So im a complete noob when it comes to bottom ends. Mine is stock with LE2 heads and a lloyd elliot cam. There is a guy local to me selling a 383 short block for 1500 bucks. He says it has a Scat cast steel crank 9000 series, Scat forged I beam rods, Mahle forged pistons and new freeze plugs. says compression is 11ish:1. Does this sound like a decent bottom end for the price? Questions I should ask him? This is a daily driver car for me in the summer.

 

The scat 9000 crank is said to be good for around 500fwhp and 6500 rpm. Anymore than that and a forged crank is recommended.

 

Without checking all the bearing clearances, ring gaps, piston to cylinder clearance and a balance sheet you really don't know if it's even usable.

Good luck.

 

ask "do you have the build/balance sheet"...if answer is no, walk away

 

Interesting recent thread on another site, showing a bit of a problem on a 383ci LT1 using the Scat 9000 crank and rods:

Tony’s Z rebuild thread

 

Yep.....that can be an issue, right there.

KW