73 charger engine swap. 318-440

[73chargercali]

i bought schumackers engine swap kit to change a 318 to a 440 and i was wondering how many people have performed this swap? will my transmission mount right up? what are some of the problems. i would like to learn from others experiences and avoid mistakes.

[cudaken]

 You won't learn anything from my experiences because all my Mopar are BB cars from the start. Plus I have never had a 3 gen Charger. But from what I have gather if yours had a 904 Trans you will need to have the drive shaft shorten. I think the trans cross member will work with a 727 but mounts will not.

I would say you have 85% chances a 383 or 400 Trans mount is the same as a 904 mount from what Nic told me about is 70 Charger conversion. 440 trans mount is not the same as a 383/400 mount betten 68-70.

I am guessing you know about cooling, engine wiring harrness, front bars (don't have to change) and other BS that goes with it. The fact you bought the schumackers (don't thay make Jelly as well) tells me you have done a little reachers. By they way, stock 400 and 440 73 mounts from Auto Stupid would have worked as well at $11.00 a side.

                                        Cuda Ken

PS, check what oil pan you have, from a truck will not clear a B-body K-frame

[Chryco Psycho]

trans mount is in the correct location as ken said you may need to shorten or get a different driveshaft

[73chargercali]

i heard about cheaper engine mounts, but i also heard everyone but schumacker wouldn't come close to lineing up the transmission. on the kit i bought it moves the engine so it is supposed to line up the trans mount. i just wanted to see if anyone had probs.  i plan on haveing a custom drive line built some where local and i am thinking of opting for a dana 60 from strange. thats where my whole budget is being spent.

[Lunger]

 I did the swap back in the mis 80's. at first i tried to fit the 440 on the small block k frame, the motor/trans combo was cocked about 2" out of line, now i could grab the back of the transmission and pull it inline with the trans mount. I did not know about the schumacker mounts back then, or if they even made them.

I ended up finding a big block k frame out of a corboba i belive , was a long time ago hehe. That k-frame switch is a pain in the ass, i did it by by myself. At that time i also switched to a 8 3/4" rear, had to have a driveshaft cut down to fit it. But the trans mount lined up perfect. A few years later i removed the 4 rubber kframe pucks and put in the urathane ones, i noticed a huge difference in the way it handled.

oh the oil pan, I used a pan off of a 62 413 motor, the sump was all the way in the rear of the pan. i have seen people cut part of the  k frame out and rebox it in with plate.

I would also order new torsion bar bolt kit, to make it alot easier to adjust the front stance, mine were rusted solid.

[ron73440]

I used shumackers for mine, you have to do a little cutting on the old mounts, as well as drilling a hole through them. No big deal and everything lined up just fine.

[73chargercali]

ok thanks for the input. my confidence is up and im reassured the swap will work. i will try to start next week.
thanks, tom.

[ron73440]

good luck, should work fine

[ipstrategies]

I have a 73 charger Big Block wiring harness if you need one? I picked it up when I had a 74 Charger I was planning on swapping in a Big Block. I sold the car but kept the harness. I also have a 74 26" radiator and Shroud.

[69bananabeast]

I'm in the process right now of swapin my 318 out for a 440 in my second gen right now. Most of what i've seen is pretty good from what I can tell.  Some one stated earlier that you will need to shorten the driveshaft with the changing of transmissions. I also wanted to add that most likely you will also have to get a new yoke as well.  I ran into the same problem with mine and am in the search for one currently. Also if you have not already done it a good idea would be to beef up torsion bars.

                      Hoping to have to have 318/440  swap complete and running finally  in two weeks
                                                                                                                                     nic

[73chargercali]

i tryed to get bigger torsion bars but no one i found makes them. i was told i could run the smaller one by a friend but he said i might experience some wheelstands (just some air)  if i build the motor up?  i will get a shop to build the driveline and match the yokes. i don't really need anything for the swap right now, so no thanks on the bb wires and rad (already have one lined up). good luck on your bb swap 69bananabeast.