Thread: 383 for towing a travel trailer

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Tech with all this info and #'s You Have . I sure would Love to see you build an Engine and Run it on Line For us ?

Wow, those numbers are EXACTLY what the guy at the machine shop estimated the HP numbers would be when I was building this motor! All this in a 2700 lb. car makes it a blast to drive. Thanks!

Jeff

Well, I'm FINALLY ready to start my 383 project. Unfortunately, the money just isn't there to build my 383 this year, so I decided to put all of the same parts I was going to use on the stroker motor into the 350 that is in it. I pulled out the stock 1974 2 barrel, 175 HP 350 motor that has 56,000 miles on it and pulled it down to the short block. Confirmed that it is a 4-bolt main. I could still see some factory hone marks in the stock cylinders and decided to leave it alone for now. I pulled a couple of rod bearing caps and main bearing caps and found the mains to be good. The rod bearings looked somewhat bad, so I replaced them. I bought a new Melling stock oil pump and put in a steel oil pump rod. I put the Comp Cams 12-238-2 RV cam in 2 degrees advanced. I found a set of 1971 LT1 487 casting number heads on Craig's list and put all new springs, guides, seats, retainers, and keepers in them. I had the machine shop do some basic port work in the bowls and shave off .020. I am using an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and a 600 Holley carb. I couldn't afford a set of name brand roller rockers, so I am going to try out the cheap Chinese ones I got on ebay for $100(Cringe).

My Desktop Dyno says 332 HP and 431 lbs. of torque at the engine. Not the most impressive numbers, but it it a huge improvement over the stock. The low compression is not helping the numbers, but I won't have to buy premium gas all of the time.

I ran the engine on the engine stand for a couple of minutes just to make sure everything is working correctly and it runs great! It has 50 lbs. of oil pressure at idle and a noticeable lope.