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i would recommend studs and not bolts on the heads and use plenty of thread sealer. r

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i would recommend studs and not bolts on the heads and use plenty of thread sealer. r

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Thread sealer on what ? The head bolts on a big block mopar are DRY ????

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you guys are all over-thinking this. It's a friggin' driver 383.

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bigger carb and headers if you feel like spending the money now and go have fun!

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thread sealer better than oil.

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you guys are all over-thinking this. It's a friggin' driver 383. Use what you have except the cam. If you haven't bought the e-heads Don't. They are overkill. Grab a summit cam and a good set of used iron heads and roll. You are going to use mani's anyway. You won't be able to tell the difference. Quench? really? On a 330-350 hp motor? who cares. It will run fine. Jeeeesh some people like to make this way to technical. Plenty of toss together 383's and 440's running fine w/ many many miles and many many passes with little or no attention to all those details.
Don't know what the guy is saying about thread sealer on your head bolts...you coat them with oil and put them in. If you run e-heads the studs are better. You do however need to run sealer on your mani' studs. I use teflon tape on mine. Good luck with the build.

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Wait , aren't you the guy always spouting off about running a holley and headers for max hp out of any given combo ? Make you your mind .

And on to the sealer on exh studs ... Not on Eheads , only heads from Chrysler directly have wet bolt holes on the exhaust.

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thread sealer better than oil.

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Ok, I am not building a race car, drag car etc. I am purposely building this thing to cruise, especially the interstate and highways. I appreciate the info on swapping converters, gears etc. But I'm not going to do that, it is what it is and I did it for a reason....I already have a car with a 3200 converter and "only" 3.55's. It revs too high on the interstate as it is....3200 RPM is too noisy for my liking.

My main concern is the heads/piston/head gasket combo. I wasn't aware when building a 383 that piston choices suck. Not only that, but it sounds like my options are expensive pistons or expensive machine work. I just so happen to have the expensive pistons....however from what most people on here tell me that the CR will not be enough with my head gasket choice (if I get it....027") and my head chamber volume (84cc). So I am back to thinking of just ordering a set of KB400s which from what I have calculated should be very close to 10:1...but I could be and probably am wrong.

Once I get info from the machine shop of what the depth will be with the KB400's vs the 2315's I'll make a definitive decision. Supposedly the KB400's will be inefficient compared to the flat top 2315's.....whatever that means.

The gear stays, the converter stays, the cam stays....I will probably take everyone's advice on the carb, maybe even consider headers after I get some miles on it and feel like doing something.

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Just want to share this with you, last year I rebuilt a numbers 69hp 383 for a super bee. I left it as much stock as the available parts would allow using the speed pro pistons .030 and the Summit cam/lifters which was very close to the original stock hp cam. Even used the original 625 carter carb and the hp manifolds. Stock original converter and 323 gears. Stock original 906 heads with stock valve sizes and springs. This is a sweet running engine with plenty of torque to light up the tires and a respictable high end. The idle is smooth and throttle response is crisp, just a great running engine for the street. To sum it up, the stock hp 383 is a respectable performance engine in its own right. I suggest a pair of headders for a nice 15-20 hp gain.

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You have no idea how much I appreciate this information. It makes me feel alot better about the one I'm building. Thank you

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The CH of the KB400 is 1.908 , the CH of the 2315 is 1.920.

What I meant by inefficient is the dome impedes flame travel across the chamber , a flat top doesn't . I am building a 383 based stroker with 12.5 compression and the only way to do it was either cut the bleep out of the heads or use a small dome , I chose the dome , should have cut the heads

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What is the CH of a stock 383 piston? I can't remember but I thought it was less than the KB400 1.908.

I understand what you mean by the dome "getting in the way"....but how does that affect your car? Decreased performance? Gas Mileage? I was looking at getting the dome to help with CR since everyone was saying 9.5:1 wasn't enough for that cam. The dome would put it about 10:1.

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Depends on the year engine but the stock CH of the 68-69 383 HP (which is what i base all my on ) , and 68-69 2bbl for that matter , is 1.932 , this puts the piston .0025 in the hole on a factory deck height, the 2bbl piston has a dish. as delivered the HP was 9.2 at best. I've gone 100mph in the 1/4 with a 56K worn HP engine with a timing chain so loose it could be removed without taking off the gears ... almost... so it's not as bad as we are lead to believe.

One of the mags did an article on installing ebrocks on a 383 , they THOUGHT they had a piston close to factory CH. But when they pulled the heads it had low compression cast replacements, they were something like .050 plus below the deck , the engine was not the DOG they thought it would be, food for thought .

In the grand scheme of things you will probably not notice any difference with the KB400 so just ignore what I said about inefficiency .

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Thanks for this info

Ok, this is my final plan from the best I can tell from the input on here and what's available to me in the real world...

1) The cam: I am going to save the XE 274 for a future 440.

2) I am going to buy an XE268...will this work with the 3.23's AND 2500 stall? 9.5-10:1 CR ok with this cam?

3) I did some calculations....I looked up the stock deck height (this engine was never apart either) I got 9.98 IIRC. I took the rod length + the SpeedPro's CH of 1.920 + HALF of the 3.375 stroke, subtracted from the favtory deck height spec and....from my calculations.. am ASSuming the 2315 pistons to be .0145 in the hole. So...I think I will use these pistons AND chop .010" off the block...AND machine the intake to fit...if need be...then I'll do a mock up on one cylinder to check valve clearance.

4) I am going with the .039" head gasket...not the steel shim.

5) What would work better for a carb...the 650 or 750 Edelbrock Thunder Series now that I am giving in and going with the smaller cam?

I know how to assemble the main/head bolts....just never did a 383...and probably never will again

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I did some calculations....I looked up the stock deck height (this engine was never apart either) I got 9.98 IIRC. I took the rod length + the SpeedPro's CH of 1.920 + HALF of the 3.375 stroke, subtracted from the favtory deck height spec and....from my calculations.. am ASSuming the 2315 pistons to be .0145 in the hole.

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Your math is right, but 10 bucks says your deck height is not 9.980" from the factory. Not that it really matters, just that you'll have to mill a bit more than 0.010 off your block to get it where you want.

Dropped off my 383 block and crank at the machine shop yesterday

Good luck

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The 650 & since you are deck milling I would mockup 1st as the actual block deck may not b near what's listed but not sure since I do not know 383's

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ive got a stock bottom end 1971 383 in my dart and just changed the cam to the comp extreme energy 268 and it really turned out great. the vacuum isnt anything to write home about at 12 or 13 at best . im running a 650 demon carb and the engine has plenty of top end. im probably running right at 9:1 CR with milled heads on it.

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