to stroke or not to stroke
 

I would really appriciate ya'lls opinions on wheather or not i should stroke my 350 out to a 383 or just build the 350. Is is really worth all of the money, or would it be better to just put that money into the 350(blower maybe)? The car is going to be a street car but not driven every day. (by the way it's goin in my 85 trans am.) so gas milage isn't a worry. I want to turn some pretty good quarter mile times also. some people say they are over rated and you will have no top end. I just want to get as many opinions as possible.
Thanks,
Derrick

Low compression stroker. Later you can put on a blower.

How much is this "all the money" you are talking about? When you rebuild it, only the crank has to be clearenced for the stroke which is easily done. The rest is parts that are going to be needed whatever you do. 383 is a bored 0.030 over and stroked with a 400 crank. You still need the 0.030 over pistons, rings, etc. No more money one way or the other.

33 ci more. There is no replacement for displacement. Besides changing the stroke improves the power.

ummm from what ive heard your looking at about a grand in good machine shop work???

Anyways theres a simple way to figure it out....you need to work backwards. figure out where you want power wise to be. Then figure out what its going to take to get you there....if you can get your hp goals out of the 350 for cheaper then making a 383 then the answer is simple.

I'm going to throw this quote out there just because i find it funny and its relevant....someone on this board said it forget who but here it goes....this is the step to building an engine

step 1 figure out how much power you want to make
step 2 figure out how much its going to cost and how much money you have to spend
step 3 scale step 1 back so that it matches with step two :) have fun hope you get the answers you want from someone because i know i sure as hell havent been of any help :eek:

No way it would cost a frand for clerancing just to put in a 3.75 stroke crank. It doenst require much clerancing.

I agree with aklim on this one. Make your 383 with about 8.5:1 compression, and make sure you put in some strong rods, and a good crank. Could probbaly get away with a scat 9000 (about $300)

Then after you recover financially from the motor build go ahead and buy your blower. Should bolt right up and be ready to rock. but keep in mind you will have to have the car set-up properly to get all that power to teh ground you would be making with a blown 383. That includes buit trans and a few suspension mods. If not you will end up like 60's era muscle cars. 400 hp and still turning 14s :lol:

I would stroke it. Go on ebay and buy a kit with some 6.0 rods for quicker throttle response, bearings and crank. couldn't cost much. I got my 3.875 crank from thunder racing on ebay for 349.00 and my 6.0 rods from hawks racing for 299.00 on ebay. Pistons I had to order special. but they should have a good kit for say on ebaymotors. It's the best way to make lots of horsepower, but 383's have head snapping torque.. you will need to break the bank for traction. If you did alot of work to make your tpi breathe and exhaust flow. You might get close to 500lbs of torque at the wheels with heavily modded heads, intake, 58mm tb. full length headers and 3" true duals. then you would need relocation brackets for lca, and new lca's, wider tires or slicks. but the real power would be there.

thanks for your replies fellas, please keep them coming. i know about the massive amounts of torque but will it kill my top end? I know that top end doesn't matter too much for a drag car but i still drive it a little on the street and interstate. plus i found the whole kit scat crank,clev.77bearings, rods, forged pistons, and gasket set for $600 new.
thanks,
Derrick

It wont kill your top end. You will have a harder time squeezing out top end power with the longer stroke because of increased piston speeds though. Some of that can be solved with aftermarket rds. Get longer rods to reduce piston speed a bit and use floating pins, to free up a bit of power.

So ya'll are sayin it's def. worth the money? I appreciate yall's help.
Derrick

Just to clear things up, a 383 shares the same stroke as a stock 400 crank but uses smaller journals...