Thread: 383 for towing a travel trailer

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Full rollers will free up a little power due to reduced friction. In my opinion though, I wouldn't use 1.6's with an Extreme Energy cam like I used for the DynoSim pull. These cams are ground at the maximum lifter rise without the lifter digging into the side of the cam lobe and are already at the max for lifter/lobe pressure in my opinion. Putting more pressure on the lifter/lobe interface would be asking for trouble.

Okay, 1.5's it is. That is just one more piece to the puzzle.

There was a good article in Car Craft that built a budget 383 with Vortec heads(The ones you like) and the numbers are impressive. They give a good parts list too.

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...cam_specs.html

This may be a stupid question, but if you haven't either go the new headers or have not installed them, why not send them back to Summit so you get the right ones for your app. I have always found Summit to be very accomodating even when it's been my stupid mistake and not theirs.

Hi jbright300,
I wish we had rust free trucks in the Northeast like you guys have. I would love to build a 60-70's pickup without rust.
I sell balanced stroker kits that I would prefer to use a 4 bolt main block (although 2 bolt mains will still work, just not as strong), stock reconditioned heads or RHS Pro Torker heads, or Edelbrock or... The combo needs to match your driving style & needs. Don't build a high reving monster when towing is what you're really looking for.
I guess the first thing you need to concider is your budget. The MOST important part in this build would be a good overdrive 5-speed. Tremec has truck 5-speed for about $1500.00 new. With this you can tow and get mileage without an automatic transmission failure.
Call me if you want to go over a parts list & your budget.

I have had my fill of automatic O/D transmissions. And I don't want a standard.(The wife will be driving it also). This time I am doing it right....
TH400! Since you don't normally tow in O/D, why would I need one? This truck will never be a daily driver and will only be used to tow my travel trailer and an occasional trip to Home depot. It might get 1000 miles a year put on it. So for me, the cheapest alternative is just to do a TH400 change over since it has a TH350. My transmission guy even tells me he can build the
TH350 almost as strong as the 400, but I don't want to find out he was wrong on a cross country trip to BFE someday.