FMC 460 vs. GMC 454 vs. MOPAR 440 ?

^^ when the flag drops the bullshit stops, line em up

 

Here's what $1400 sounds like on the dyno. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUXrLuGTkoA

 

I like the "tire melting torque" part. My vote is the 460. The 429-460s make easy power and the fact they are not as common, (read, snore) as a big block Chevy makes them a bit more appealing. I may be bit biased though. I've built a few and was always pleased with how easy it was to make good power with them.
The BBCs are good motors; I had one in my '70 SS Chevelle years ago, and it ran well with a bigger cam, but if I had to chose between the two the Ford would win.
The 440 isn't a bad choice either, a buddy of mine lives and breathes Mopar and has had good results with them as well.

 

Actually, the 429-460 Fords have the starter on the passenger side, therefore no steering system problems.

 

Funny you should ask.This is the 1970 429 that I put in my '56 F100 (see avatar). It was basically stock, just had a .030 overbore and .509 lift cam. With the toploader hooked up behind it there was some serious grunt on hand. The original engine spec'd at 360 hp, and a set of the DOVE heads on a 460 can help reach these numbers easily. No I won't sell you mine.
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Watch craigslist for dirt cheap or even free motor homes ,with the 440 just a personal preference ,but they have awesome torque and the best reliability in my opinion. they usually have low miles and run. get it home yank out the engine and trans ,scarp the rest and get your money back or make a couple hundred if you got it for free.

could do the same with the ford and chevy engines but i think the 440 is better starting point but thats just one Mopar guys opinion.

 

all my 460's have the starter on the passenger side.

 

My Car is living proof of stock parts can go fast. I have a 1991 460 out of a van with c9ve heads with alot of porting on the exhaust side. Stock shortblock and solid flat tappet cam in 4200# Galaxie its best time is 11:77 at 115. I like these big engines they have been very good to me being on a small budget.

 

I've had both 454's and 440's
Love the Mopar 440 I had.

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~kaneofthenation/highflowdynamics/id15.html
This may convince you or not.

 

Of the 3 I am partial to the B/RB. if you are looking at RV motors you can usually find a tall deck 413 but 440 or 413 you have to watch they usually have crappy heads.

I can't give you numbers stock but any of the 3 will move the average hot rod down the road OK. It is pricey to build a MOPAR so if price is a consideration maybe the 454 is your best bet.

 

I'm a Mopar guy first, then Chevy/Buick/Pontiac when it comes to good torque. Consider that the 440 was evenly matched with at 14-20 cubes less from the factory. (rod/stroke angle and lifter diameter on the lobe played big parts). Having said that, the cheapest hp/$ ratio is always Chevy. I still vote mopar then build it mean later.

Plus a 440 is a 440 is a 440- they didn't care whether the block was going in a station wagon or a charger- it's good iron,with a deep skirt holding in a strong crank. -rick

 

Loved my 460! My vote for best big block!


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

to me they would all work it would depend what i was going to drop them in. the chev has a greater choice of transmissions

 

In my OT but light weight car built very much like a HAMB hot rod, I liked my 460 just fine. I also ran it with a 455 Pontiac which I liked just fine. Lets face it 440-460 cubic inches with good heads and reasonable compression in a light car is going to be pretty fun to drive. I never had a BBC or a 440 but anything like that is going to run pretty good. When I was a kid, anything over 300 inches was a big engine. 400 was a mountain motor. And we had lots of fun.

 

I know that OP wrote one of these three.
But I might confess, 351m/400, aint bad, aint that expencive and aint that rare! And I like em.

But being completly un-bias, the mopar guys makes the Best case!

The Chevy was in the TLB car, but I bet I was'nt cheap. And that was one the parameters of the test.

And just one more sentence that is of no value, but I been keeping it of here, but no more:
Amongst Chevy guys you often hear, those Ford smogger engines are so Retardet, and so are the owners!

Thank god, I'm not Bias.

Go MOPAR.

 

I got pretty soured on the big Chevys about the first time I took a good look at the heads. What a poorly designed mess. Unequal length intake ports and a head bolt missing on every other cylinder. The only way the race guys could make them really fast was to use heads that looked like a Ford. I like the big Fords a lot, but I think the Mopar motor had the best design. Strong block, great rods, great oiling system with external pump, shaft rockers, good heads, and the distributor in the front where it should be. Also no water in the intake, so changing manifolds is real simple. They also had the shortest stroke and biggest bore of the three, so they would rev like a small block. When you're ready to go fast, there are tons of race parts out there for cheap- the alky and nitro Hemi motors use the same cranks and rods. With the big bore, a longer crank makes the motor real big easily, and those cranks can be bought for next to nothing. You can build a big inch Mopar for the same money as a 440, and a lot cheaper than a Chevy by using a few good used parts.

