Yes they will work,but there are a few things to consider. All big valve(2.08 intake-1.74exhaust)heads flow virtually the same. If the 440 heads in question are 906's or 915's they won't have hardened exhaust seats which should be installed by a competent machine shop. If they are 452's they already have them from the factory as will a lot of the 70's heads.
Chrysler used a common cylinder head on big blocks all the time. 906's on 383's and 440's for example. 400's and 440's of the 70's also used the same heads. So you may already have 440 heads on your 400. To find out which heads you have,look at the last three casting numbers on top of your intake runners.
In ported form, the 452's get the nod, 1 because the are less prone to cracking when fully ported and 2 they have an easier to modify intake port. The 915's and the 906's have an intake port which is more difficult to port correctly which is why some companies charge more to port them. All big valve exhaust ports are virtually the same.
'67 440 heads, AKA 915's, have a closed(read smaller) combustion which can be desireable because of the quench effect which can reduce detonation tendencies if done properly. Also you are able to get higher compression ratios with flat top pistons.These heads a somewhat rare.
Chrysler had several different castings in the 70's with very few differences between them. Stay away from the early (516) 383 heads because they have smaller valves.
A good valve job and a bowl blend on any of these heads will get you excellent results with little difference in performance between them on a good street engine. Personally I would go with the later 452 heads with the hardened exhaust seats from the factory because of todays unleaded gas. I hope this helped some.

 

So the 452 casting heads on the engine will do just as good as the 440 heads? Should i Just leave them on instead of worrying about the 440 heads?

 

I would leave the 452's on and look other ways to improve performance. If I were to start a new big block engine project using factory heads, the 452's would be the heads I would use, be it street or strip. In fact I have a set saved for just this purpose. I'm afraid if you went through the time and money to swap heads you would be disapointed with the outcome. 400's have low compression from the factory which is why they got a bad reputation as a smog motor. This is really a shame because the have a ton of potential as a performance motor. They have good blocks, heads and the largest bore size of any factory big block mopar.
Bump up the compression a little ,cam, carb,intake, etc and have fun with this engine.

 

Its getting a big cam and new intake. Its going in a d-100 so im hoping itll thump pretty good. I appreciate the help and im gonna use the stock heads. Maybe i can sell the 440 hipos.

 

The big block cylinder heads are pretty much all the same except the 1967 and earlier closed chamber heads. The casting number is related more to the year the castings were used, not the engine size. For example my 1968 Dodge D100 pickup with a 383-2bbl used the same "906" heads as the 440HP engines (1968-1970). In 1971 the heads started changing slightly, but they still flowed nearly the same. The later "452" heads have hardened seats for unleaded fuel and are supposed to be easier to port.

The only drawback to a stock 400 engine is in stock form they had really low compression ratios (like 8:1). You could supercharge the engine pretty easy with such low compression.
I took the stroker route. Dropped a 440 crank with custom pistons into the 400 block (now 451 cid.) Pretty easy modification to do. More cubes and more compression with that change.

 

Stroking the 400 is a good way to go, They sell a kit now with pistons and crank already cut and ready to slap in.

I have a 400 in my roadrunner, its got a mild cam and headers, but will never be a "race" engine until its stroked then watch out.

My plans are to take my second long block 400 and stroke it, thats where you will get the power from this motor, its 1 of the best mopar engine to stroke because of its large bore size. Check out the latest mopar muscle mag. they have an article in there about the stroker kit for this motor.

BTW nice info on the heads moparracer
:gr_patrio

 

Hey 451mopar,

Can you give me details on how you stroked your 400, I have a 440 steel crank, but the kit looks like it would be easer to do, I talked to some machine shops around my area but they dont seem to excited about doing the work.

I looked at hughes engines and they look sweet but wayyyyy to much money for me.

My brother says i should just sell the crank to somebody with a 440 and go with the kit. :rck:

 

Its getting a big cam and new intake. Its going in a d-100 so im hoping itll thump pretty good. I appreciate the help and im gonna use the stock heads. Maybe i can sell the 440 hipos.

Big cam and single plane intake with stock compression(8.4:1) will equal 1 very anemic engine that you will not be happy with. Big cams need compression as they bleed off cylinder pressure at low RPM due to the overlap of the valve timing. You will also need a higher stall torque converter to allow the engine to come into its power band when using a fairly high duration camshaft.

 

I used the Muscle Motors stroker kit with custom ross pistons (these are really light).
The kit has the modified 440 crank, the main bearings are ground down to the 400 main size, and the counter weights are cut down a small amount to make the crank a drop-in deal (no modifications are needed to the block.)
I used stock reconditioned 440 rods with ARP bolts. These may not be as strong as the aftermarket rods, but this engine uses really light pistons which stress the rods less. I have reved the engine to 7,000 rpm several times with no problems. My normal shift point is about 6,500 rpm.

 

451mopar,

Did you have to do any mods to the oiling? did you use the 400 oil pump?
what cam did you use, did you use the hydro lifters or mech. ?

Sorry for all the questions, but I want to know the best way to go about building the stroker for the least amount of dollars. :rck:

 

Im gonna rebuild it and get higher comp pistons. before the cam goes in its gonna have prob 10:1 comp. And im gonna run a dual plane intake.

 

With the 440 crank there is plenty of clearance between the crank and stock oiling pickup points. Since I planned on higher RPMs and racing for this engine, I opened up the oil pickup hole to 1/2" and used the Melling low profile oil pan with their 1/2" pickup. I also added a stock windage tray.
The oil pump is just a Melling High Volume replacement type.
My cam is an Ultradyne 251 @ 0.050" duration solid roller (advertised 284 duration, I believe) I am using 1.6:1 roller rockers which gives about 0.620" lift. My heads are the Brodix B1-BS heads. I built this engine back in 1992 and these were about the only aluminum street/strip head avaliable. Indy only had their maxwedge sized heads (no SR avaliable at the time), and there were no Edelbrock heads. Mopar had just released the raised port stage VI head but the B1-BS was an easier bolt on.
Anyhow, the B1-BS head has really small 65cc chambers, and I wanted to run pump gas so I had to order custom dished pistons to keep the compression down to 11.0:1. A true flat top piston and these heads gives about 13:1 compression.
The intake is the single plane Mopar M1, and I'm using a 1,000 cfm Holley pro-series carb with vacuum secondaries.
The exhaust is the Hooker 2" 440 system with 3" TTI exhaust system.
Ignition is a Mallory Uni-lite distribitor (used for the adjustable timming curve) triggering a MSD6AL box with a Crane PS91 ignition coil and Jacobs wires. Timming is set at 32 degrees total. It seems the B1 heads don't need alot of ignition timming as the relocate the sparkplug closer to the center of the head.
I am also using a 10" Dynamic torque converter in my 727 trans. The trans is pretty basic, mainly just rebuilt with a shift kit.

 

Tks for the info 451