| Intro || Restoration - Before || Restoration - During || Restoration - After || Modifications || My Life || 440cid Swap || Painless Wiring Harness|| A-518 Overdrive Swap|

|440cid Swap|

Well, I got the 360 out (and sold!), sanded the firewall, and dropped in the 440. While the engine bay was empty, I coated the firewall and inner fenders with undercoat and moved a couple of things around.

BEFORE AFTER

I installed the headers and had the notch the frame about a 1/4" to clear the Headmen Headers sufficiently.

In these pics you can see the progress. I started her up on New Years Day to check if I wired the Summit CD Ignition box correctly and to make sure everything was OK. She sounded awesome! I forgot how loud open headers actually were! So loud that the neighbors across the street had to come outside to see what was going on...

I'm running a "Ford Lightning" style exhaust that is exiting just fore of the rear wheel. I'm using Flowmaster 3" mandrel-bent tubing (aluminized) to a Magnaflow 2-into-1 collector. From there, it goes into a 3" Magnaflow SS Cat to a Summit Racing 2-chamber muffler. The muffler has a single inlet and a dual outlet so I'll have 2 tailpipes shooting out. When I find a nice set of 3" tips, I'll weld those on. I did it this way so I can pass emmissions requirements for Maricopa County (AZ) which says "catalytic converters must be fully functional and identical or better in performance than the orginal design.... replacements must retain AIR injection, SMOG, bla bla bla...".

Here's the header pipe I welded together using the Flowmaster 3" "Universal Pipe kit". I used a Magnaflow Y-pipe to bring the two pipes together.

A shot of the pipes and muffler. Notice how the FedEx delivery guy "pre-clearanced" the muffler for me. If it appears to affect performance, I'll swap it out. For now, it sounds good when running.

------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE 10-1-07 -------------------------------------------------------

How the big-block idea got started...

Well, it started out with me wanting to replace the transmission. I figured that since I'd be towing/hauling some potentially large loads, that the transmission should be replaced and upgraded.

Looking around to see if any used TF-727's were available, I stumbled across an engine/transmission combo for sale on Craigslist. It was a complete 440cid with a big-block 727 already bolted up. Not only was the 440/727 complete, they were recently rebuilt. The gentleman that is selling the combo originally built it up for his Bellvedere. Looking to turn his 'Sunday driver' into a pure drag car, he no longer has a need for the big-block.

The big-block has the 906 heads, 9:1 compression, high-torque cam, distributer with Pertronix ignitor ignition, 8 mm plug wires, Weiand dual plain intake, Edelbrock 750 carb, alternator, power steering pump and all the pullies! He's even throwing in a set of truck big-block mounts and a new oil pan! Having never dynoed the engine, he guesstimates that it is pushing out around 450hp and 500lb-ft of torque. His 66' Bel ran the 1/4 in just over 12 seconds and it would have been less if he had sticky tires.