?'s about 350 SBC conversion to 383 stroker
12-11-2011, 01:46 PM
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?'s about 350 SBC conversion to 383 stroker OK so long story short, I bought back my first truck (83' C-10) and before I sold it, i put a newly rebuilt 350 out of a 69' vette. Apparently he let it sit for a year or so and tryed to run it, without changing any of the fluids 
so now it has rod knock and has to be rebuilt anyway. so my question is what is important for me to replace? I have seen several different types of kits. Everything from almost a complete motor to pistons and heads. Or in other words what do I need to do a complete 383 swap? Thanks for any and all tips and advice!
so now it has rod knock and has to be rebuilt anyway. so my question is what is important for me to replace? I have seen several different types of kits. Everything from almost a complete motor to pistons and heads. Or in other words what do I need to do a complete 383 swap? Thanks for any and all tips and advice! 
12-11-2011, 02:42 PM
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Get your block bored .30 over with a 3.750 in. stroke crank with 5.7 rods or 6inch rods get new cam bearing, freeze plugs. You can also go the easy way and buy a 383 kit, (pistons, crank, rods, flexplate, balancer, rings, bearings, already balanced) if you look on the internet (summitracing.com, jegsperformance.com)you can get them for about 900 bucks...
12-17-2011, 07:33 AM
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Get your block bored .30 over with a 3.750 in. stroke crank with 5.7 rods or 6inch rods get new cam bearing, freeze plugs. You can also go the easy way and buy a 383 kit, (pistons, crank, rods, flexplate, balancer, rings, bearings, already balanced) if you look on the internet (summitracing.com, jegsperformance.com)you can get them for about 900 bucks...
12-17-2011, 07:54 AM
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If u buy from a reputable company, u can let them know what u have , stock bore or .030 or .040 or .060. They will sell u the proper pistons. The main reason for boring the engine would be to clean up an old bore to get the right tolerances for proper ring seal and piston to cylinder wall clearance. It also ups the total cubic displacement of the engine.
12-17-2011, 08:02 AM
#5
If u buy from a reputable company, u can let them know what u have , stock bore or .030 or .040 or .060. They will sell u the proper pistons. The main reason for boring the engine would be to clean up an old bore to get the right tolerances for proper ring seal and piston to cylinder wall clearance. It also ups the total cubic displacement of the engine.
I just built a nice lil 383 myself. You really have to get the right rotating assembly because when you up the stroke, the pin height moves up higher on the piston. I mixed and match with an Eagle Triple Lightweight Crank, Manley Rods and SRP Pistons.
The two area that most often need to be looked at for clearence are the oil pan rails (which are pretty much always notched) and the cam. With my setup the Manley rods were very large around the bottom end so I went with a smaller base circle cam to give clearance from the rods.
All in all they are very easy to build nowadays. With a solid roller and a set of AFR 210's I dynoed it at 578hp with 93 octane.
PM me if you have any questions, we build a lot of 383s in our shop.
12-17-2011, 09:13 AM
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Why should I or why do i need to bore it out? (inexperienced) Yeah I have seen some kits which is what I was planing on doing but now that you say to bore .030" over, I am not sure if the kits are for a stock 350 block or one bored out. I will have to look extra careful now. In your opinion would it be wise to swap cams? I don't plan on racing at the strip with it. just have a weekend truck that has a little backbone
12-17-2011, 09:17 AM
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I just built a nice lil 383 myself. You really have to get the right rotating assembly because when you up the stroke, the pin height moves up higher on the piston. I mixed and match with an Eagle Triple Lightweight Crank, Manley Rods and SRP Pistons.
The two area that most often need to be looked at for clearence are the oil pan rails (which are pretty much always notched) and the cam. With my setup the Manley rods were very large around the bottom end so I went with a smaller base circle cam to give clearance from the rods.
All in all they are very easy to build nowadays. With a solid roller and a set of AFR 210's I dynoed it at 578hp with 93 octane.
PM me if you have any questions, we build a lot of 383s in our shop.
The two area that most often need to be looked at for clearence are the oil pan rails (which are pretty much always notched) and the cam. With my setup the Manley rods were very large around the bottom end so I went with a smaller base circle cam to give clearance from the rods.
All in all they are very easy to build nowadays. With a solid roller and a set of AFR 210's I dynoed it at 578hp with 93 octane.
