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HELP ME BUILD A 383 ON A BUDGET


CKZ03

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Heres the scenario guys, need help from the engine guru's here, engine building is definetly out of my league. This winters project is to build a 383 full roller with a budget of $4500 or less (less would be better :) ). Goal is "streetable" 450-475 hp/tq, prefer the torque/hp curve to peak at lower rpm's, 5500 or less. Im not drag racing, just want a stout azz street engine that kicks in nice & hard at cruising speeds. So Im thinking i need a cam that works well in the 1500-5500 rpm range. Parts at no cost I have on hand already, 350 4 bolt block, air gap intake, dist, cap & wires, all accessory pulleys and drives and covers, pans and such. Going to use AFR heads but not sure which ones yet - AFR180's or 190's (there goes most of the budget) not sure on what chamber size to go with yet either. Thinking 10 or 9.5 to 1 compression should be fine for me??? Here is the remainder of the drivetrain already in place - Bowtie Overdrives 200-4R Stage 2 or level 2 (whatever they call it) with the converter they sold me, they claim its a 2200-2400 stall (dont want to go any higher stall than 2600 for heat issues, this car is driven alot and long distances) and running 3.73 gears. I also have an excellent engine builder/machinist here in town that works very cheap, so his labor will be minimal - $500 max for all disassembly, cleaning and inspection, machining and reassembly. Problem with him is he cant suggest or recommend any parts combinations and is relying on me to just bring him the parts I choose. So here we go guys, what do you have for me?

 

First problem is - both Eagle and Scat have nice 383 rotating assembly kits, but range in price from $600 to $2000. cast crank, forged crank, cast pistons, forged pistons, internally balanced, externally balanced bla bla bla etc. what the he77 do I really need here? 

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Funny you mention the 383 build Cory, I've been on that kick for a while and searching local builders.

I talked to a guy at a show lately who went with one from Tri-star, http://www.tristarengines.com/catalog/high-performance-crate-engines/gm/383/383-stroker-435-475-hp-460-480-torque-complete-dyno-d-hp-crate-engine-with-dart-shp-performance-aluminum-heads-3835.html I was online last night searching complete motors. Full roller is another $500

 

He was happy with it but I haven't done a lot of checking up on them yet.

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Yea I've been looking too. If your starting with a 305 your better off with a crate motor for sure. I can't figure out if I want to do a 383 or do the 400 sb I have on the stand in my garage. Decisions decisions??? It won't be for another year or so anyhow.

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Choose your cam first and build the rest of the engine around that. Your effective compression will change depending on what cam you run. Here's a link to a compression calculator. It's not perfect but its close. You can just plug in the specs of a cam from the net and see what effect it will have on your compression. Sounds like a fun build, good luck with it!  :)

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Cory I'm no engine builder but I think if you plan to run any power adders IE. NOS, blower or turbo you would want the forged crank and piston. If no power adders I would stick with the cast since that is how most of the motors came in our cars and have held up over time. I looked at redoing the 454 we picked up for the 72 and just the rotating assemblies kill that ideal and with machine shops quoting me $1,000 and up to redo the block I push it on the back burner to finish the smaller items. Years ago I had a plan to do a 383 got the short block sitting outside, and the list of parts I put together was using a Eagle kit as it came with everything and it was internal balance.

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Straubtechnologies.com....that's all I got to say.  Well, maybe I got more.

 

Give Chris a call, tell him what you already have and what you want to accomplish. He will set you up with a hyd. roller cam that will blow you away. It's all about the combination.  Chris can give you great direction and he will work with what you already have or want. He may even talk you out of new expensive aluminum heads and make your current iron heads do tricks, if you have the right ones of course!

Roller cams and lifters are expensive but if you get the "right" one you will never regret it.

I have one of Chris' cams in my BBC and I am on a crusade now to spread the word.

 

And as a bonus, Crazy Davey, who visits & participates on this board, is tied pretty tightly with Straub. It's Davey's chevelle in the middle of Straubs home page.

 

I see a blizzard in the forecast because a little power always leads to more. :rofl:

Good luck.

 

Scott

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  • 1 month later...

