long story short, had a le1 head/cam combo engine, threw a rod, going with a really big cam this time ( car is going to a weekend driver ) and i need to rebuilt my lower end,,question is if i put a 383 stroker rods/crank/pistons, and a 383 set up cam, will this work ok w/ my le1 heads? if not i'm not going to stroke it, now worth the $$ for heads,
thanks for any info
-Jason

 

theres no replacement for displacement. itll probably drop peak power by about 300rpm and be more streetable if you reuse the cam. itll work great. i had a buddy with a 396 and a set of heads that flowed like the LE1s and the car went 11.40s@123 w/ a 1.7 60 ft. he had the heads on his stock shortblock and it went 12.20s@116 with the same cam and heads.

 

Thats my friends plan. Its all bolted up right now except for the intake. He has 383, 10.5 compression, cc306 with le1 heads. Get it dyno'ed for exact shift point but I think it will start dropping power past 6600.

 

i was reading around and saw that ported and polished lt1 heads wouldn't be enough for a 383 or 396 stroker, is that true?
i just got off the phone w/ the machine shop, looks like i'll have the $$ to bore my block, what camshafts should i look at for a stroked 383 or 396
(assuming my stock ported + polished heads will be enough ) <---- thats my main question..

 

stock ported and polished heads are just as good as any aftermarket head assuming the porter knows what he's doing. as far as port cross section and flow goes, a little to small beats a little to big any day of the week. dont worry so much about it.

 

The real power is in the heads and cam. The 383 will give you about 30hp. You can go to a more agressive cam 'cause the stroker will mellow it out.

 

Any head is good enough........but with a set of LT1 heads no matter how good they are ported still have limitations.........as many chose to go with the aftermarket head like AFR which have more meat to port out and bigger runners You won't see the absoulute best performace on a 396 as you could with a better head, but they will still make a great go getter for the street.