so i talked to my local machinist and he quoted me almost 1700 dollars for machine work labor alone!!!! WTF! I am planning on doing a 383 stroker and I was wondering where if anyone has ordered a short block. my budget is approx 4K for the bottom end.

 

You can get them on ebay ready to go for a little over 3K...its eagle forged rotating assembly.

 

check out clayton racing engines. you can get an Eagle Forged 383 short block for $2999...

 

Has anyone done anything with a clayton setup?
Also, do you think that cast scat crank could hold any boost?

 

Spend the extra $$ on forged crank if you're running boost....period!!!!!
Boost on a cast crank is like a ticking timebomb.

If you email clayton, which I actually did today, they'll tell you the same thing.

 

Also golen racing engines has some pretty decent prices on short blocks. It wont hurt to look!

 

I was quoted $1,250 by Automotive Machine, which is a local shop, for the machining for a 383.

 

depending on the cam and rods you run in it there really isn't much more work to be done other than the typical ****. Are You doing splayed 4 bolt mains and are they including engine assembly in the price, are they ballancing or what? What are they charging you 1700 for what exaclty are they going to do? A big cam may need to have the rod bolts changed, grinded or just go to a small base circle. All depends on what you asked them for, but have not mentioned in the post.

 

Check CNC Blocks, I believe they also have an all forged splayed 4 bolt short block for around $3500 which has Compstar forged crank and rods with Mahle pistons I think.

 

Compstar stopped making 1-piece rear main cranks.
You want to save cash and are going boost reuse the stock crank, it is better than doing a cast aftermarket crank in a blind quest for displacement. Hell I would reuse a stock crank before spending the money on a forged Eagle crank which will probably need machining just to be useable. While hugely popular Eagle is bottom of the barrel and by the time you fix the screwed up machining you could have bought a better crank for the same money.

I realize a stock crank wont get you a 383 but a reliable 355 is way better than a broken or halfassed 383.

Studded 2-bolt mains is another reliable way to save cash, few of us ever really make the power to "need" a 4-bolt conversion.

 

connecting rods - $160 (brushing)
align rods - $96
degrease and inspect - $100
bore and hone - $300
install cam bearings - $75
install freeze plugs - $50
magnetic particle inspection - $50
resurface block - $200
torque and check mains - $50
clearance the block for 383 - $200
balance rotating assembly - $275
upgrade bolts for rods - $100

total - $1656

 

New rods wont need bushings or reconditioed, so first 2 intems are BS(Assuming your geting new rods. Cleaning Is In neighborhood(Price wise). 300 bux for boring a block is rediculus, 150 tops if bored witha torque plate. 75 for installing cam bearings is steep. 50 bux to knock in a few freez plugs is a joke.Magniflux for 50 is so so. 200 to resurface is steep. 50 bux to check line bore is rediculus(they will charge more if the have to do a line bore. 200 for an hour with a die grinder is steep. The balance is high for a common v8 chevy and once again new rods will come with good bolts.
If the are figuring in using the stock rods do the math, 360 bux wil go a long way one a better set of rods.
shop that donemy motor a few years ago charged 1000 bucks for all machine work, balance and assymbly. This included a line bore.

 

that is why i am looking into just getting a short block i talked to clayton racing engines yesterday on the phone and it sounded like their street/strip motor already has splayed caps. i emailed them and am waiting to get a price breakdown for possible upgrades i may want to do.

 

ohh i was also wondering about that tray that is on the bottom of the block

 

stock crank would be good for a awhile....whats ur power goal

 

stock crank might be ok for a while, but you know how it goes.... since im in there... I just dont see spending money on forged rods and forged pistons and not have a forged crank.. as far as my desired power level i was hoping for around 400+ rwhp... i kinda have a grudge match with a 400 whp evo

 

I don't know of any examples of people overpowering the stock crank.

I see way too many people **** away money on things that don't work or replacing very good stock parts like the crank and then are left trying to "save" money where they should have spent a little more.

Power comes from the topend more than the bottom, if your budget limited that is how you have to spend your money.

