I put a 440 crank in a 383 25 years ago. I had the counters turned down to clear the pistons and the block. I used beam polished 383 rods and modified TRW pistons. This was before cheap stroker kits were on the market.
I cut .175" off the top of the piston and trimmed the bottom of the pin bosses. It shaved about 200 grams off each piston.
The TRW l2315f-30 slug still had well over .2" of material in the center and thickened up considerably as you moved out towards the ring lands. In fact, the centering hole in the middle of the head on the forging used to mount the piston on the lathe was still visible.
The crank took at least six slugs of mallory and over $1k to finish and balance.
Just sayin' save a little on the pistons and rods now may cost you more in the long run when it's time to balance.
For reference. I'm putting a 452 together right now using a factory 3.75 440 crank. Because I have parts laying about. I took .120 off the counterweights with a lathe, and still had to heavily bevel the edges and grind the block for clearance.
Using a 1.12 CH Icon piston(IC827-granted, super light) and a Manley 6.965 hemi rod(heavy thing like 960 gms IIRC), the bobweight is just over 2320grams, I have to take over 180 gms off the crank on both ends still.
A 1.200 inch piece(what commonly fits in BB cranks) of 1 inch diameter Mallory adds something like 120gms gain to a crank. I'm at home of else I'd actually look. 6 pieces is roughly +300gms on either end. I find that incredibly hard to believe on a wedge build...any wedge build.
I think you got sodomized by the guy balancing that crank, or maybe they went crazy when turning the CW's. S/F....Ken M
