Well, after destroying the 383 that was in the car, i have a large list if parts still on the way for the new build, but several are here already. I pick the motor up from the machine shop tomorrow i believe, it is a 4 bolt main 350 .030 over, i had to have it line bored also due to it spinning a main in the 1 ton pickup it came from. It is a 87+ block so it is a roller OE. So far... Forged Kieth Black pistons...11 to 1 with 64s... Scat forged rods, they used to say good for 700 HP, now it is 650...i wonder why? 6 inch... H bearings from Clevite... Plasma rings... LS7 high rev lifters... Stud kit for the mains... Comp custom grind cam, 242/252 @.050, .525/.540 lift, i am putting 1.6 RRs on the intake side. Motive ring and pinion for the dana 44... Stamped covers.. Used dist...

6AL box...


Coil...


Rev limiter box...



Still more to come, i am looking for close to 600 HP, it is a 383 with Dart 230cc heads.

that's a baby camshaft for those cylinder heads...but i've already told you that. good luck on the build! i don't think the 600hp number will be reached with that camshaft and lower compression...

It will be 11 to 1 compression. That camshaft is the biggest i found hyd roller for a OE roller block, a 383 with AFR 195s and a comp XE288HR made 530 HP, with 9.6 to 1 compression. That was 236/242 on a 110. Mine is a 112, so i am assumin 575 is probably going to be the number. The lift is what will be holding me back really but i think it will still be a bad dude.

The block is still at the machine shop. They bored it without the pistons and line honed it without the stud kit?

Boring a block requires having the pistons to match each piston to a hole. A stud kit for the mains puts a different clamping force on the caps. If it was line honed with bolts holding the caps on, don't put the studs in unless it gets line honed again with the studs.

Don't forget to send out everything from the rotating assembly to get balanced.

I will ballance the pistons myself, the rods are withing a gram of each other, my machine sho said that was fine, the crank and ballancer are already ballanced. The pistons will be there for the finish hone, the block was bored but will not be honed till after line bore. As for the studs on the block, i dont think it will matter, i have allways swapped afterwards and never had a problem. It is just like torque plate honing, you might have the geometry right when you use the tq plate, but as soon as you bolt on a set of heads the geometry changes anyways. That is what the machine shop told me, makes sense to me.

I think you need to find another machine shop. Pistons can vary from 4.0265 to 4.0295. So they will hopefully assume a 4.0275 because KB says their forged line is this size. Also, what are the odds that your old rods and pistons weigh the same? Seriously doubt it. A mis balanced rotating assembly will cause harmonic vibrations that can snap rods and break crankshafts (if twisted high enough). Junk those pro comp main studs. Pro comp builds garbage and as Stephen said, line hone the block with the studs, it does make a difference. Also Cc your heads. My 2 sets of Darts are at least +3 cc's off of what they were advertised. So that would put you at a 10.5 with a zero deck. Also, you will need a bigger cam to reach your goals with those monster heads. AFR's flow great with a smaller runner so you will get more velocity with AFR's and the 230's will flow close to those numbers with less velocity. So bottom line you will need to twist this thing 8 grand plus to equal or come close to the AFR's. Smaller heads would do your cam well. Make sure you check your small end of the rod to piston pin clearance. Kb's have a larger pin than most piston manufacturers. Just my 2 cents and food for thought. Good luck....

Thanks for the insight, i hope you are right, 11 to 1 is border line for detonation. The cranks shaft ballance has nothing to do with how much the pistons and rods weigh, the must all weigh the same, the crank must be ballanced with the damper and flexplate/flywheel. I think the high rev lifters and the rev kit will help it go to 7k, we will deffinatly find out, i will use my ARP studs i have lating around then, they are used but nothing is wrong with them. This is not a full on race engine so i am not worried about as much as a drag car would. I have a 400 block that is next and that was the original intent for them, the 383 is really temporary. The rods fit the pins fine, i have already fit them. Th emachine shop already assured me the pistons would fit the holes fine. The rev kit wil deffinatly hep out though.

Thanks for responding to my thread Tommy.

