Budget 383 stroker

[63Fury]

Was wondering if anyone has tried stroking a 383 with the following parts.

440 forged crank
383 rods, bushed to .990 (for the cheby slugs)
Cheby 427 pistons

On paper the only thing I see is the chevy pistons are .042 higher compression height.

Issues? Comments?

[rampage_82]

Haven't seen anyone try this, however: The BB chebby pistons almost always have a fairly large dome, because the Heads have huge combustion chambers. So I don't know what kind of interference you would cause, along with the valve relief placement. If it does work I would like to know.

[rampage_82]

I do realize this is titled 383 budget stroker, but if I were going to spend money on bushing the rods, and getting them resized, and prepped, I think you'd be better off just buying a set of aftermarket rods, plus you would be loosing weight and gaining strength. A major plus on both accounts. That's just my .02

[ehostler]

You'll need to get the crank turned down, as it won't fit in a B block.

[63Fury]

Doing more research on cost.

Turining down the crank $250
Bushing the rods $100
Chebby pistons $360
Total = $710

That isn't much saving over just buying the Diamond Back pistons and using the 440 rods which give you a better ratio. The rods still need to be bushed down to the .990. Can anyone tell me if someone is making this stroker piston with mopar 1.094 pin so you don't have to have the rods bushed?

Thanks

[rampage_82]

I believe they have to use the .990 pin, because the bigger pin, would end up in the oil rings

[1973Swinger]

You are probably going to have to add in the price to get those Chevy pistons machined. If I remember correctly, 427s ran pop up pistons.

[Ray Bell]

63Fury... have you ever heard the expression, "Do it once, do it right!"?

I think you're trying to progress down an avenue where a bit of money spent on the right stuff in the first place will save you both money and heartache in the longer term.

You would find exactly the right pistons on the Ross forged piston list, for instance, for probably about $550. Ready to run. You can probably turn up exactly the right rods, and I mean aftermarket ones, on eBay for around the same money or even less.

My thinking is that if you drop a few more bucks into the bucket this end of the deal, providing you're making the right choices, of course, then you'll save having to drop a lot more bucks into the bucket full of tears some time in the future.

What do you other guys reckon?

[rampage_82]

Well take it from me... You will save a lot of money, if you spend more money where it counts. I made the mistake of spending all of my money on machine work, heads, pistons, and reconditioning stock components. I scrimped on important things like balancing, oiling system, and making the rotating assembly lighter... I spent $2700 on a motor which lasted 6 races, whereas I could have spent $3,500.00 and had a motor that would have lasted for 10 years...

[Ray Bell]

Yeah, I think that's the basic message...

You can save money on some things, but it's just not worth the risk on others. And if there's a potential that you might want to give it a good old rev one day, prepare for that now. Don't pay for it later.

[Paul Precht]

If you did this the 454 piston would be the one you want, you can get them in a flat top, Paul.

[Tarrbabe]

But the truth has been proven for 50 years. Decide what you want and do it. Trying to match non-production parts has it's problems and 99.9999% of the time, you come out 1000% ahead by spending 1/3 more on a custom part to get the perfect match. If you try something outside the implied box, don't be surprised if it explodes into 2000 broken parts. I knew a guy that loved to try all kinds of different combinations and he blew an engine at the drag strip every 2 to 3 weeks. If you can afford it, it is a good way to learn. But do you really want to learn that way? We would all love to build an engine for $200 that would out performs everyone but it's not going to happen. The smart thing is to build the bottom-end as strong as you can and then find out what will make you a winner by working with the rest of the set-up. Ray Bell is right, Do it once, Do it right.

[63Fury]

All good points.

I was just doing some research and I was actually trying to find out what the first 451 strokers used. Then I started looking at some charts that showed deck height, rod length, stroke, compression height for all major oem's. That just got me mixing and matching parts on paper to see what would/could work.

I think the 454 has a differant compression height than the 427. 427 = 1.785, 454 = 1.665

My opinion on doing things differant is if no one did it we would all still be driving 4 cylinder flat heads, and driving cars that where available in any color as long as it was black. Oh wait he did things differant to didn't he....

I also don't see how the combo of a 440 crank, 383 rods and aftermarket chebby pistons is by any way weaker than say running a 440 crank, 440 rods and diamond back pistons. You get a better rod ratio but a weaker build?????

[1973Swinger]

Originally Posted by Paul Precht

If you did this the 454 piston would be the one you want, you can get them in a flat top, Paul.

You can get 427 pistons in whatever flavor you want as well, Popups, flat top, dished, dished popups, etc. I was just thinking that for the price he said he is talking about stock pistons or stock replacements.

[V8punch]

kb have 427 pistons ch 1,520"

[V8punch]

Part Number: KB784
I think its necessary cut .50 on top.