I've recently taken on the project of finishing my step dad's 56 Dodge C3. He passed away before he could finish it which is really sad because he put so much hard work into it and was getting really close. He had dropped a 75-78 mopar 440 RB engine (casting 4006630) along with an A727 and 489 rear end. Really cool project and is mostly done! All that's left is basically a top side engine rebuild, electrical, and minor part replacements. I'm to the point where I'm getting real close to starting it, however I've discovered that there is no dipstick. So of course I order one up and slide underneath and discovered, to my dismay, that he had fabricated custom engine mounts to grab on to the sides of the 440 and one of them is slightly in the way of the oil dipstick hole making it nearly impossible to get the right angle to slide the tube in. It's not blocking the hole completely, but getting a chrome dipstick tube to fit without bending it to death was out of the question. But you all know what's like when you're THAT close to being able to start for the first time only to be halted by such a small trivial issue like this. So I thought to myself, "why not just plug the hole with a rubber stopper until I can figure out the best way to get this dipstick tube in? It's obviously going to take more work than expected (removing or altering the engine mounts) so as long as I have the exact amount of oil.......wait a minute what is the oil capacity?? Upon researching 75-78 440s, I discover that they can take anywhere from 5-8 qts. Without knowing what the engine came out of, and without having a dipstick to check this presented a problem. I got under and noticed that it had a 933 oil pan. From my research it appears that the 933 was a 4 qt pan. So does that mean it's 4qts plus one for the filter equaling 5 qts total? Or were there some 440s that took more than 1 qt in addition to the 4 qt pan? So i'm stuck. I'm not sure what the best course of action is at this point. I don't want to spend too much money figuring out the crazy dipstick issue because upon starting the engine for the first time I might discover other things that need replacing. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
can you post a picture of the mount how bout plugging hole and dremmall a clearance for tube you can bend tube some but not a lot that pan should be 4 qts plus 1 for filter 5 total
put in 5 qts. with the filter,don't forget to pull the dist. and prime the engine first with a dril, remember it turns counter clockwise
If you are just going to test fire it put in 4 1/2 quarts of oil and fire it. you will probably be 1/2 quart under or over and neither would be a problem.
Why not do it right once and be done with it. Alter the motor mount so the dipstick tube will fit. Dremel tool ,grinder or whatever it takes.
Unless the oil pan looks ridiculously huge, its a standard 5 quart system. If you upgrade to a high VOLUME (note I said volume not pressure) oil pump I recommend putting 6 quarts in it, otherwise you will starve it for oil at higher rpms. If you cant get the dipstick to fit correctly its probably at the wrong angle. If that fails and you have to go the custom route, get whatever dipstick you have that fits and put in 4 quarts. Start the engine to fill the filter and check the oil. Mark that spot on the stick and drill a hole...that is your "low" mark. Add another quart and check it, mark that spot and drill another hole and that is your "full" mark. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
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