Ah, I think you have a few facts wrong. Internal and externally balanced cranks have nothing to do with balancing an engine itself. Balancing an engine means the big and small end of each rod weighs the same. Rods are not balanced by total weight. Each end is weighed and adjusted to the lightest one. Each piston with wrist pin weighs the same. The total weight of the rod, wrist pin, piston, rod bolts, rings, rod bearings gives a bob weight that the throws on the crank must equal. An externally balanced crank needs the flexplate and dampener sent out also when it's balanced but I recommend sending them even if it's an internally balanced crank. My neutrally balanced flexplate was off by 10g. 10g becomes a lot of offset weight at high rpms.

Although the pistons and pins can be a matched set, rods could be a matched set etc, the crank has no way of knowing those weights. Whenever using any aftermarket components in your rotating assembly, it should be all balanced.

You're spending a lot of money building an engine with all aftermarket parts. Spend a little more and have the rotating assembly balanced to have it built correctly.

to make 600hp, you WILL need more cam than that.. that thing is tiny.. your best bet for power will be a solid roller.. HOTROD mag did a 383.. it made 615hp on pumpgas with less than 11:1.. and only used the AFR 195 eliminator heads.. cost them about $8k carb to pan.. shaft rockers, high dollar lifters and all..


IMO, if your gonna up the rocker ratio, in some cases it makes more power to just up both intake and exhaust vs. just intake.. the difference might be what makes or breaks the 600hp barrier.. see if someone can DD it for you.. i know my combo on the DD put out 5hp more with the same 1.6 on both.. *shrug*


EDIT: just saw a write up of that build you talked about.. the cam is a 235/242, BUT lift is .592/.614.. yours will still only be .560/.576.. i predict it making about the same power.. and the heads have been CNC ported on top of extra hand porting by professionals.. you definitely need a bigger cam.. the 230 heads are for big inch small blocks that rev to at least 7k.. your combo might run out of steam near 6500..

We will find out is all i can say, i dont want a solid roller in a car i drive the piss out of. As for running out of steem at 6500..pft, the old 383 did 6400 with 236/242 in old *** ported 292 chevy heads. Not to mention the REV kit will help out a ton. The cam is not small by any means, it is the biggest cam i could find for an OE style block. I wanted 248/254 with 600 lift, this is just going to havr to do. A friend that has a shop and builds engines makes 550 HP with 242/248 with smaller heads, he said i was going to be closer to 600, but 575 is probably my estimated outcome. I only have a split set of 1.5/1.6 RRs that will have to do for now.


Stephen, thank you, i did not know about the bob weight with the rods, i will have it all ballanced again.

Let us know how far out of balance it was. You'll be surprised and glad you had it done.

My crank was spun up 10 times to get a perfect balance. Weight needed to be added and removed from the crank to get it balanced. The cost of balancing all depends on how much weight needs to be changed. It's a time consuming process.

Yea, the crank and ballancer were ballanced together with the old pistons and rods, i used the stock flywheel with no problems. Now that i am getting a fluid damper and replaced the rods and pistons i might as well have the flywheel ballanced with it too.

i stand corrected.. well good luck with it.. what kind of induction you going with?? and what about exhaust??

I am using a RPM air gap till i get a vic JR, i am running Hooker Super comps Ceramic coated.

that thing should fly down the track man GL

Thanks, the only problem is getting the 3.73 gear and new axle in the dana 44 to swap in with it....i lack the axle and bearings right now. Got a guy to install 100$. Not bad, i am just running out of money It went 8.4 at 90 mph with the 2.73 geat with the old motor in the 1/8, not bad for not launching.

Well, if it wasnt for having to clearance the motor for the extra throw i would have it wompleted and ready to drop in but this is my stopping point, tomorrow she might be in and running...

comin along pretty good, good luck with the rest of the build

Comp does make larger camshafts than that for a factory roller motor. But I wouldn't want to run it on the street. I have one in my 383, drag only car. Is this motor going in a street car? They guys here have all told you right. The rotating assy needs to be balanced together, by a shop that knows what it's doing. NOT the shop that did your machine work. Are you running a steel shim head gasket or felpro?

Yea, the shop that did the machine work installed the valve springs on the heads but the rot assy was ballanced by a race shop that knows everything about everything pretty much, highly reccomended. Took him a couple days longer to ballance it but atleast i got it back friday. I am running the Felpro 375-1003 .041 compressed gasket. 72$ for the set, i wanted to use the regular fel pro but i couldnt let myself use anything stockish for this build besides iol pan and valve cover gaskets.

your heads are 230's? those are biiiiiiig.

i am running a similar camshaft in my stock cube gta. its a 236/248 nitrous cam for oe roller blocks. i think lift is something like 554/576 with a 1.6 rocker. on a 113lsa. with mild ported stock LT1 heads it peaked at 6300 on the chassis dyno.

it would make a stout street cam, but for a race car you could go bigger. probably SHOULD go bigger to make use of those heads.

