I'm thinking over the options, my car is not matching numbers so that's not a concern. A friend of mine is trying to talk me into buying a crate motor. I have a 72 Polara four door 440 with 3:23 rear. Not a lot of engine rebuilders left around here (Mass.). What would you do?
CRATE OR REBUILD ?
- Thread starter polarus
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75LandYacht
Yank Tank
What are you looking to do with the car once done? What’s wrong with the current 440?
I like to take long rides, reliability is my biggest concern. I would like to kick the performance up a notch over a stock 72 440. Current 440 is out of a parts car (72 Polara,) it has 80-90 K on it. No major problems but it will need a complete rebuild.
Who built the crate engine yer looking at? Maybe they could rebuild your current engine too. Then you'd have exactly what you want.
Newport 66
Old Man with a Hat
I thought abt the same thing with my wagon engine. I decided to go with the rebuild. That way I can do exactly what I want to do to it for my application. Mild cam and intake for low rpm torque, heads done to match the performance needs and wants. A rebuild is also cool as heck vs. Buying an engine...IMHO
I haven't talked to anyone yet, just looking online, man there's a lot to look at. I had a local guy in mind but he retired.
75LandYacht
Yank Tank
Factors to consider.. what’s your time frame, in a hurry?. What’s your budget? Create is cheaper! With a warranty.. are you KEEPING the car? But! As mentioned, have it built the way YOU want. If reliability is you main goal, the create it.. IMO.
Mind if I ask how much?
The Horvaths
Young man with a cowboy hat
Crate will be cheaper and easier. If you are not familiar with engine building, I would not attempt it.
Pace Performance
You really want a good machine shop - not an engine re-builder per se. They are not always the same. The guy rebuilding my 440 sold his machine shop and retired years ago, but he now has a full machine shop next to his house where he builds race engines, re-builds diesels and everything else. If you feel like schlepping your engine down to Maryland, I'll give you his contact info.
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Newport 66
Old Man with a Hat
I set a budget at about $6,000. Doing all the assembly myself. This is complete from the air cleaner to the oil pan.
Rip, what is the contact info?
Not a big fan of crate motors. Quality and long term reliability has not been good with them. Most start showing quality issues as soon as 20,000 miles or less. When you do a quality rebuild I have seen good performance at 70,000 miles. Ripinator is right, a very good machinist is a must have. If you have done this before, then do your own rebuild. If not start the search for a good rebuilder. Members on this forum can help. PM me if you have any questions.
monaco75
Senior Member
Mopar is just releasing the hellcat engine in crate form 
Branded as the hellcrate, for a cool $23000. But it does seem to come with just about everything you need to convert.
Branded as the hellcrate, for a cool $23000. But it does seem to come with just about everything you need to convert.
bajajoaquin
Senior Member
Great suggestion, because it illustrates my issues with crate motors. I mean this sincerely, not as snark.
They only list one big block on their website: BPC4931CT - Blueprint Chrysler 493 Base Engine • Aluminum Heads • Flat Tappet Cam • Base • 525 HP / 590 FT LBS
There may be more options if you call them.
However, look at the cam spec! It's got 241 degrees of duration at 0.050" which is going to kill the low-end torque. I think that most crate engine options will be similar. It's a high-duration cam to get good power numbers with generic parts. That's fine if you have an A- or B-body, but if you're hauling around 4500 pounds or more, that's a big sacrifice to make.
If you can find a good machinist, you should rebuild it yourself. The machining is the hard part, and you're going to farm that out. The rest of it is being careful with your disassembly and re-assembly.
Detmatt used the 375hp factory 440 cam and is happy with the results. Unless you're going with a factory cam which has weirdly long duration (to my mind), I'd stay under 225 degrees at 0.050" lift. With a 112 LSA, that will give you more torque and good vacuum.
For $6500, you can do a really nice job if you're doing it yourself. That can probably include the trans and rear-end, and all the other bits that wear.
Edited to add: Why exactly are you rebuilding it? My original engine has 165k on it and it's a little tired, but still runs nice, and I wouldn't hesitate to drive it some pretty long distances. Is it possible it just needs good tuning? What is the compression on it?
Motor was partially disassembled when purchased, heads and intake in trunk.
Hey if they can do that to a 65 Chrysler why not a 72 Polara. Where's my sawzall I got to modify that firewall.Mopar is just releasing the hellcat engine in crate form
Branded as the hellcrate, for a cool $23000. But it does seem to come with just about everything you need to convert.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
Nonsense, plenty of info everywhere and a basic rebuild is step by step. How else are you going to learn. If you can read, have a little bit of mechanical aptitude and a place you feel comfortable asking questions, like here, I would not hesitate trying a rebuild of any component of your car.
Thanks but I'd like to stay local, but it might be cheaper just to move to Maryland. You have any spare rooms?
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