Building a 383 stroker - Enter At Your Own Risk

EDIT - If this is your first opportunity to read this thread, please be very careful. Unfortunately, much of the information contained in this thread is incorrect, and will not be helpful to anyone.

Finally got the bored and decked block back. Looks like the machine shop did a pretty good job. Ordered the rotating assembly, now I just need to hurry up n wait.

 

If you have not, you had better spray that bare block down with something like ATF or it will be brown next time you look at it.
Keep us updated on the build. Looks good.

 

Right now its covered with WD40. Going to paint it gloss black with some high temp paint from Eastwood. Good up to 650 degrees. Sure hope that's overkill. The black should go good with the aluminum heads I got for it. Woo hoo! Finally sold one of the bikes lol. 190cc intake runner with 2.02 intake valves and 1.6 exhaust 64cc combustion chambers.

 

Also bought a rack and pinion steering box. Didn't know that picture was attached. Should give me something to do while I hurry up n wait for ordered parts.

 

As long as you aren't painting the heads, the center exhaust ports seem to be the hot spot on Chevy and cook the paint.

 

I thought about painting the block the same color as the body but if I want to change the color of the body I'd have to repaint the block. Then I would end up with paint on the aluminum heads and I'm leaving them raw along with aluminum intake and water pump. I have chrome valve covers and breather, and I'm not sure if maybe black valve covers wouldn't look better. That way I'd have starting at the oil pan, black with black block with aluminum heads then black valve covers then aluminum intake then chrome breather with chrome timing cover. Any thoughts?

 

Personally, on my rides I paint the engine and trans to match the interior. I've been doing that for many years on many rides.

Jim

 

Interior will probably be black carpet with red bench seat, so a black block would kind of match. But, that's a good rule of thumb to go by. The color I have for the body is what I bought to paint my bike. I tried it on a sample plate and used a white base coat. Came out looking kind of reddish pink so I decided to go with a darker red for the bike. Anyway I have $120 worth of paint just sitting here so........ I'll get a picture of a sample panel when it warms up enough to spray paint. You will get a good chuckle out of it.

 

Whose stroker assembly,? steel crank or iron? 6"rods?" forged pistons? just wondering .

 

Scat nodular cast steel crankshaft and 5.7, 4340 Scat rods. Some space age 9000 material. Pistons are .030 over flat tops forged, made by Probe.
Bought the rotating assembly, externally balanced, from Skip white, on EBay. King bearings, full floating wrist pins, Hastings rings.

 

You can tint your paint or mix it with something darker, or whatever to get it to a useable color. Some of the coolest things I painted were concauctions of partial left over pints, quarts of paint...

 

I too like the look of aluminum, but it doesn't stay nice long unless it is polished or clear coated.

 

Did the machine shop clearance your block or will you be doing this yourself?

 

Since the block was bored before getting the rotating assembly, Have your shop doublecheck the piston to bore size....on all holes. Might have to 'touch-them-up' to get optimum clearances....
Also, get them to use a 'Stroker Mimic' or simular tool to check for rotating clearences....

Oil up the lifter bores, bores, and head surfaces before they get rusty.
I use either a trashbag to seal things until parts install, or a block bag....keeps all the junk and trash from getting on all that virgin metal.

 

A good soaking with some Marvel Mystery oil in a spray bottle will go a long way toward keeping the purty stuff purty. But I think I would get after painting anything that needs paint, prior to oiling it all up.

 

If the block needs to be clearanced, I'll be doing it myself. Supposedly the crank should drop right in and the Scat rods will clear anything less than a .550 lift cam. The cam I chose was a comp cams XE274H with .490 lift. It has 60 degrees of overlap to drop my compression down enough to run pump gas. 10.7 to about 10.1 unless I figured wrong. It's going to be a milder street engine, hopefully around 400 HP. Should move a 1500 lb. car around with no sweat. I ended up blowing my budget on this engine but I always say, if your going to do something do it all the way, and do it right.

 

When I built mine, I had to nick the corners of the rods by the bolts, everything else fit with a 600 lift cam. That was with a stock 400 crank, 5.7 rods, and ford slugs, a combination I got from a old time engine builder. I expected issues with the oil pan, but no problem. I have been told that aluminum cast pans will not clear, but I haven't tried it.

 

I bought an assembled head with springs. The springs that come on it are only good to a .550 lift. They should work good for my .490 lift cam. Don't really want more spring than I need. Makes stuff wear out quicker. Here is what they say on the kit add, to grind off for up to a .580 lift cam. I was wondering about the oil pan, but if you have a 400 stroker with a stock pan my 383 should clear too. I'll be turning everything over by hand all thru assembly to make sure nothing binds, hits, or is just too tight.

 

Mikes right, if your gonna paint it up, do it before the oil has a chance to soak into the pores of the block. Then you can clean up the overspray that the masking didn't protect from.
On the 383's, sometimes the rodbolts will snag the cam, depending on the rods, the bolts and the cam. I've seen some casting marks interfer inside the block....sometimes theres alot of shift here, there and yonder. Chances are things will clear, but I've seen things get crazy fast. But thats the reason for the small base circle cams, to get clearance. Anything closer that 1/4 can cause problems inside there. Believe it or not, that oil being flung around in there about 4000 rpm will foam the oil, which is not good. That puts bubbles into the oil, and will screw with the bearings....
With Alum. rods, gotta check everything everytime, with steel rods, its usually just the rod bolt area.