You may not be considering building a fresh motor, but if you are, consider this- a 400 Mopar has a bigger bore than a 440, and a real short stroke. The deck height is shorter, making a smaller, lighter motor for a small car. A 440 crank makes it a 446, and .030 over makes a 451, in a tight package. A 400 can be found cheap, and they made tons of them. Not a bad choice for a rod. Put in a common 4.15 crank in it, and you have an easy 500" motor.

 

Funny you should mention the 400, I was just rolling it over in my head. Wrecked big block dart by the way is a good place to find one.

When we still had a dragstrip here a lot of the low buck (a relative term) MOPAR guys ran 'em, the long crank and stockish bore made a real screamer.

I got a buddy that has a **** '68 Dart GT that he was running a 440 in but still had the original 400 low deck ( with a hole in a piston). he said to me one day what if we put a 440 crank in this and I said it would be a stroker. then he walked over to my bench and rolled my 440 6 pac stuff out from under the bench and said, well I got to buy pistons anyway. I noticed he didn't mention buying the crank or rods . A week later he owned a screaming dart GT.


**** yea the car is OT but he is an '80s kid and it is his first car.

 

There were "B" engine Darts made, but not with the 400. Your friend's car may have had a 383, since there were some Darts produced that way. The 400 production ran from 1971 till 1978. and the majority were found in Mopar's big cars and pickups. There are tons of them out there, and cheap.

 

His uncle bought it new, it is a numbers match and one of us is mistaken. Either me on the year or you on the dates. So you believe that you are right and I'll believe that I am, I have had enough drama for one day.

 

I'm surprised no-one mentioned 500 cube. Cadillacs

 

472s were better engines.

 

The big Caddy as well as the 455" Olds, Pontiac, and Buick just aren't supported as well in the aftermarket.

 

Didn't mean to cause added drama. I've just worked with these motors a lot over the last 35 years, and I've picked up a little here and there.
Just poke it into Google, and all will be revealed.

 

"You just can't build a ton of power with low compression and no quench".

Nothing could be further from the truth. I bought a smogger 440 out of a New Yorker derby car. Turned out to have been treated to a decent stock rebuild and was still tight and fresh, so I buttoned it back up, slammed in a Comp XE268 cam, a pair of 440 Source Stealth heads, Mopar M1 intake, AVS 800 carb and headers. It makes 500 horsepower and is more docile on the street than most motors I have had. I could have squeezed a bit more out of it, but I didn't want a low compression motor that also made no vacuum on the street. I also didn't want steep gears and a loosey go0sey converter.

I have heard a saying from one of the wise old owls on some of the Mopar only forums. "There are three key components to making real power in an engine: the first two are cylinder heads. The third, and most important, are cylinder heads". There is absolute truth in this statement. Compression is a valuable element in an engine build, but it is not critical at all, unless you are building a motor to wind up and make gobs of power at high RPM. Having a high compression mill allows you to utilize a massive, lopey camshaft with lots of overlap...like an expensive stroker motor. Strokers are great at the track, but if you want to make the most of one, you're also running 4:11 gears and 4000 stall converters...which suck arse on the street. You don't need to build up an $8500 stroker motor to have fun on the street.

For the longest time, it seemed that Mopar BB lovers got the short shrift when it came to head selection. You either paid bank to port the crap out of some old tired iron. You paid bank to acquire some B1 race heads. You paid bank to hunt down some old Max Wedge repops. That was pretty much it. Now there are at least as many choices for aftermarket heads for the Mopar RB engine as there are for the Chebbie guys, including the excellent new Trick Flow Heads. Mopar Action Magazine recently utilized the TF heads on a Mopar B engine, in this case a 400 stroked out to 470 cubes. The engine made well over 700 hp and still had potential for more.

So to recap:
high compression is great, sure. It's not necessary, though, unless you're running hard at the track, on quest for 9 second quarter mile times. It's a great time for B/RB Mopar guys. Things are coming up roses insofar as options and parts for buildups.