1967 Barracuda 383 tuning tips

If yur thinking like that, a low-deck 383 with a 440 crank, I think makes about a 425 cuber before boring.
but
A well built 383 is a screaming banshee. She is to BBs what the 340 was to the SBMs. At a factory stroke of 3.375 (compared to 3.315 for the 340) she can be a formidable hi-rpm weapon, without the monster torque associated with longer strokes. Torque which, in most A-bodies, just overwhelms the chassis.
The hick-up I anticipate is gearing such an engine for street. It won't take much to push that 383 to 400/450 horsepower, but it comes with the price of being at hi-rpm.
Nothing wrong with that except with 3.23s say, 5800 rpm with 28" tires is 58 mph.
To put the 383 power down where you mostly drive, say 35 mph is gonna be darn near impossible. And if you do gear it with say 3.91s, well then say goodbye to hiway cruising cuz 3.91s and 28s makes 65=3050 @ zeroslip, and that is not much fun, and usually uses a lot of gas to go anywhere. ..
So, IMO, if you do build to take advantage of the short stroke, you will want to consider a nuther gear for the transmission, an overdrive gear.
The A518 has a .69 od allowing you to turn ~2300 at 65 with 4.30s @ zero-slip. and the A518 has a low gear of 2.45, so 30mph@WOT will be about 4000 in first gear. In second 30 is about 2250@zero-slip. So that's kindof cool. You can be comfortably cruising along at 2250, and when you nail it, ZING! on the KD you are doing 4000, close to peak torque. First gear with 4.30s will rev the clock to 6000=45mph. On the shift, the Rs will drop to 3540, so whatever cam you choose, it better have the juice to pull you up outta that hole.
So now we have THREE data points to satisfy.
1) A first gear outshift at 6000, coming in at
2) 3540 in second at 45mph, and
3) A cruise rpm of 65=2300
Tuff call.
I suggest a solid lifter FLAT tappet cam , because;
A) that short stroke is gonna rapidly give up cylinder pressure with the kindof Intake closing angle that anything else will bring, and
B) you need an early closing intake angle to cruise at 2300 and get reasonable fuel economy, and oil-life
C) more importantly, you need a late opening exhaust to efficiently cruise at that 2300 number., and
D) the only way to satisfy all those requirements is with a solid FT cam.
So My choice is to have an after-lash Ica of say 64*, but I want an after-lash power duration of 110*. I do not care about overlap, Ok so
to be able to shift at 6000, she needs a cam to powerpeak at about 5300, so that would be an after-lash intake duration of 230/235 @.050
Allowing after-lash clearance ramps of 35*, that makes 265/270 intake duration.Lets use 268*after lash/232@.050, because this makes an off the shelf grind possible; the 268/276. Lets put it on a 110LSA,install it at 108, and the numbers come in at
268intake/118comp/110 power/276 exhaust/52 overlap; all are after lash numbers.
So now we are gonna need those aluminum heads and pump the pressure up to 11/1, and I get

Static compression ratio of 11:1.
Ica of 62*, at 600 ft elevation
Effective stroke is 2.66 inches.
Your dynamic compression ratio is 8.88:1 .
Your dynamic cranking pressure is 184.06 PSI.
V/P (Volume to Pressure Index) is 167

BadaBoom! you got a tiger by the tail!, With flat-tops, a Tight-Q, and closed chamber alloy heads; suitable to be a Daily Driver, burning the cheapest gas money can buy.

>Can you make more power? Well sure; there is room in the build, but you will loose driveability.
>Can you get better fuel-economy? well sure; but it's gonna cost you performance.
>Do you need the overdrive? Only if you gotta hit the hiway at 65 mph. 4.30s are NOT hiway friendly; but they sure are fun in the city.
> do you need 4.30s? No, you can run less but then you will need more stall; about 200rpm per 10% smaller gear. and then your power peak moves up 10% per 10% gear change, so you might as well get a smaller cam; ~1 size per gearchange, but hang on, then your pressure is rising, and you gotta reduce the compression ratio, to keep the engine out of detonation.
> Everything is related to everything else; so once you set a course, IMO, you are more or less married to it.
> IF YOU STROKE it, NONE of this applys.
Happy HotRodding