PM me if you have any questions, we build a lot of 383s in our shop.
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12-17-2011, 09:24 AM
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To make a 383 stroker you would have to bore it .30 over to make it a 383...If the kit is for a 383 stroker then it's either going to come with the pistons in .30 over making it a 383.. they can come .40 over which would be a 385 stroker, also last .60 over and that is a 388 stroker. You want an 383 stroker so you would get the kit that has the .30 over pistons. As far as the cam swap If it was me doing it, I would go with all new parts so yes I would change the cam. There are several companies on here that will custom built you a great 383 stroker if you want to go that route...
12-17-2011, 09:30 AM
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damn...I will double, no TRIPLE check everything!
12-17-2011, 09:54 AM
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My next 383 will be gone over with a fine tooth comb! You will love the power and torque they put out. We decided to have a 377 built, 400 block with 350 crank, and it will out run anyone on the top end, but bottom end is where its at! For sure go with a 383, you will never want anything else! (Unless you have a big budget)
12-17-2011, 10:08 AM
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Yeah I helped my step dad back in high school build a 377 for his 55' bel air. IDK if it was him (he was a master tech) or what but it ran rough and didnt seem right. lol that scared me away from 377's! lol oh well. And no my budget isnt that big but I wont skimp out on putting lamer parts in to save money. I want my truck to run for a long time!
12-17-2011, 10:16 AM
#13
The last 383 i built for a buddy had a clearance issue on the camshaft. we put short block together and rotated the crank a couple times and noticed a hard spot. found the culprit in the connecting rod bolts. a little dremel work and the problem was fixed. we ground the bolts till we had about .040 clearance. He has about 2000 mls on it now and everything is doing well. in a full bodied 3rd gen camaro he has gone a best of 11.74 at 114. Its his daily driver.
02-22-2015, 06:14 PM
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i've built several 383's and here's my take:
buy a pre-assembled kit (eagle, scat, etc.) that comes already balanced. piecing something together lets you be finicky about spec'ing your own parts but there is a huge variety of ready to go kits out there and it will save you an extra $200+ for balancing
if you are running a late model 1 pc block, be sure to have it sonic checked at the bottom of the bores where clearancing for con rods is needed, the newer blocks are kind of thin in that area. ditto for the bores, a lot of late model blocks are only good for about a .040" overbore
depending on the size of your cam you need to watch out for cam to con rod interference. this will depend a lot on the con rods in the kit. i like cap screw rods for this very reason, since there is no rod bolt head on that side of the rod
pistons designed for 6.0" con rods have a shorter comrpession height and often a thinner ring pack to accomodate the extra rod length, and some the pin bore is in the area of the oil control ring. i like 5.7" rods for street use
a lot of stroker cranks use a larger fillet radius on the connecting rod journals, so keep that in mind when sourcing bearings if you buy your parts individually
finally, (ask me why i do this) have the crank crack-checked and checked for straightness before installing.
hope this helps
Edit: wow i should check the dates on these things sorry for posting on such an old thread
buy a pre-assembled kit (eagle, scat, etc.) that comes already balanced. piecing something together lets you be finicky about spec'ing your own parts but there is a huge variety of ready to go kits out there and it will save you an extra $200+ for balancing
if you are running a late model 1 pc block, be sure to have it sonic checked at the bottom of the bores where clearancing for con rods is needed, the newer blocks are kind of thin in that area. ditto for the bores, a lot of late model blocks are only good for about a .040" overbore
depending on the size of your cam you need to watch out for cam to con rod interference. this will depend a lot on the con rods in the kit. i like cap screw rods for this very reason, since there is no rod bolt head on that side of the rod
pistons designed for 6.0" con rods have a shorter comrpession height and often a thinner ring pack to accomodate the extra rod length, and some the pin bore is in the area of the oil control ring. i like 5.7" rods for street use
a lot of stroker cranks use a larger fillet radius on the connecting rod journals, so keep that in mind when sourcing bearings if you buy your parts individually
finally, (ask me why i do this) have the crank crack-checked and checked for straightness before installing.
hope this helps
Edit: wow i should check the dates on these things sorry for posting on such an old thread
Last edited by rick90gta; 02-24-2015 at 05:47 PM.
