My 1969 Dodge Charger engine swap is heating up. While there are a few odds and ends that need handling before we can slam the 650-horsepowercrate engine in place, the old Mopar B-body's engine bay is open for business. I am absolutely stoked to be one step closer to feeling the power of the BluePrint Engines crate motor, but it is a bittersweet moment. That old 440 has served me and the Charger well. It's not the end of the road for it, though. I do have plans to someday upcycle it into another killer ride. Removing My Charger’s Beloved 440 Pulling the 440 from the Charger's engine bay was a heart-wrenching moment. It's great to be forging ahead and making real progress, but this motor is significant to me in more ways than one. For starters, the casting date is the same as my Mom's birthday, making it the perfect match for my dad's old car. And though I had her cast her initials into the new BluePrint Engines Gen-III Hemi-Compatible crate motor to make it feel right at home, it's still sad to see it leave.Hank O'Hop 440 Cubic Inch V8 Highlights Low-compression 1973 casting. Upgraded with closed chamber heads, dual quad intake, and performance camshaft. Burning lots of oil, needs a full rebuild. Plan to replicate a 440 Six-Pack engine with it. It and the leftover parts may find their way into another Mopar B-body build. I put this motor together in the bed of a truck. I put some closed chamber heads on it, along with a new cam and intake. It's been six years since then, and I've put a ton of hard-earned miles on it along the way. It taught me pretty much everything I know about actually working on these motors and what it takes to keep them running decades after the castings cooled. It's fair to say that I am where I am today partially because of that engine, and this marks the end of an era.It really is for the better, though. This motor needed a good rebuild when I got my hands on it. It's burning a ton of oil, and I don't know how much longer it can keep it up. It's served me well, but it's time to show it the love it deserves. As of now, my plan is to rebuild this motor and find a new home for it, along with all the parts of the Charger that have been replaced in favor of big upgrades over the past few years. By now, I have almost everything I need to slam together another B-body, and the multi-carb induction on the 440 has me very interested in building some sort of A12 tribute. One Step Closer To A Hemi Swap 426 On StandI've done more than sit around sobbing after yanking that engine out, though. I did finish bolting the rest of the parts onto the motor that it needed to fit in place. There are a few other things that need handling first, but the motor is good to go.The harmonic balancer has since returned from the machine shop. In the last update, I ran into a brick wall when I found the original balancer had a keyway cut into it, while the new one didn't. After confirming with the techs at BluePrint, that keyway is there because they use the same bottom end for naturally aspirated and supercharged engines, and it simply keeps the balancer from slipping when running the blower. That said, the machine shop installed a keyway in the new balancer for me, and it fits like a glove.The other thing I needed to do was swap the oil pan. BluePrint sends these out with a mid-sump oil pan. That would be a great thing for this build if I still had the factory K-member. However, because I swapped to a Heidts Pro G IFS system, the car now calls for a rear sump. The folks at Holley once again were a major help and set me up with a rear sump oil pan for this motor. It's just another one of the long list of parts it offers to make this as easy of a job as possible. Still Waiting On A Major Upgrade Hank O'HopThis pretty much marks the half-way point of this engine swap. I have a feeling that, once that engine is actually in place, things are likely to come together very quickly, especially with the ease of installation of other parts we need to make it run—famous last words, right? That said, I am waiting on a few major components that are keeping me from just slamming it in place. Namely, the parts that sort out the transmission situation.In the meantime, there are plenty of things I can work on to keep me busy while I wait. For starters, I need to address the engine bay that my 440 and I made a mess of. Now's a good time to straighten up any blemishes and start figuring out the wiring to the new motor. There's also the matter of getting the fuel system mapped out and mocked up. So, I may be waiting, but I'm not dead in the water. Stay tuned.
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