well, here's the story. I was pretty much looking at doing a heads/cam/nitrous car with the stock shortblock and LE 1 heads/cam and a 150 shot, the heads and intake came off my car to find that the rings are starting to go bad and I have next to no money left to work with.. but I just dont feel it is going to be very practical to replace just the rings it the entire shortblock is coming apart so I was trying to get an idea of what good shortblock kits are out there and what to go with. If I go with a 383 shortblock I would like to run the LE 3 heads/cam (cam requires reving out to atleast 6500 on a 383), with around a 250 shot, is it possible to do this for $1500???? (all the money I will have left to my name after if I go with LE 3 heads/cam) what can I do for around $1500 for a decent shortblock that can handle reving out to 6500 and a 250 shot on a daily basis? what are my options? If I stick with LE 1 heads/cam I could have around $2200 to work with but i'm not sure I want to use that small of a cam... What do you think the best way to go for me is? I've been looking at the ebay 383 strocker kits that are going for $800-1100, but i'm I dont know a lot about these so enlighten me.

 

You can get the parts but machine work for a 383 and assembly will cost you 800-1000$. Get a Summit rebuild kit for 540 with forged pistons and rebuild it with stocker crank and rods. Should get away with it for under 1500$.

 

Jesus christ man, you have to pay to play. Start saving! You cut corners now it's going to end up costing you double in the end, and three times the frustration!

 

well the problem is that the car is apart already and someone is doing the else is doing the work and the car is just sitting in their driveway, so therefore I can't wait a while to save up cash... I wasnt planning on touching the shortblock but now it has to come apart and I am trying to figure out what the best way of going for such little cash is? right now I am thinking of just getting new rings and bearing and just going with my original plan of running the LE 1 heads/cam with a 150 shot... but I dunno, i guess i'd like to just go with the 383 kit.. any ideas?

 

what if I were to go with the ebay 383 kit and just run a 200 shot with the LE 3 heads/cam? What machine work has to be done for a 383 stroker kit? I thought you just used longer rods...

 

if there is machine work that has to be done to move up to a 383... How about just using the summit rebuild kit w/ forged aluminum pistons $520, and forged rods $290... and i'm not sure how well the stock cranks are (does anyone know a little about this?) and then if needed a forged crank $650 which would be right around $1500?? would that hold up to a 250 shot and a LE 3 head/cam package? the reason I am posting this is because I need to figure out what I am going to do asap so that I can send these heads out cuz my car needs to be out of this guys driveway soon and I am just tryng to figure out the best way to go..

 

I would buy the Sealed Power forged pistons (the 2 valve releaf ones not the 4) a set of scat forged I beam rods, then have the assembly balanced, with rings bearings gaskets and a hone and about a gallon of solvent, some heavy duty oven cleaner a few cans of paint and some cleaning brushes you should be close to the 1500 $ mark.

 

What extra machining is required to do a 383?? why cant i just go with the longer rods? and how much rwhp is the stock crank good till?

 

A 383 has to be clearenced properly. I think it costs a little more in machine work than say a 355 (depending on block condition of course). Honestly i don't think youve got enough at this point to consider a 383. You might just get the block honed (if it dosen't require overbore), the crank turned and poslished, you can reuse old rods, or maybe get some forged ones, and get forged pistons. Summit sells a kit like that for around 520 or so. If you had maybe just a little more, or assembled it yourself, i could see a 355. Then save up some more and get a nitrous kit and run a 125 shot or so. Search around on here to get an idea of machine costs for the block.

Or, put it back together so you can drive it, buy a short block (around 200 bucks usually), build it with the money you get and then swap it out. More work, but still an option, and you can drive your car till it breaks.

 

FWIW, I have a Mahle piston kit for sale here.

This kit is for a 350 with 6" rods, the pistons are already performance coated and the kit comes with rings and floating pins. I have it listed for $480 plus shipping. Call it $500 even, provided you aren't in Europe or something.

That'll leave you more than enough money to get a set of Summit or Eagle 6" rods and recondition your stock crank. (Yes, it's cast, but it's stronger than it gets credit for, especially once you hang a lighter assembly from it.) You can even get yourself a new crank in a 3.48 stroke and you still wont have to do any machine work. Plus, the Mahle kit is set up in such a way that the pistons "zero-deck" themselves. That's not technically an accurate statement, but I'm trying to convey the notion that the pistons come right up to the deck surface.

 

A 250 shot of juice is nothing to skimp on the short block about. I wouldn't even run a 200 without sme serious upgrades. You are talking about a lot of cylinder pressure. Get a 355 built with the Summit kit and run a 150 shot. Make sure you have the supporting modifications for that nitrous. Dont expect your in tank pump to supply the fuel for it. Get an inline pump.

 

Mean is right.
Whether you buy my kit or not, the only budget move you've got is to do a 355, instead of a 383/396.


Here's my thought on your budget option. I would NOT try to go any cheaper than this:

Crankshaft - Summit forged, 1 piece seal. Rated @ 650hp
Part # SME-3-48-05L057 $589

Rods - Eagle SIR Floating Pin I-Beams Rated @ 500hp
Part # ESP-6000BBLW $259

You can go up to a set of Eagle H-Beams good for 700hp, (PN: ESP-6000B3D) but that's already up to $429.

 

You sell 383 kits? I must speak to you. LOL

 

LOL, no...

Sorry if I gave that impression.

I'm selling a set of pistons (and some other stuff) that I picked up at Summit when they did their semi-annual "Scratch & Dent" sale. Most of it isn't actually scratched or dented of course, but it IS open box stuff that they used for display and can't sell as new. I hit the sale with a grand or two, snag some likely looking stuff, mark it up a wee bit and pass along a good deal.

 

Check your PMs. Sorry about jacking the thread.