I have a 383 I got which at the time of purchase was blowing a bit of blue and blowby, the engine itself ran great and made awesome HP.

If I was to refresh it myself I'm guessing new rings and if anything wrong with the pistons replace (may need rebalancing if replacing piston, hope not).

Please someone give me some good advise, I'm planning on running a turbo and make about 700rwhp with the setup, what is the cheapest way to redo the thing? I took the cam, cleaned her up and she looks good to me, cam bearings are like new, hope the same for crank bearings. Now if I was to get her honed how should I go about dissasembly and how much would it cost round figure?

I need some expert help please on this bottom end rebuild, never done one in my life.

 

700 rwhp = close to 900 horsepower at the flywheel. Not sure what your bottom end consists of at the moment, but you should be looking at a good set of forged blower/nitrous pistons, a really good set of connecting rods/ rod bolts and a nice forged crankshaft for that kind of power.

If this motor was not originally setup for a lot of boost, you are going to need to make sure that your piston to wall clearance as well as your piston ring gap is where it needs to be. These numbers will vary depending on the piston manufacturer. While you have it apart, you should replace your main bearings. It isn't that big of a deal and would cost less than $40.00 to do. I don't see why you wouldn't if you go to all this trouble.

 

the bottom end is forged, forged rods, crank dish blower pistons. its had 1000 fwhp thru it already. it was originally built by mti.

the only concern is that it had blow by on the last setup which was supercharger/nitrous, the blow by went away with a breather, but it also blew threw the breather and burned a bit of blue. were guessing the rings need to be re and re'd.

so the question is can we just hone the walls and re ring it?

also would a full tear down be needed??

would a torque hone be needed???

were are looking for the simplest/cheapest method. dont want to do a full rebuild if we dont have to. shops here charge an arm and a leg to do the work.

 

I understand about paying for machine work, those guys will take you to the cleaners .

As long as you can get he piston to wall clearance you are looking for, honing and re-ringing should be fine. I just went through this ordeal with a solid roller 377 I am building. Basically, after honing we wound up on the high side of where the piston to wall clearance needed to be. The next time I pull this motor apart I will probably be looking at going to a larger piston. As long as this is not the case for you, you should be fine just honing and putting new rings in. You always want to hone with plates, and make sure the main caps are torqued when this is done as well. I would consider that a "full tear down", it's not a big deal though .

 

You mean leave the crank in while honing

Can you tell me as a first timer what I'm looking for? As in piston to wall clearance, what ring gap am I looking for, bearing clearances? I assume piston pin clearance to the piston/rod is fine as long as I don't separate them.

I'm using studs for the main caps, (4 bolt splayed) what should I look for in terms of torque specs/stud stretch, basically can you go over with me what you would do if you had to take her apart to re ring/hone and what parts I would/should need.

Thanx a million.

 

also the motor sat a lengthy time before it was started up and ran with a supercharger/nitrous combo is it possible the rings may have collapsed? which led to the blow by?

 

Ok without getting into too much detail here is what I would do.

New bearings throughout, rod, mains, and if they look good leave the cam bearings. The rings have got to go, and I would spend a couple dollars and replace them with a set of tool steel rings. Childs/Alberts, Total Seal, there are a few brands out there. The Hellfires from Total Seal are what I usually use.

For your clearances nothing larger than .003, and nothing smaller than .0025. Bigger power you want to set-up the bearings a little bit looser than an N/A engine.

From there I would tear the thing down completely. Remove the old rings and inspect the pistons thoroughly. You'll want to get yourself some brake clean or parts wash solvent and some scotch brite pads. Go through and clean out the ring grooves and inspect the ring lands for any cracks or damage. Be sure to clean off the carbon ring at the top of each bore with some scotch brite and brake clean.

If that engine was already running I wouldn't worry so much about honing it unless you saw damage in a cylinder bore. Remember that those pistons probably have a .004-.006 Piston-to-Wall clearance and that is where it was set-up already. So the more honing you do will get you away from that. A quick once over with a ball hone or scotch brite by hand if not comfortable with a ball hone. Cross hatch should still be intact I would think for the limited mileage the car saw.

So in a nutshell, that is what you need to do. DO NOT hone or clean the bores out with the pistons or crank installed in the block. You will 100% get debris into a crevice and fail a bearing.

As for torque specs, contact ARP they can advise you. Ring manufacturer tell them your boost levels they will spec out a gap for you. Gotta work for some of the answers afterall

Good Luck!!

 

I would do rings, rods, mains and an oil pump. Check cylinder taper and piston fit. If I was going with a power adder, stick with tool steel rings..they hold up much better.I would "cherry ball" hone it just to break the glaze off the cylinder walls.


David

 

Take the engine apart and take the block to a machine shop to have it checked. They will let you know if a hone job is all you need or if it needs a bore. A ball hone won't fix an excessively tapered bore and if you want the most from this build it will need good ring seal.

For rings, my 1st choice would be the SP Hellfire followed by JE's HNS ringset.

-Mindgame