for a 360 over a 440... Sure you can build a 360, but to put the same amount of effort into a 440 there is no comparison...

As for weight difference; it's a truck, not a ferrari. Especially with a 4x4, weight has it's advantages in snow...

Good point with the weight. Power wise, I mean if I can't get the power from the 440 with the mentioned ways, I will swap to a 360. I have a good running 360 already that gets way better gas milage lol. Not too sure on how the 360 would handle 4lo though?

why would anyone want to replace a 440 with a small block? long ago i had a friend with a 92000 mile charger r/t with a 440 that was one of the sweetest running motors i ever heard. she would run 14's all day and top out over 150. fuel mileage be damned. there's nothing like a big block for exciting the senses. check your carb and make sure its set right, check your timing and give her a tune up, and check for vacuum leaks. check the kickdown for proper alignment. maachine probably had me in mind when he said some of us here prefer stock chrysler ignition. millions of miles and thousands of cars and trucks can't be wrong.

hey i have seen a few threads with issues like this one where the ignition module was to blame. unfortunately the testing procedure doesnt really tell you if its good or bad in some cases.

make sure the truck is tuned properly. like i said, my little 318 had no power when i first got it. after changing out the bad distributor, the thing ran so well i broke the crankshaft. something is not tuned right on your engine, something is amiss.