I gotta pull my 383 out since it got this nice dent in the bottom of the oil pan on my last trip home (thanks to a tire in the road at night ). Since the combo is far from optimized and I dont like the cam too much, I was considering making a few changes and I wonder if it'll be worth it. I only have 2 weeks at home on leave, so I gotta spend the time wisely. I was planning on putting in some ARP's while I have the pan off.

Right now I have a CM 233/239/112 that I dont like. It's not the size it's the peakyness of it. It's powerband is about as flat as a cliff. Poor in comparision to other cams I've used. Compression is a little low at 10.3:1. This is with 18cc full dished GM pistons (rotating assy is from a ZZ383 crate motor, though the rods are scat 4340)Pistons are in the hole .029" (CH is 1.396") so with the impy ss head gaskets, I have approx .055 quench. Kinda sucks. Its got comp 987 springs.

I found some pistons that are VERY similar in weight (in other words I could match them and not disturb the balance) with better specs that would work better for me. 1.425 CH, 12.5cc D-dish. That would make for a zero deck (block is stock deck height) and 11.5:1 compression with no other changes. I was thinking of going with a GM847 but i think I might get a custom cam with steel retainers from bret even though I'll be getting another custom done very soon. I cant really afford to go bigger since my heads start stalling out about 6200 RPM, so all I can really do is get a better cam instead.

Intake is actually unported. So yes, it's getting ported. Im sure it's causing alot of turbulence because of it, especially with a 58mm throttle body I have a complete single plane, but that's going on the big motor. It's off getting ported with the heads now, so as much as i'd like to use it, I dont think I'll mess with it.

Think the changes are worthwhile? I can do all of it for under $1000... I know the compression increase and tighter quench will give me better throttle response, but I'm hoping for better mileage as well and more torque. HP is not doing too bad but like I said, it's too peaky, and the tq and HP peaks are within 600 RPM of each other (383RWTQ@5200, 382RWHP@5800 before the delteq, true duals and 58mm TB).

I just gotta live with it for another 10 months until I can get enough time to drop in the 434 in it's place. This motor will eventually go into a nice Vert when I find one.

I know I talk to much 1.2 increase in compression, tighter quench, custom cam, ported intake and ARP's on the main caps instead of stock bolts. Opinions, thoughts?