You guys sure aren't helping much here :(

 

My $0.00 4 bolt block (circa 1971) checked out at the machine shop in great condition and I'm ready to proceed. Soooo, the original goal of $4500 build is already out the window, however it is doable with some real nice parts. The rotating assembly I wound up choosing messed up the whole budget. I decided to go all forged because most of the cast cranks are only rated to @ 500hp. Being the goal is near that threshold I figured I may as well pay a little more (twice as much) for the forged. Wound up ordering this Scat 1-40605BI (internally balanced) putting me about 10:1 comp ratio using AFR 195 heads w/ 75cc chamber.

 

Straub is on board and will be grinding my cam (Hyd roller) as well as supplying some parts. Be a month before the crank kit and cam are in my hands.

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Cory, I just built a 383 for my car. I love it. I haven't had it on a dyno yet, so I have no idea of the power. I also went with a forged assembly, figuring that I could spray it in the future if I had to. I got the American Eagle crank and "h" beam rods, with Mahle flat top pistons. With my current 64 cc. Patriot aluminum heads and a .028 head gasket it's around 11.2:1 comp. I'm happy (extremely happy) to report that it runs good on premium pump gas. I was more than a little concerned about that.

 

I was eyeball deep in the build when you first posted this thread, but I didn't feel like I had anything to offer because all of my issues had to do with clearancing the block, and assembly. You said you had somebody that was gonna do that for you. There was a lot of grinding to do on that block to get the propper clearance. I did it with a die grinder. It took forever. I just knew I was gonna grind into the water jacket, but I never did. 500 bucks for somebody to do all the machine work and assembly is a steel, IMO.

 

I started with a 4 bolt block that I got free from a friend. He didn't even remember where he got it. Probably at a swap meet or something. It was covered in rust, like it had been used as a boat anchor or something. When the machine shop bored it to +.030 there was still a couple deep pits in it. He went to +.060 and it looked good. I had already bought the pistons, so I was in a bit of a pickle. He had a .030 over 4bolt block that was unclaimed that he gave me for 75.00 plus my block. I thought that was a good deal, considering the alternatives.

 

My next major expenditure is gonna be a set of premium heads and some new headers. I'd be interested to know how you decided on the 195 AFRs.

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Looks like you have a good combo going! Do you know the specs of your cam? More details! I blew my budget to pieces on my motor too. Just don't get too carried away, or it will end up costing you a fortune!

No clue on cam specs yet, just ordering parts per Straubs recommendations. Putting all my faith in him that I will be satisfied with what he comes up with. He is grinding the cam using info I supplied to him on existing drivetrain, weight of car, and my input of how the car will be driven. Not building a drag car, just a strong overall street machine. Basing the build more focused on low to mid range torque rather than high rpm horsepower.

 

My next major expenditure is gonna be a set of premium heads and some new headers. I'd be interested to know how you decided on the 195 AFRs.

Tough decision between the AFR 180's and 195's. Did a lot of internet searching and reading up on. If you search "AFR 180 vs 195" tons on info pops up. Also going off Straubs recommendation as well as speaking with AFR themselves. Either head would work well for what I'm doing but I didn't want to limit or restrict myself with the 180's in case I ever want to build off the engine further.
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​budgets….. we don't need no stinkin' budgets. It's all about the feel of the torque that propels you down the road. Think of Jay Leno testing out "recoil " the '66 chevelle that Ring brothers built. Just a 416cu.in. with a whipple blower and 980 Hp!! with a 6 speed tremec. I do not save receipts on any builds I do,all nonsense .

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​budgets….. we don't need no stinkin' budgets. I do not save receipts on any builds I do,all nonsense .

Me either. If I did, I'd have to look at all the things I did two (or three) times, when I should have just waited till I could either afford what I wanted, or, at the very least, have an plan that made sense.

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  • 3 months later...

