Building a 383 help

[rumblefish360]

Hey all, sorry I had a family emergency and had to return to Ohio, thus the no return messages. I appreciate what everyone has been saying so far, since its causing so much confusion let me kinda change the topic slightly. Instead of beating my dads chevelle, just let me have your words of wisdom and parts about having a nicely running 383 that I could drive everyday and not hate, with a focus on acceleration over high end speed. Something that rteally gets up and goes when I step on the pedal, but not something that is going to destroy the engine, so I can keep the engine as long as I'd like and not blow it up. I saw where a few of you wrote the engine needs to be built around putting the power to the ground, I currently have a 4 speed and an 8 3/4ths 4;10 gear ratio rear end if that would help building the engine around that at all. This is going to be a when I have a spare couple hundred bucks buy some pistons or a cam, etc. So no set budget but obviously I'd like to see the price per performance gain. Thanks again for all the help.

Ok, let me ask this, are you going to stroke this or just run the as delivered displacement? AKA 383 plus any overbore if needed?

OK, if I was to do a street bound everyday 383 driver with some balls to it and since we now know it is backed by a 4spd & 4.10's, I would do something along these lines.

On the reuse of all stock parts, just add cam and headers with a 750 carb or your choice. In the event it needs a rebuild, I would use a HyperU slug and up the ratio to a max of 9.5-1. A good valve job and matched springs in the heads to the cam.

A Cams duration is listed by the sellers/manufacturers so you can see where you want to cruise, rpm wise.
I myself would look at a cam with approximately [email protected].

If the OE parts are being thrown to the side in favor of aluminum, then it would be another 1/2 point in compression (min.)
1 step up in cam size (236/[email protected]) with as much lift as I could get in there. With 1.6 rockers if possible.
Equippe with your aluminum heads, intake and enjoy. An example of EZ would be the Edelbrock rpm heads, intake & 800 carb.
FWIW, you can continue to shave a lot of weight via an aluminum W/P & housing.
IMO, though expensive but staying with EZ, a full TTI exhaust system.

A build like this works in a friendly rpm range on pump gas that is easy enough for everyday driving.

I did this very route on the wife's 360 powered Cuda. Less cam duration to better match the 3.23 gears. Runs on 87 and pulls long and hard way past 100mph. Sorry, is haven't had the room or time to find out top end speed. But I still had over 2500 worth of rpm left at over 100mph.

 

[273]

@273 said above;
"Bottom end stroke rod ratio and displacement decides where the power band is."

Incorrect, cam duration and the ability to control the valves, AKA, valve springs and a few other factors do.

I do think you were meaning to say/imply that a shorter stroke likes to rev higher than a longer stroke engine which tends to make its power quicker in the rpm scale?

Like a 340 vs 360 or 383 vs 440 deal?

I mean if we build this 383 with a certain top end say with trick flow 240 and a 245 @ 0.050" ish cam and all that go with it.
That's gonna a make the power of this engine. Then choosing stock 3.38 or one of the stroker cranks 3.75/4.15/4.25 will decide where that power band will be for the most part.

For a mainly street car with average gearing 3.55-3.91 probably want peak power around 5400-5800 rpm.

As for what makes an engine a revver I think has more to do with air flow then stroke but using a long stroke is gonna run out of rpm sooner than a short stroke cause of piston speed.

 

[fishmens67]

I think a prepped Stealth head would be good head for a street/ strip bruiser, should support 450 Hp on a 383. and the price is right.
With some port work over 500 on a stroker.

 

[rumblefish360]

@ 273