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Ok, I am severly confused then on what exactly a factory 383 build is then. They made HP 383's, what do they have from the factory that I can't dupilcate by being the cheap ass that I am without having to buy expensive pistons and machine work?

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Thanks for all the info.

How would the KB flat tops make less compression than the stock pistons?

I don't want to add nitrous, blowers etc. Just a decent stockish motor with enough grunt to blast onto the freeway easily. I'm not looking at throwing alot of money into building this motor, that's why I want to re-use alot of the stock components. If the car had 400hp I would be happy. I'm being a cheapskate with this car.

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You will not make 400HP with the build you speced above , I'm building my 383 to NHRA spec using a cam similar to the 268 and it is not going to make that much HP and my build is going to be close to 11.0 compression.

The KB's make less compression because they are shorter in height than stock and that huge valve relief , they pretty much suck as far as piston choice goes .

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Thanks so much. I hate to sound like a pain in the ass. I didn't know the new pistons were shorter than the factory ones. I know the lift on that cam is .494/.513. That amount of lift on a stock height block, with the pistons you recommended, using stock 906 heads should be ok without clipping a valve on the piston?

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I was thinking that you were using a comp 268, that's more lift but as long as you don't zero deck the piston and or cut a ton off the heads you SHOULD be ok , but you'll want to check clearance anyway. Be forewarned the guides will need to be trimmed down so you don't have the retainers hitting them and of course use the voodoo speced springs.

If you haven't spent money on the heads yet you might try to scrape up a set of 516's, or even 915's since all of a sudden they have become worthless , and use a flat top piston.