383 / 432 Mopar stroker short block cost & build

Well the long block is together, ready to go in the car. Here are some of the details that stood out.

Looks like if you use an OEM 440 crank and turn down the main bearing journals, the crank counterweights also need to be turned down 0.125 inch radius so they clear the engine block. On the Scat forged crank I used, apparently they are taking a 440 crank and turning the main bearing journals just like oem, because the crank counterweights had to be turned down. I took 0.100 inch off the radius. For consistency I would say take the same off the counterweights on the Scat crank as the oem 440 crank. That is 0.125 inch.
I used the oem 383 rods which are said to have the same beam cross section as the longer 440 rods. I used them because they came with the 383 engine, and Diamond has pistons to fit them and press fit or floating wrist pins. The oem rod small ends could be bushed for full floating pins if you want. A side note: I went with the pressed pins because on the 340 duster I had years ago, it had full floating wrist pins. When I rebuilt the engine with 130k miles on it, some of the pins were turning in the rod bushings, some turning in the piston pin boss, and maybe one or two were free to turn in both the rod and piston. It did not seem to matter to the engine, it ran fine on the street without much ‘full floating’ going on.
The Scat crank main and rod journals (out of the box) were all cut to the small side of the bearing journal spec. I had to fit all the bearing bores to the small side of their specs to come up with bearing clearances under .003 inch. Lots of opinions on bearing clearances, but I prefer to stay in the middle of oem specs for my street use, rather than the loose end (.003).
The Scat crank thrust bearing width was on the minimum side of the spec...good. The main bearings fit the cranks large fillet radii with no issues. The rod bearings needed to be scalloped to clear the cranks large fillet radii.

Other details: There are more connecting rod choices if you go with the longer 440 rods.
I had initially cut clearance notches in the block to clear the crank counterweights, but after turning the counterweights down, the block work was not necessary.
It was easy to internally balance the Scat forged crank with oem rods and forged pistons. Had to drill alot of deep holes in the counterweights. Looks like Scat left plenty of material on the crank so you could internal balance with heavy H-beam rods.
I had no issues with any parts that mated to the Scat forged crank. Everything fit with no issues, from the oem vibration damper to the Mcleod steel flywheel & pilot bushing for the 4 speed. The Diamond forged pistons were nicely machined, no problems there.
The short block went together with no problems.
Decked the block .026 inch for zero deck, and cut 0.02 off the heads; the intake manifold still fit on correctly (just barely) with no extra machining of the intake surfaces on the heads.
I chose to rebuild the oem iron 906 heads, cost was about 1k with all new parts. This was half the cost of aftermarket alum heads when you include tear down inspection, touching up valve seats and guides, and replacing the ‘weak’ parts.

For my build, the next part of the puzzle is did I choose the right camshaft duration to match a street driven heavy Ebody, 3.23 axle ratio, and 5200 foot elevation. I went conservative with 220/223 duration at .05 lift. I know your all gasping at that “tiny” cam. The OEM 440 HP cam had 214/220ish duration at .05 lift, so I’m a step up from that. I prefer acceleration right out of the hole, not waiting for the engine to build rpms. I'll bet my cam choice is close based on past engine builds at my location, if not swapping cams is no big deal to me.