Yea, thanks, i have had this conversation, Dart said i need to move the operating range to 4000-8000 RPM. I purchased the heads for use on a 400 block i have so i am just using them til then.


It is a street car, i forgot to mention for rose who dont know.


This is where i stand after tonight, i should have her cranket tomorrow afternoon i imagine. Drivelin is all in except the shifter and trans fluid. Those supercomps went in VERRY earily, allot easier than i thought and DAAAMN i have plenty of room between them and the slave cylinder!!! No more overheating it! I am excited to that factor...

Dne, it is running and just needs to be tuned, the oil pressure looks funny but i think it is the cheap "Faze" gauge, i will re check all the connections tomorrow. Thing spins over ?HARD when i give it throttle man, i am just dieing to drive it, hopefully tomorrow i will get to.

Damn. you got a lot accomplished.

I gapped the NGK plugs at 35, anyone disagree of that number?

Allrighty then. Got it running and drove it. Noisey as al hell but it runs great. Still needs tune but i have to get the exhaust done tomorrow and i can start driving it again. I didnt have any oil pressure and it scared the hell out of me but it turned out to be the electrical gauge. I installed a mechanical and it wrks flawlessly. 50 ish at idle and 90 lbs on the throttle. So, i am a happy camper, i let it hit the rev limiter at 6000 once and it deffinatly wants to pull further. I am leaving it at 6 till i get the otor some miles and maybe the trans and rear in.

little on the high side on the oil pressure.... what kinda pump is in there?

It is a Melling M55HV. It is the second time i have used one and the identical pressure. I wanted to use a stock replacement but man, i was just thinking i have too much into this motor to use the stock pressure.

sometimes a high pressure pump kills horsepower becasue this is such as thing as too much pressure. I will use my google-fu to find some linkage somewhere...

EDIT: It is a circle track racing article, but those poor engines get abused too http://www.stockcarracing.com/techar...ock/index.html

Soooo...i will ad a oil cooler as i planed and it will be perfect, thanks man.

Got the exhaust on, it is smoking from #4 so i have to pull the intake and put some epoxy over the small hole that must be there from the pushrod rubbing thru, shouldnt be a big deal.

i cant wait to see a video of this , ur last set up was a monster and murdering evos and on a budget ,

its time to go up the food chain cant go after the vettes because their our cousins but the viper and cobras sound like a good meal to me.

Well, i have some kinks working out but here is the thread to the sound clip of the new motor...
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/or...new-motor.html (Sound clip of the new motor)

sounds evil.

Thanks, i should have the new(er) oil pump in tomorrow. Just got off work today. Then ill hit the 1/8th mile friday. Not that it will be verry good with the 2.73 gear and having to short shift and all.

Alrighty then, got the new std volume pump in and the K member back up, ill button the rest back up tomorrow. It did have some RTV that was sucked into the screen, so i am assuming that was the pressure issue. We will deffinatly find out.

I hope you using a m-select pump because the cheap ones can and will break.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...hlight=melling

http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showth...t=65870&page=2

I heard about that a long time ago, i just used a M55, std volume, if it breaks then i will replace it with something better, havent had one bust yet, i was going to put solid motor mounts in but i guess i wont now.

Well, i swapped the pump and gauge and it still does it, not as bad but whatever, i am going to drive it till it breaks because i am tired of messing with it.


Anyone else got a clue what the hell it could be?

i would just cruise it for a little while. things might loosen up a bit, and the install lube will break down all the way. (if it hasnt already)

its not DANGEROUS, but its somewhat high.

Im full of it, i am going to tare it down and see what the hell the problem is.

did you check the tolerances on the crank/rods?

not sure if it would cause your problem or not, but are the cam bearings installed correctly?

I installed them properly, but the problem did not occur instantly, it was after i had driven the car a few days, of course it seems to have happened after i smacked the hell outta the rev limiter hard core one day. Then i removed the intake to fix the head, around that time is when it started.