What’s A 413 Worth

Tech Question

Jeff Sorrell, Kernersville, NC, 60’s, 413

I’m a Mopar car nut and recently my uncle asked me about the 413 engines. Hehas a chance to buy one that came out of an early sixties model Dodgestation wagon and wants to know what it’s worth. The vehicle had lowmileage. Any info you can give me will be greatly appreciated. thanks, Jeff

Jeff-

With the exception of the 1962 Max Wedge engine, most 413s were small-porttorque engines. There’s absolutely no reason why a set of better cylinderheads couldn’t be bolted on, along with a hotter cam, etc., and then you’dmake some HP. But the problem is, value-wise, that it’s just as easy tobuild a 440, which is just as stout, takes the same parts, but has theadvantage of a much larger bore size to begin with – not only creating thelarger displacement, but allowing larger, and unshrouded, valves. Betterbreathing = more HP.

All 413s came with forged steel crankshafts, and, once it passes a Magnafluxtest, this is a worthwhile piece. It can be swapped into any 440 block, mostof which, in the mid-late ’70s, came with weaker cast-iron crankshafts.

Pre-’62 413 used a completely different crank flange setup (8-bolt, greateroffset) and those have little value except for pre-’62 restorations.

Bottom line: if it’s worth $200, that’s a lot.

Rick