My father has a 383 with cast heads with work done to them. Its got a awesome streetable cam sorry i don't know the numbers because we dont talk for long since im in afghanistan at the moment. His engine on the stand is a carb engine i have a lt1 with aluminum heads, i was wondering if i could just swap my heads intake and electronics over to his short block and be able to run with a tune? will the stock fuel injectors work? If not what other performance parts will i need?

 

No one can help me?

 

Hi Justin, Hope your keeping safe over there. The lt1 is a reverse flow motor and if your fathers 383 is of the same then the heads and intake will interchange. If the 383 is not an lt1 or lt4 motor then they will not interchange. Has to do with the cooling passages in the heads from what I understand.

 

Correct, the LT1 is a "Gen 2" small block Chevy (SBC) and is sounds like your father's engine may be a Gen 1 SBC. While the cooling passages in the head to not match directy, it is possible to modify the LT1 (or LT4) heads to work on a Gen 1 SBC. Requires plugging up a couple coolant holes, and drilling a couple new ones.

That gets the heads on the Gen 1 SBC, but now you have a problem with the LT1 "electronics". The LT1 PCM requires the cam position signal from the Optispark distributor, and there is no place to mount an Opti on a Gen 1 block. However, people have managed to incorporate the cam position sensor module in a conventional distributor, or mount it outboard.

Point is.... it isn't a simple "swap". It will take some creativity.