Ok guys back to this 383 build. Thanks for the input so far. Its taking me awhile to gather my parts together, kinda buying them as I can afford it. But Im just about to get going with assembly here. Figured instead of making a parts list its just as easy to post invoices of what I have purchased so far. You should be able to zoom in to read part #'s & pricing. So if anyone is thinking of a similar build they have some part #'s. This is going to wind up just over 10:1 Compression, Straub says 10.5:1. He also states should be @ 475hp and 500tq easy, may get it dynoed once complete to get some exact #'s. Cam specs will be listed below. I originally thought Straub was going to grind me a custom cam but turns out an off the shelf Clay Smith cam would be perfect for me here, so thats what he sent me out. All the parts on this build are from Straubs recommendations, except for the forged rotating assembly, you could get away with some cheaper/stock/non forged components there but I opted to pay a little more for piece of mind.

 

http://www.claysmithcams.com/sbc-350-to-360-cid-afr-180-to-190-head-max-power-6000-6200-rpm-peak-torque-3800/

 

I chose a internally balanced forged (crank, rods and pistons are all forged) kit from Scat costing just over $1500. According to Scat most 383 builds with these I beam & 7/16 cap rods may not need any additional clearancing. We will see about that as the assembly process will be beginning soon. More info on that later. Im using Morel hydraulic roller lifters, Crane gold roller rockers, AFR 195 75cc heads (pistons are +3.7cc flat top), Rollmaster Billet timing set. A 6 quart oil pan with crank scraper and windage tray. All ARP bolts. Pics below will sum up everything else pretty much.

 

Im in this so far for about $6000, started out with a free 4 bolt main block circa 1971 out of a chassis cab, probably a dump truck. Labor on the block (without any clearancing done yet) came to $270. Cleaned and inspected, bored .30 over, decked and cam bearings installed.

 

machineshop_zpsd58zjqpl.jpg

 

straubcamspecs_zps3ixpwfhv.jpg

 

scat1_zpsp6prohbp.jpg

 

scat2_zpsdm3wwy6h.jpg

 

straub4_zps22rn8wvk.jpg

 

straub3_zpsg8prjpwk.jpg

 

straub1_zpslumthkkv.jpg

 

straub2_zpsyrl2vqtj.jpg

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Cory, thank you for taking the time to post all this stuff, this is sort of the lines I wanted to go with my Monte eventually, was thinking of just doing a crate 383 motor but I like the fact of not buying off some huge company prone to mistakes. please continue to keep this thread going. this is great info for me especially

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Good topic Sam, as you know Straub preaches it's the "combination", what that means is the right combo of parts. Pistons, heads, cam, intake, carb, compression ratio etc. all need to cooperate together for maximum efficiency and this is a list/formula that will do just that. Many people try going with a bigger cam in an effort to get more power which isn't always the case. I'm no cam expert but I have learned that when comparing cam profiles you can't look at std hydraulic #'s vs roller cam #'s in comparison they aren't apples to apples. You are correct tho this is a pretty mild cam. The selection on this cam was also to keep the car very streetable as I will do little to no racing with it. I'm curious myself how it's going to perform, & makes me really want to dyno it once completed, kinda skeptical myself. However I have searched the internet for similar combinations and have actually found similar builds with less cubic inches producing nearly the same hp/tq with similar cams so I'm pretty sure Straub is on the money with this.

On a side note, carb recommendations have been way more CFM's than I would thought for this. I was thinking a 750 would be plenty. Straub is recommending an 850 and Pro Systems suggests a 950, whoaaa! [censored]? Carb selection is a month or two down the road right now and I'm actually considering EFI as an option too. Possibly a system like this

https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_systems/fuel_injection/sniper_efi/

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That is going to be a nice 383 build! Torque is what gets our big land yachts rolling. :) Straub is really a great cam designer and knows his stuff. Should be a real tire fryer. 

 

I had a  385 with the old Pro Topline 200 cc iron lighting heads with a dual plain air gap and a Pro System 750 and a custom Cam Motion hydraulic flat tappet. It ran 12.40's and was very dependable. Yours should be way quicker/faster.

 

David

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Don't take long to add up, although my 462 long block intake to oil pan added up to around 3500ish, this was between 2007 and 2008 upon completion, that doesn't count headers carb, pulleys, accessories, ignition system, etc. LOL Still runs like a champ. :)

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