Some help on 383 ID

[Corellian Corvette]

Could use some help ID'in the heads and block I pulled out of my 383.

Heads casting number 3462346

The block, I couldn't find the numbers near the distributor (this engine is coated in grease and thick paint) but I did find these numbers on the drivers side block under the manifolds

7.30.71  3614230.3

Any ideas?

[bull]

Well, it's obviously a 1971 block cast on July 30th which means it might possibly have gone into a 1971 car, but more likely it was installed in a 1972 model because the engines were produced up to four months (or more) prior to the cars they were installed in and the '72s were hitting the streets in the fall of '71. It's a pretty safe bet it was originally put in a '72.

I can't tell you diddly about the other numbers.

[Arthu®]

Cylinder head casting # 3462346 = 1973 400/440 head with an open chamber, 2.08 intake, 1.74 exhaust.
Block casting 3614230 = 1971/1972 400ci 'B' Block

So it looks like you have a 400 there and not a 383...

Arthur

[Corellian Corvette]

Cylinder head casting # 3462346 = 1973 400/440 head with an open chamber, 2.08 intake, 1.74 exhaust.
Block casting 3614230 = 1971/1972 400ci 'B' Block

So it looks like you have a 400 there and not a 383...

Arthur

Is that a good thing?

Are the heads worth rebuilding or should I get the 906 heads everyone is talking about?

When doing a rebuild is there anything special my builder needs to take into consideration since this is a 400 vs. a 383 or all all the parts (crank, pistons) basically the same?

Thanks!

[bull]

Cylinder head casting # 3462346 = 1973 400/440 head with an open chamber, 2.08 intake, 1.74 exhaust.
Block casting 3614230 = 1971/1972 400ci 'B' Block

So it looks like you have a 400 there and not a 383...

Arthur

Is that a good thing?

Are the heads worth rebuilding or should I get the 906 heads everyone is talking about?

When doing a rebuild is there anything special my builder needs to take into consideration since this is a 400 vs. a 383 or all all the parts (crank, pistons) basically the same?

Thanks!

Is it a good thing? I don't know. I don't even know what year car we're talking about but I know there were no stock 400s in any 2nd gen Chargers. A 400 is basically a .030 over 383 isn't it?

[Corellian Corvette]

Sorry this came out of my 68 charger. The car was a basket case and has been full of surprises. This was just the latest. 

I did a leakdown test on the engine and it's in need of a rebuild. So it's going in and I was trying to get some information on it for the engine builder. We're going to do a pretty stock rebuild but before emarking on something I thought it would be valuable to get some experience from folks here.

[John_Kunkel]

7.30.71  3614230.3

You have a fairly desirable piece there, these blocks are commonly referred to as the "230 block" and those blocks with casting dates between April and October of '71 have heavier main webs and are in demand for stroker use. These blocks have physically larger numerals in the casting number than ordinary 400 blocks.

The bore in the 400 block is .090" larger than the 383; the largest bore in any production Mopar V8 block. (4.340")

[bull]

If John is correct, and he probably is, you might have an engine that's worth more than a stock '68 383. The hard part these days is finding a correctly-dated block to make a close match if that's important to you. If not, any old 383 will do.

[Big Lebowski]

  Make sure the new pistons have a little more compression, stock 400's had way low Compression ratio's, so a big carb & a cam would just drown the poor thing in raw gas.

[terrible one]

I say either sell it and get a 440 to rebuild, or stroke it!

[Corellian Corvette]

Well that sounds like good news! I was just going to do a pretty stock rebuild. A decent compression ratio was in the plans, but I'm going to keep the cam mild. I like smooth idle and easy tuning

I'm trying to keep costs down so I can actually get this thing on the road. Even a mild rebuild with decent compression and a good cam is going to put out 300+ HP which should be plenty fun with the right foot.

That said, it's good to know what I'm dealing with before shipping off to my engine builder. That way we can plan ahead for parts, etc.

What about the heads? Any good? I had a line on some 906 castings but it looks like the valve sizes on these are the same. Should I just keep them or get new ones?

[hemigeno]

The kinds of questions you're asking will be answered better if this is over in the "Engines" section, which is why I'm moving it there...

[John_Kunkel]

There are a couple of unknowns in this subject that are worth mentioning, if this is a complete 400 motor chances are it has a cast crank which is no big deal in itself but it will require external balancing provisions. The cast crank could be swapped out for any forged B crank (383) but since any crank will likely need to be turned, why not consider finding a forged RB crank and do the 451 stroker conversion?

http://www.arengineering.com/articles/frame1.htm

Relatively inexpensive pistons are available for this conversion (with stock rods) so the only part needed above and beyond a normal rebuild is the crank.

The 346 head will flow about as well as the often touted 906 and will have partially hardened seats.

[supserdave]

You can make decent power out of a 400. We did a fairly stock rebuild for our 3/4 ton pickup. Stock Master kit from northern auto parts, .020 steel shim gaskets, and milled some 346 heads to get the compression up a bit. It has a Comp 21-215-4 cam, and it runs pretty nice. A little lope at idle, but has lots of torque and a ton of mid range power. Pretty reasonable build to.

[Corellian Corvette]

John

Thanks for the points those are very helpful.

When you say "external balancing solution" how does that differ from what was done with a normal 68 383. I thought all B/RB engines were externally balanced?
I don't know what the P.O. did in terms of mixing/matching parts, so i'm going to assume whatever I have would have been stock with the 400.

I talked with my builder, who did caution that the modifications to a stock 400 crank for this conversion are a little more involved than is alluded to in that article. Not tough, per-se, but certainly not cheap. He's going to do some reasearch into stroker cranks otherwise the expense for stroking may be more than i'm interested in spending...

[Big Lebowski]

'68 383's had a steel crank w/ the thin steel balancer & it was internally balanced...the cast cranked 400's had a thicker cast balancer. The only "externally" balanced "steel crank" engines were the 440 six-packs.
             Now onto the 21st century, when I rebuilt my 440 six-pack, I "Internally" balanced the "externally balanced" six-pack engine because of the T. converter...an aftermarket 0 balanced 2600 stall torque converter. Look at a Year one catalog to see the different types.