383 Cranks

[Sixt8Chrgr]

Is a cast or forged crank in a 68 383 4bbl auto with air car.

Thanks

[Ghoste]

Forged.

[Sixt8Chrgr]

thanks, were cast cranks put in 2 bbl cars?

[chargerbr549]

The last year of the 383 (1971) they were putting cast cranks in 2bl 383's but 4bl motors they were still using forged. I have only seen one of the cast crank motors over 20 years ago.

Kevin

[John_Kunkel]

'70 and '71 383-2 cranks were cast when mated to an automatic, standard shift 383-2's and all 383-4's had forged cranks.

[Ghoste]

And I should edit my answer by saying that it should be a forged crank.  Obviously I have no idea if the engine that is supposed to be in the car is still there.  A lot of things tend to happen in 4 decades. 

[Sixt8Chrgr]

Is there a way to look at the balancer and tell if you have a cast or forged crank? Or another visible way to tell?

Thanks

[Ghoste]

Bigger damper and I've been told that a letter "E" will be stamped into the pad on the engine block but I don't know if that's true or not.

[Hot_Rodder]

Some times I wonder what goes on in over a certain amount of time.... I would agree in this application, should be forged. Not trying to seem like I'm hyjacking a thread, I'm not, I will say this much, I've got a later 400 block out of a heavy duty truck backed by a manual transmission (well, used to, all I have is the motor), the information that I've read, and even reading the damper, everything says that it's got a forged steel crank.... Pull the crank, but it appears to be cast, so who knows what all goes on over time.....

[Ghoste]

When you say a later 400, just how late do you mean?  I don't think any 400's had a forged crank past 74 and even of the first two years of production I thought it was kind of a rarity?

[Sixt8Chrgr]

I was guessing that my 68 383 in my Charger had a forged crank, but was not sure so wanted to check here. I will check the dampener.

I recently bought a 75 440 that was rebuilt and it does have an "E" stamped on the pad by the distributor and it has a cast crank in it. So provided the motor has the original crank in it the E is an indicator what it came with from the factory.

Thanks,

[Hot_Rodder]

Ghoste, I'd have to look at the block for the actual date, but most of the 400's came with a cast crank, but since this came out of a heavy duty 4x4 truck with manual tranny, everything tht I've read (factory wise) calls for a forged crank. But I guess someone somewhere messed up, or perhaps the crank was replaced, who knows... I'm thinking it's a '76 block though....

[Ghoste]

I could be wrong but if it is a 76, I think that all the 400's were cast by that point regardless of application.

[Hot_Rodder]

I could be wrong but if it is a 76, I think that all the 400's were cast by that point regardless of application.

When I got the motor, I figured that since it had a 2bbl intake (factory), and a later year that it would have been a cast crank. After doing some hunting around, I found out that there were only certain ones that came with a steel crank.... But only certain ones, and there wasn't very many setups that had them. I found out that the cast cranks had a thicker damper, and the steel crank had a thinner damper (mine has the thinner damper).... When I pulled the crank, it has the thin casting line, rather than the machined thick (wide) area. I'm going to try and hunt that info back up, I had found it online...


Here's some of what I had found:
Shown above is damper #3614374, used on 400's with external balance cast cranks, which can usually be found in a passenger car and/or automatic trans application (applications with 400 engines and manual transmission applications used forged cranks.) It measures 7 1/4" diameter by about 7/8" wide. Although it is similar to the "six pack" dampers above, the weight on these is much thicker, and more closely resembles the weights on the cast crank 440 models below, even though the ring thickness is similar to an internal balance damper. One easy way to identify these (and not confuse them with six pack models) is the small half circle that is cut into one side of the counterweight. This is visible in the picture above at about the 3 o'clock position. This is the only damper that will have this small cut.


The pic that I found does look like it, and it should have a steel crank and not a cast, but it does appear to have a cast srank in it, so as we've said above, who knows what goes on with these over time. Also, I checked the machine pad on the block and it says 8T400 (I'm assuming '78 block)...

[Sixt8Chrgr]

I have the damper for what I believe is a cast crank. I will take a picture and post it.

[Hot_Rodder]

I have the damper for what I believe is a cast crank. I will take a picture and post it.

I used to have a bunch of 'em.... Now I have two here, and maybe one other sitting in another place..... I would take a pic of them, but since I've changed computers, it's going to be a bit more interesting trying to get pic's posted now.... Figures...