 

Can somebody explain how you can get 383 cubic inches out of a stock crank? I have been racing for 25 years next spring and working as a professional mechanic and shop owner for almost as long and I have only seen it one time and that was a engine that was supposed to be 383 and when torn apart for inspection it was 355. The title of this thread does have 383in it and there is no replacement for displacment.
The stock crank in these cars is very good but you cant get too many extra cubes out of it.
As for the Eagle deal they work for me and I know many others with positve experiences as well. I have a 95 LT1 Firebird Footbrake car with well over 3000 mostly 1/4 mi passes in the low 10's high 9's in mineshaft conditions NA and some very low nines with a kit on it and it has yet to see a crank grinder. I did replace the Eagle rods after last season but it was more for peace of mind than anything else due to the number of passes. I also have a 98 GMC with a big block that has over 150K since installing a Eagle crank and rods pulling a 44ft GN Haulmark all over the place as well as being used almost every day on a farm. No problem there either. I am not saying that they are the very best crank in the world. But when I can buy a Eagle crank and rods a set of JE pistons with matching rings and King Bearings for less than 1700 shipped and install them an a properly machined block. And go out and put the kind of passes on it that I have without problems and regularly come home from the racetrack with a check I will keep on doing what I am doing. They are not that bad. In my years I have seen many more engines fail due to improper assembly than I have seen due to parts that failed.
As for the cost of machine work QUALITY COSTS MONEY. If you just want to just throw something togeter and say its a whatever CI engine go with the cheapest you can get. But if you want something that will last and have proper ring seal that lasts, can be assembled right the first time without having to take it apart several times , and just be right from the get go you have to have quality machine work which as I stated above cost money.

 

I didn't see anyone say you could get a 383 from a stock crank.
If someone has the budget to do it ALL right then yeah do a stroker, but if you have to choose between a good topend and extra displacement, the topend is the better choice provided the bottomend can handle the rpms. Stock crank easily handles more rpm than the computer. So if the owner has a budget that is a good place to save money.

Far as Eagle, the newer stuff seems to be worse. LOTS of guys using OLD eagle stuff but LOTS of guys buying the newer stuff and scattering shortblocks in a few hundred miles. You can buy a completely MADE IN AMERICA Howard's crank for the same price as a forged Eagle. But few are interested in quality and buy everything on name alone.

 

He seems to me to want more CI's as he titled this thread "383 issues"
He already has AFR 190 heads which are not the greatest but can be made better so why buy another set of heads and stick with the stock crank when you cant get more than 7K out of a factory pcm anyways. more flow and the same CI is just going to require more RPM which you cant get with the stock PCM and I agree the stock crank will take more rpms but I think in order to get to his goals he might need more than 7K to get it. I should have put LOL after my comment about getting 383 out of a stock crank but I forgot to.

If it were me I would
Call Dyno Flo Performance in Henderson Nevada. (I know the internet is full of guys who claim they sell junk and rip people off but I have delt with them several times and had no problems what so ever and would buy from them again if they had something I wanted, By the way if you look around you will find someone bashing just about EVERY company out there for one reason or another including some of the sponsers of this site who I have delt with and had no problems with myself) Ask Dyno flow for the deal they were selling and might still be selling that came with a 3.875 4340 crank, 6 inch rods clearanced for a stroker, .040 over JE pistons 181909?, Mahle file fit rings and King bearings. Last time I saw it listed on the net it was around 2 grand plus a hundred for balancing. This will get you 398CI. Find a good machine shop (Goto your local dragstrip and talk to people about who they use and then go talk to the suggestions you get in person and explain what you want to do and let them give you prices. If you dont get a good feeling from them and the shop looks like a dirty dump or they just act like a *** move on to the next one on your list. If they dont care about their stuff to keep it nice, clean and in order then why would they give a damn about yours and keep it clean and do a good job on it.) You can short fill a couple of inches of the block just in case you get into the water jacket when its clearanced for the 3.875 crank but both LT1 blocks for my racecar have a 3.875 crank in them and I did not get into the water jacket. This will give you about the max CI that you can get and give you a good shortblock to start with. I think I saw above that you have 4 grand for this project you should be able to build a stroker and with your heads get at least close to what you are wanting (400 rwhp)
If I had money left over I would send the heads to Mike Threaux porting as he seems to have alot of knowledge of what to do and not do to afr heads. (not sure if I spelled his last name right but he is over on Yellow Bullet often) He quoted me 1000 to do some serious work my 210 AFR's but I decide to move up to 227's but he seems to have a execelent rep when working with AFR's.
This is exactly what is in my car for a short block,nothing fancy all shelf parts and execellent machine work and has done extremely good for me. Right now at around 400 passes leakdown is still less than 3 percent I will be pulling it out in the next week or 2 to look at things but as long as I dont find a problem it will run next season the same way. Again this is a Eagle crank with thousands of passes. I stand by what I wrote before in that I have seen more engine parts destroyed by bad machine work and inproper assembly than I have ever seen destroyed by faulty parts.