Mark, these ARE for the mopar rods, just in 440 length. Known as "LY" rods. You could use an aftermarket rod, but that's not what I was working on here. It would be this piston, a 440 rod, and the turned down 440 crank.

Now, for the more performance minded, use this same piston with a 3.90 stroke crank and a 6.700 rod, 449 cubes of fun.

As for the other question about compression, the swept volume of the 383's small bore is low, 884.11 cc's. You would have to go to a small dome, or just use a smaller cc head to raise the compression.