I just moved back to Georgia from Texas, and finally have some time to put some mods on my car. Well, my friend comes up to me and says that he has a new motor for my car. It turns out that it's a Chrysler 383 that's dyno tested at 375 hp. He's giving that and a tranny to match to me for free. I know it's a blasphemy to put that motor into my car, but i couldn't pass that up for free. Beyond that, I was just wondering is there anything I should be worried about when I put that into my car as far as strengthening my chassis or anything else that you can think of.

 

besides all the custom fab work that is going to have to be done....... good luck. i would personally go find a nice mopar w/o a powertrain for cheap, and swap the engine/tranny into that.

but thats just my opinion

 

I thought about that, but I just love my car so much. We already sat down and figured out a lot of what's going to go into it, but my friend is a mopar guy, and I figured I'd ask here since you guys would know more about the structure of the body. I'm also getting either a 727 tranny or an equally tough manual tranny. We're going to fabricate a driveshaft at his grandpa's shop. I'm also going to have to get the fourth gen console, just in case I decide to go manual.

 

The Chrystler 383 is a very respectable engine. I have seen and heard of some crazy stuff done with it....but of course it was in Mopars. If you aren't fond of it, it's free, sell it and then buy you a SBC crate or build your own. 375 horsies out of a 383 is good, but far from impressive. Chevy components can hit close to 500 ponies from a 383, if built properly of course. But with the money and/or time you spend fabbing your car to accept the Chrystler 383, just think of what the possibilities there are with chevy. If not, then the best of luck to you. I am personally a car guy, no matter what it's powered by, as long as it's fast and loud I like it. BUT, Chevy is by FAR the Godfather in my mind. I've gotta side with scottland though, just throw that into a mopar and ease your mind of thinking of the ways to stuff that thing into a 3rd gen. Just my $.02
Lc

 

if you're dead set on putting it in there, other then fabbing some motor mounts and the trans crossmember, you are going to have to figure out how you are going to mount your torque arm

stock is bolted to a fbody specific tailshaft.

people get around this with tranny swaps by having it bolted to a tranny crossmember... you will have to figure that out.


like any good motor in a 3rdgen, SFCs are a great idea... other bracing is also good.

if it was given to me, and i could do it without making my friend upset, i would sell the mopar motor and buy a more powerful chevy.

chevys are cheap, and mopar stuff is worth money, so you should make out great if you decide to sell it and go chevy.

 

 

Of course, if your Mopar guy is handy with metal and welding utensils... the fabed motor mounts, cross member, torque arm stuff should all be a piece of cake!

 

not to call you a liar, but are you sure its a Mopar 383 and not a Chevy 383? I have seen this mistake before by people. They see a displacement,and imediatly call it for what its famous for.

Like 302.. people think.. oo 5.0 stangs! When it really started as a chevy engine(destroked 327 or 350). And the 350. People get a olds, pontiac, buick 350 and think its a chevy when its not. Just checkin.