I have bought a 68 coronet 440 that is in great condition...The engine I was told was rebuilt and does have some higher performance mods....The person I bought it from said it belong to her dad and she has no idea what was done to it..................This winter my son and I are taking the engine out to replace gaskets and glean it up and powder coat parts,,With this being said how can I tell if the heads are higher performance or the cam size ect.the owner did not know anything on it and what was done to it.

 

welcome to the forum
do you have a dial indicator? Possibly one from a degree wheel kit.
that can give you specs at the cam, just pop the valve cover and set your dial indicator on a flat part of the head probably at the edge where the cover seals and set it on top of the rocker arm at the push rod do this on the no 1 cylinder have some one read the dial while some one rotates the motor over preferably by hand with a tork-bar on the crank bolt remove the spark plugs to make this easier, that will give you your lift at the cam do both intake and exhaust, if you have a degree wheel you can install that and find out the duration and from that you will know the cam spec .
also how does it idle now is it smooth or choppy?

 

its a little choppy, I had to replace a rod and 2 lifter on it you can see a pin size hole on the bottom of it the other lifter was getting wore out...So I figured the cam was going bad.



My 16 year old boy working on the car as well, He is so proud of it.

 

yea you got to replace that cam something hit something hit something
rebuild her put your blood sweet and tears into her and she will live again for... you.

 

my brother chimes in and says
it looks like the lifter wore out and the pushrod jumped out of the lifter and landed on the edge of it and bam it bent

 

That is a possibility. MAKE sure to use a good break in lube with lots of zinc when you replace the cam...

 

What Cam do you guys think I should go with,The goal is to have a 475-500 HP by the spring, My son has $1500.00 he has worked for and saved for this car...With this being a 440 engine is it possible to do with that mount of ?

 

I had the oil changed on it not to long ago on it and did NOT know about the Zink...Is that somthing I have to use all the time when I get a new cam.

 

my brother and i use the lucas assembly lube comes in a small bottle when i do a oil change i put in a whole bottle also i run valvoline oil.
$1500 oh yea very possible with a 440 its easy to make 500hp. hell factory ratings where pushing the envelope and with todays cam grinds i sent you a lead on your private board check out the grind on that lumpy and compare it to the mopar parts similar my brother want's to use this cam so bad our next project