Hello - I am new here. Ive been trying to find an active classic muscle car forum... This one looks pretty busy.

I am looking to buy a car that has a 440 from a 1970 Plymouth Superbird that was built to 525HP with 760 Ft-Lbs of torque (at the flywheel). The engine has been dynoed several times on two different dynos.

Is this possible to have that much torque with only having 525HP? I've only seen specs on 440's and other V8's with the torque about 5% above the HP.

What does this do to 1/4 mile times (vs an engine with 525HP with 525Lbs torque?) Does it really help it out a lot?

Is 525HP/760Ft-Lbs reasonable for a 440?

Thanks for the help!

 

Yeppers

 

440's are extremely extremely torquey motors! And yes it will help your quarter miles times quite a bit. Torque pretty much is the towing strength of the motor. How hard it can pull. In an easier way to understand it the more torque you have the easier it's going to pull the weight of your car. So say your vehicle ways 3000 pounds with a stock 440. Now the motor with the 760 ft lbs of torque is going to move your car like it only weighs 1500 or 2000 lbs. If that makes sense. Torque is what sets you back in the seat when you step into it. The more torque you have the harder your gonna get slammed into the seat. So it's actually the more important number when it comes to a 1/4 mile car.

At least thats what I have understood torque to be. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

that's a good way to describe it.

 

It is possible with the right gearing. Were those figures from an engine dyno or chassi dyno

 

I've never seen it on a Gasoline 440 Engine, but that does NOT mean it ain't so, and no matter, this is the Internet ?

Assuming 525hp is a "peak", and also the 760ft/lb is a "peak", it would be real nice to know the rpm where each "peak" occured ? kinda get a snapshot of whats going on here using,
Torque = (hp x rpm) / 5252
Torque & rpm are the only really measureable numbers on a Dyno, the Horsepower just being a function.

Be a real interesting Dyno Sheet to look at ?
Did you get a Dyno Sheet ? Can you post it up ?

Is this a 3.75" Stroke 440 or is it a Stroker Arm ?
One helluva lotta "push" on the shorter arm ?

 

Truer words were never spoken. HP is nothing more than Torque (which is force) measured so much distance in so much time time, . So think of torque as the ultimate lifting/ winching force if you will, and HP is figured depending on the RPM of the engine

 

Lol this is accurate.

The term "Horsepower" quite literally means the power of a horse. Back in the 1800's when steam engines first started coming out someone (James Watts (wikipedia) lol decided he wanted to be able to measure the power output of a steam engine and figured that your average work horse (literally a work horse that pulls plows and what not) put out 746 watts. So 746 watts = 1 hp lol. So when someone says they have a 525 hp engine they are literally saying they have the power of 525 literal horses under the hood lol. So when you think of it like that it's kind of an inaccurate way of measuring... well anything lol.

Well I suppose if you said that if you had the exact same horse cloned 525 times and stuffed them all under your hood it would be a little more accurate lol. Provided they could all run in sequence with each other and not be tripping all over the place... ok I've officially thought into this way too far lmao!

 

Thanks for the input.