I need some help with this. I would like to build an engine this winter and possibly add some cubes. I don't have a lot of money to throw at this engine. There's another engine at the machine shop that's eating my wallet already so this one has to remain reasonable. Here's what I have:

-350, stock bore, complete, cast crank, pink rods, needs a basic rebuild, honed w/rings, bearings, etc. maybe over size and pistons?

-400, .040, bare block needs at least a hone, can't afford a whole rotating assembly.. no cracks, one hole has a sleeve installed.

And here's what I'd like to do:

Use the 350 crank and rods, order some custom pistons for the 400 block and end up with a 385'ish? I can't see doing all the work of grinding and clearancing on the 350 block and having to buy an internal balance crank.. I might be able to have the extra cubes without the work. An internal balance stroker crank is a lot of money and I think the 350 crank could be internal balanced for less? This wouldn't be a high revving engine either so the cast crank would work.

The sane part of me says to just freshen up the 350 with file fit rings, forged pistons, arp rod bolts, fluid damper, bearings, oil pump, maybe a windage tray, etc. I know this would be the easiest route and I could afford those nice things that are listed right up there. Using the 400 block might take away from the budget too much with spacer bearings, custom balancing, mallory inserts, custom pistons, etc. and I couldn't get the nice fludamper, tray, etc... I guess another option would be to get an internal balance 400 crank, they all seem to require 6" rods or longer though which is out of the budget again.. can a machine shop internal balance a stock cast 400 crank using 350 rods? Can they even balance the 350 crank in the 400? I heard that mallory heavy metal stuff is expensive so that might stick me to just re-doing the 350@! Need some experience,
-Ben

 

STROKE IT BABY!!!

But, if this is your first engine build, or are on a slight budget, Id just stick with a beefy 350. My first motor that I just finished was a 383. Turns out the flywheel I had balanced to the motor wont fit with my T5 bellhousing, and the guy that balanced it said he cant balance-match the new flywheel to the stock T5 one.

In short, Id go the 350 route. A LOT of parts readily available, alot if information and plenty of people that know about em.

 

Ahhhh, another case of the "I don't have any money to spend, but I want to go fast" syndrome

j/k.

If you do anything with the 350, chances are you'll need an overbore, and thus, new pistons. Take the money you would put towards the un-necessary parts like the fluidampr and windage tray and put it towards a 383 assembly. Eagle makes some nice budget kits and for the amount you would spend on pistons anyway plus the other parts you could easily factor it into your budget.

 

I see a thing on ebay that you put between the crank and flywheel that allows you to run a internal balance flywheel along with a 400 damper. Not sure if that will help you or me might be worth looking into further. I already spent good money on this centerforce flywheel to run a T56 with a pre' 86 crank. It seems like everything for a 383/400 is external balance unless you step up to all forged, 6" rods, 4340 crank blah blah...

That's about it! The more I keep adding up the numbers I just can't go as fast as I'd like with the money I have. I don't plan on using stock heads though, bang for the buck.. the cylinder heads rather not skimp on would be victor jr (380+c.i.) or trick flow cnc'd chambers if it'll remain a 350.

 

re-consider the Victor Jr's Had a guy come in that had a set and we couldn't talk him out of getting rid of them. By the time they were worked enough to flow anywhere near a Brody he had spent more $$ on them that what he could have bought the Brodix. Also the Victors have a big exhaust port so you're going to want to run a header with too big of a primary as not to obstruct the port and by doing that you'll be sacrificing your low end grunt. I think he had to run a 2" primary? I'll look more into it.

 

Let me see if I can make sense of this. Probably your best bang for the buck would to use the 400 block and 350 crank. You're going to need to rebuild for either, so the soft parts are a wash(rings, bearings, etc). You can use either thick bearings or spacers, which will bump up your total. You will need a semi-custom set of pistons(.040), but its not terrible, and you probably would need a new set for the 350 anyway, so it does add a few dollars over standard 350 pistons.

I'm not sure where you are planning to go with the cylinder heads, since you say you're not skimping on heads, but the engine will not see high RPM. high-flowing (non-skimping) heads pretty much mean high(er) RPM. If you are not really spining this engine very high, you probably will not need expensive balancing.

the crank and rods will be close to balanced, if you can find a set of pistons that weigh close to the stock 350 pistons. There is no weird balancing needed with external counterweights, or balancers. the crank might need to be slightly rebalanced, and you would use your existing nuetral flywheel, and whatever nuetral balancer you wanted.

so the bottom line, is you will pay slightly more for pistons, and bearings(or spacers), and minor balancing(if you weren't going to change the 350),but you would gain 35 cubes. Its pretty much a judgement call. You will also have to make sure the cylinder heads have steam holes.

plus, you'd have something different, if that means anything.

 

383 baby!!...can you tell i'm a little biased lol!

 

[bold] jwscab [/bold]

Thanks for the info, that's just what I was looking for!

I planned on the hedman weldup headers in 1 7/8 or 2" they come with the stahl type adapters and gaskets. I can live with a slight loss in low end if it means more overall, an H pipe should help add a little of the lost torque. The engine might see some spray 50-100 shot only where the larger headers will really shine. I like the vic. jr's because of the 215cc intake and raised exhaust port. The cam will be 1600-5400 hyd. roller, rpm air gap intake. I'm not looking for anything too radical in this motor, it will never see the high side of 6,000 rpm. Maybe the trick flows would be a better choice?

 

the trick flows probably would be a better choice for a lower rpm motor (up to 6K).

your best bet is to just start looking at all the parts you need to make either motor, and see what you want do. add up all the costs, and consider outside help (will you be building the motor, etc, etc.) You probably don't need to get as radical with the cylinder heads. the fav choice is obviously AFR195's, but I hear the trick flows duttweiler signature heads are pretty sweet too. I might be picking up a set of those for a 406 if I ever get everything else done.

oh yeah, I use excel spreadsheet alot for doing this stuff. you can easily run down a list of parts, and head up two columns, one for the 350, one for the 385, and add costs in and out. makes it easy to see the bigger picture.

good luck!

 

Go 400, then stroke it!

 

Hey thanks again, I'll be doing as much of the work myself as possible. Final assembly, weight matching the rods, pistons, initial measurements and what not. This is so I don't sound like a complete novice when I drop the stuff off at the machine shop. I have an opportunity to check out some used trick flows with minor porting for 1,000 canadian. If they didn't completely butcher them and they check out okay otherwise I'll probably pick them up. I plan on bringing a valve spring compressor to check the bowl work, maybe a straight edge to check for warping, anything else I should watch out for?

 

If they head were modified in any way, check em over good!!! I ported the exhaust runners on my Vortecs and hit an air pocket, which opened up into the coolant passage. If anything was ported or polished, just take a screw driver or something and kinda press on the surfaces to make sure they arent extremely thin from porting.

If they already have valves with them, check the valve guides. Just check to see if there is excessive play in the guides. Check around the valve seat to make sure its not cracked or anything. Other than that, just give em a good look over. Someone else chime in if I left anything else important out