What do you guys think of this 383 setup?

[bull]

I found this for sale locally:

"Up for sale is a .30 over, 1970 block, race ready 383. It comes with a forged steel crank, Smith Bros steel rods, TRW pistons, solid lifter cam, Holley carb and spacer, Headman headers, Moroso valve covers and 7qt oil pan, Holley carb and spacer, ported heads, fully balanced and blue printed motor. Only has 20 passed on it. I'm currently restoring the car and I'm selling it to make way for a Hemi Stroker. Never a problem , fires right up and goes. It was taken out of a 1967 Coronet that ran 12.40's with a 4.30 rear gear and 4 thousand stall. The engine builder states around 400 hp maybe a little more. But hey, prove me wrong and lets put it on an engine dyno and find out......... (before you pay lets run it on the dyno)"

The guy wants $2,800 for it. Is it worth it? Do I dare buy a "rebuilt" engine not knowing what's gone into it? I know I can have mine rebuilt for about the same cost but I would know more about what kind of work went into it. I don't know what compression he's running so I'll have to ask about that.

BTW, if I did buy this I would probably want to give it the stock look and that would mean painting it blue, replacing the headers with HP manifolds and replacing the high rise with a stock looking intake. Would that be advisable?

[67_Dodge_Charger]

I would want to know more about the cam grind and the heads work.  What work was done on the rods?  Did he use arp bolts?

Robert

[Runner]

to be honest ,   thats a pretty loose discription. the smith brothers rods im pretty sure are pushrods and not conectiong rods. the rest is basically name droping with no real discription of what the part is.  ill make a wag and say that sence he has it in a car with 4000 stall and 4.30 gear that the engine probably isnt going to like manifolds and a stock 383 intake.  and if it has a cam that "likes" 4.30s and a 4000 stall then it will most likly be a real pig with a 2000ish stall and 3.55s.   383s are alot more sensitive to gear and converter changes than 440s are.   if your looking for the stock look-sound then i would not go down this road. 2800 is a decent price for a nice 383 but its really hard to say how "nice" it is when its all bolted together.

[firefighter3931]

to be honest ,   thats a pretty loose discription. the smith brothers rods im pretty sure are pushrods and not conectiong rods. the rest is basically name droping with no real discription of what the part is.  ill make a wag and say that sence he has it in a car with 4000 stall and 4.30 gear that the engine probably isnt going to like manifolds and a stock 383 intake.  and if it has a cam that "likes" 4.30s and a 4000 stall then it will most likly be a real pig with a 2000ish stall and 3.55s.   383s are alot more sensitive to gear and converter changes than 440s are.   if your looking for the stock look-sound then i would not go down this road. 2800 is a decent price for a nice 383 but its really hard to say how "nice" it is when its all bolted together.

This type of build won't be too street friendly....at least not for the type of driving you are wanting to do. 



Ron

[bull]

That's kind of what I figured, even though the description is pretty vague. That's ok. I think I'd rather know who built it and what went into it anyway, regardless of the configuration.