I'm having problems deciding which will be ideal. I can't decide if I want to put a nice H/C set up on my stock bottom end 350, or do a 383 stroker.

Obviously the stroker is ideal, but more oney all at once and will take longer.

My car has 28K miles on it as it sits. Which would you do...

A: Get a nice H/C set up with a small shot of N20 (allready have), run this till the bottom end goes, then just transfer the H/C intake to a forged 383 short block later

B: Do a nice forged 383 with nice heads and a good cam.

Here is where the problem lies. I can't afford to do a 383 stroker all at once this winter. I CAN afford to do a nice H/C set up this winter. It will probably take me another year to save up for the short block. Would it be worth it to have a nice H/C set up on my car for a year or two, then just trasfer the heads and intake onto the short block, or do everything at once, and not have a h/c car for 2 years.

Give me your opinions. How long do you think a low low mileage LT1 with a nice h/c set up and a 50-75 shot would last?

 

Why not run your stock LT1 with the nitrous until you can afford to do the motor that you want? The cam you would use on a H/C setup would not be optimum for a 383 setup later.

 

I understand that. A cam isn't too much, maybe $300 for a custom ground cam? I could run a larger shot of N20, but to be honest....it gets old not having it on tap, and having to refill it. I don't like having a motor that relys almost completely on n20 to be fast.

One other thing, if I do get a stroker, there will be more downtime than doing a H/C set up.

What I was thinking is, if I get my H/C set up, and the bottom end blows, at least I will have the heads for my stroker allready. Is there anything bad with doing this?

 

How fast are we wanting to go here?

 

low 11's on H/C set up (~400 rwhp) + a 50-75 shot, more than likely a 50 shot.

 

H/C and juice ought to get you there. It will all depend on how well you can launch the thing. I hope you have more converter than the 2800 deal you've b een running cause you are going to need about 1000 rpm more than that. Or, hit it with a 100 - 125 shot off the line with H/C. A 50 shot when I was running 11.90's put me at 11.34 @ 117 or basically 5.5 tenths and 4 mph. I never hit the juice when I got the car in the 11.70's. I'm assuming that it would probably have run in the 11.1x range or at least 11.2x's. That was with stock heads so low 11's is VERY doable with just H/C and NOS.

 

I figured I would have to upgrade my converter. It's a 2800 fuddle with a 2.2 str. How long did your motor last with H/C and juice? Is it worth it, or would you do the whole thing at once.

 

I only shot the juice about 5 times, and the motor is sitting here in the garage in good shape. I didn't do heads, just the cam. It looks like AI, Lloyd, and others are getting some great numbers with their proven combos. The stock bottom ends seem to hold up remarkably well. I had a crap load of passes on mine and it still ran great.

 

Oh, so your old engine is still holding up, just not in your car? Maybe I will give this a shot. Would I be able to use my heads from my stock 350 on a 383 when I upgrade?

 

I think your H/C idea is a good one and when you upgrade to a 383, everything will be good to go. If you are asking me if stock heads would work on a 383, I wouldn't recommend it. The cubes need a ported head to breathe. I'm running into air problems now with the 396 and Lingenfelter heads. The ports are small and the 2,0 inch intake valve is too small to feed it. It looks like I may upgrade next year to a set of converted SBC heads and the Victor EFI single plane. Shoot Mike Harris an email. He ports heads and has an all natural 383 LT1 ImpalaSS going 11.0's. His heads and cam would put you solidly in the mid 11's NA guaranteed. PM me if you want his email.

 

With that low of miles on the stock shortblock, I would put h/c on it. You should be able to run the stock bottom for a long time. However, I'd make sure you get a decent set of heads so they can provide enough flow for a stroker later. I'd go with at *least* an LE2 head, if not bigger right now. I'm running LE2s on my 396, and I expect to be in the 430-440 rwhp range.

 

I was looking into talking to lloyd and asking him what he would recomend with what I want to to do. I will probably also talk to the guys at Ai too.

I was thinking of getting a really good flowing head and a decent, but not crazy cam. I don't need a cam that will spin to the moon with my stock bottom end, especially if I will be throwing a small shot on top of it. We'll see what the experts think.