WoostahGTA

Hi, haven't posted in a long time, but I recently blew my motor and am getting ready to rebuild it as a 383 stroker. My plan was either getting an eagle stroker kit and a fel-pro gasket set, having to find things like cam bearings and freeze plugs as I go, or get a rebuild kit from summit, and buy the speedpro hypereutectic flat-top pistons, scat cast steel crank, and scat forged 6" rods. I'm leaning towards the scat/summit setup because I will get more stuff for less money, and will handle just as much if not more hp. On top of that I would do a mild port job on the heads and stock manifold, check my valve springs and guides, etc.

Anyways, I have heard that the stock rods need to be ground down to accept a longer stroke crank, I was wondering if the same were true with either the eagle kit or scat rods?

Also, I was wondering what machining operations people recomend. For sure I'm gonna have the block bore and honed and matched to the pistons ($196). I'll shave the heads and block deck if I have to, but I rather not, my budget being limited and all. Also I think I'll have the block cleaned in a caustic bath.

ZZ28ZZ

I originally went with a cheap stroker kit (Powerhouse) that used regular rods. The heads of the rod bolts wouldn't clear my high lift cam. Tried grinding them but the head of one of the grounded rod bolts (ARP brand) sunk into the rod when I was torquing it (glad it failed on the eng stand!) Bought another rod and tried again. Same thing happened.

I finally bit the bullet and got a set of Eagle 3D stroker rods. They clear the cam by a mile. Only draw back was the Eagle rods use a floating wrist pin and my new pistons used a pressed wrist pin. That meant new pistons, and another balance job. The only thing I wound up using from the cheap stroker kit was the crank. Live and learn!!

Others have got away with regular style GM rods. Depends on the cam.

ZZ28ZZ

The block will need some machining (grinding) at the bottoms of the cyls regardless of which rods are used. I had my block vatted, did all the clearance work, then had block vatted again. Then gave it a good cleaning making sure I had all the little chips out of the oil passages. After that, took it back to the machine shop and had the cam bearings installed.

Cyl boring, honing to match pistons will be the minimum. Using a torque plate will cost more (~$75-$100 more) but is worth it to a lot of people. I would only deck the block if the machine shop says it needed it. Milling the heads is not a bad idea. Even if they only take off .004-.005". Unless the heads were recently re-furbished, they should have a valve job done at minimum. If you're wanting to increase valve lift with a new cam/rockers, now would be the time to have heads modified for a high lift cam, bigger springs, bigger valves, screw-in rocker studs, guide plates, etc..
Oh yeah, before you spend a lot of $ on the heads, have them checked for cracks first. Nothing worse than spending a bunch of money modifying something that you wind up not being able to use..


The speedpro hypereutectic flat-top pistons aren't bad pistons (as long as you don't use power adders), just use the ring gaps they recommend. A lot of the talk you may hear abt hypers needing huge ring gaps come from KB piston issues. The Speed-Pro's use a different alloy process and have the top ring lower on the piston skirt.

The cast scat crank isn't bad for the money. Plenty of folks using them. The 6" rods are a waste of money (need special pistons) IMHO. They have a slight therotical HP advantage, but your money would be better spent else where.

If I were to do it all again, I would just get a pre-balanced Eagle rotating assy. Pretty decent quality for the price.

Mkos1980

iTrader: (8)

I went with a Eagle cast crank, Eagle H beam 5.7's and Speedpro Hyper Flats 2 valve reliefs. Compression was 10:4:1. I had it all internally balanced and studded. With TF heads, LTR setup and LPE219 cam I was at 318 HP and 424 TQ at the wheels.

emtcee

check out this site..this is where i got my kit for my 67...they are awesome to deal with...the guy frank was a big help for me....
mike

http://www.gofaststuff.com/kits.html

Mkos1980

iTrader: (8)

LOL Thats the guy I bought my stuff from. Awesome people!!!

WoostahGTA

Thanks for the website. $800 for balanced assembly isn't bad. Is the higher CR (says 10.9:1 but doesnt say what headgasket) usable with stock iron heads?

Mkos1980

iTrader: (8)

the 10.9 is NOT good with cast heads. Give him a call and see if he can build you up a package.

WoostahGTA

Ya didn't think so. I'm still thinking of going with the scat crank/rods, but I see that summit sells full floating KB pistons for 175 or so. I see scat rods with KB full floating pistons all the time, are these the special pistons people were talking about?

Also, with everything added up, it was cost me $768 to rebuild as a 350 with stock crank, KB pistons and scat rods, $960 with the same setup with a 3.75 stroke scat crank(not including dealing with clearing issues), and $1157 if i went with the eagle(also not dealing with block clearance). I have trouble justifying spending the extra $200 for an weaker bottom end...