i have been reading up on doing a heads/cam set up and i notice alot of people seem to throw rods or spin bearings or what ever. well i have the money now but was wondering if i should just spray the stock motor for this summer to have some fun and just build up a 383 with forged internals you know just make sure the bottom ends up to par, what do you guys think???

 

Ttt

 

You'll need a better top end with the 383 anyway. So, have fun spray'n the 350 and take your time in building a stout 383 long block.

 

I think it's a good question. My advice would be if motor has low miles and was well maintained, and you never had any problems with it (blown head gasket, etc... then you should go ahead with the top end setup. As long as you don't constantly rev your stock bottom end to the moon and if the cam install is properly and meticutously done, then there shouldn't be a reason why something should go wrong.

If on the other hand your car is getting up there in terms of mileage, you've had some problems with it or you're unsure of the history of the motor, you might want to refresh the bottom end it before throwing in a huge cam and ported heads and revving to 6800 regularly. Alot of the people spiining bearings (this is something that I have observed through reading the forum, I could be wrong) seem to be high mileage cars or cars where dirt somehow got to the bearings (maybe through careless install) or cars where water somehow got in the oil, etc...

 

64xxx miles, no problems, well maintained.

 

One thing you don't hear about is the successful H/C installs with no spun bearings or thrown rods. People are only going to tell you about the bad things. I think that if you look at the total number of H/C installs that a fairly small percentage of them go bad, and those are probably because of doing something stupid. I voted H/C.

 

Heads/Cam on stock shortblock and spray away.....but within reason...

 

Heads/cam

 

I resent this statement. I had a flawless head and cam install on a 60k mile motor and it didn't take long to spin a bearing. I think it is a risk you just have to take. I love my setup and think that is definetly the way to go unless you have a lot of money to sink into your motor. If this is the case go with the stroker. You will be changing the heads and cam anyway you look at it unless you spray stock.

 

I have about 112k on my motor and I was planning on H/C install. What all should I do to the bottom end? I know new lifters is usually a must, but what else should I do?

 

hmmmm, i dunno what i want to do, someone very local to me has a 383 block all ready to go, and a rotating assembly with 5k miles on it, i was gonna see if he would just sell the block cause i didnt really want a used rotating assembly, have to see.