Rest In Peices

[c00nhunterjoe]

Well, after 16 abusive years, my little junk 383 finally gave up. She went out in a blaze of glory, top of 3rd gear, 7800 rpm on the needle, pulling its ass off right up to the explosion.
   So now the answers to many peoples questions as to what exactly was inside this old pig and why it ran so damned good will be answered in this post. In my full weight 69' it turned 108 mph in the 1/4 for most of its life and was a respectable 12 second car. I could never give exact answers because i was 15 when i started building it in high school and didnt take good notes. I knew it was 90%stock parts, and alot of them were used. Lol, but parts numbers and important specs like what pistons and how far in the hole i never had...... until now..... prepare to be wowed, laugh, and shed a few tears with me. She scattered.
 
The basics-
1967 383 commando block out of a 4 speed belvedere. Bored .030, no deck milling.

Pistons- old used set of 2257 trws. They varied from .018 at shallowest, to .021 deepest measuring the 7.    left to check...

Rods- stock, untouched.

Crank- stock forged, .010 under main and rods.

Cam-  1992 dated racer brown ssh42 grind, cut on a 108 center. still available today.

Lifters- comp cam standard replacement.

Heads- 516 castings, stock valves. I replaced valve guides and seats when i rebuilt them and did a standard 3 angle valve job. Valve springs are comp cams, specd for the cam, nothing special. They have alot of core shift which is common on 516s. I port matched the intake, nothing fancy, remember a 16 year old did it by hand.

Intake- from day 1 i ran a  vintage torker 383, but changed last season to a performer rpm as a trial with no mph or et gains. Valley pan has no egr passage.

Carb- out of the box holley 4779c, 4 corner metering blocks, only changes i made were removed choke horn, jet change and power valve. Added cool carb technologies spacer, carb stays cool to touch on 100 degree summer days idling.

Headers- 100 dollar 1 3/4 heddmans into a full 3" exhaust, no crossover pipe, ran 40 series flowmasters, then switched about 6 yrs ago to 3 chamber 50 series suv with no measured performance loss at the track.

Oil- 10w40 bradpenn with 1 bottle zddp plus. After 16yrs, 0 wear on the lifters that were still in 1 peice and 0 cam wear on lobes that were still attached to the cam...

[cdr]

OUCH!!!  Now that is broken!!

[charger1972]

Sorry for your loss . Man , when you break something you don`t mess around .

[ws23rt]

Wow--I tried to make something like that happen a few times with an old engine and failed.
I suppose 7800 rpm is a key to this kind of success with failure.

[tan top]

 crikey  that's a big blow up ,   sorry to see this !! sure  was a strong running 383 

[redgum78]

  15year old kid building a 12 second 383 with what ever he could get his hands on. Love it!

[Dino]

Those are some really impressive numbers you got out of that thing. Sorry it blew up. What's the plans for the next build?

[c00nhunterjoe]

Never could explain why the lifters would take the abuse and hold to that rpm, but it did it, and did it faithfully every time over the years. After a full pass they would clatter a little bit then quiet down, must have got lucky with a good tight lifter bore and good lifters. I still dont know how it lived this long on stock bolts, and the rod bolt was not the failure. The broken rod will still spin freely on the crank beleive it or not!!!

 I should clarify that i did not build it completely on my own, i had a good teacher in autotech, provided all the guidance as far as machinework went. I did everything in house expect bore the block and press the valve guides in. We didnt have the machines for that. I did everything else.
  Will also clarify et's. Initially the car was a 400/727 with 2.76s when i bought it. I put the 383 behind the stock 727 and it didnt like it. Yes, linkage was hooked up correct. My 1st 2 passes at cecil county dragway are on youtube. Best was 13.21@ 104 with trans slipping, flairing and carrying on. It didnt dip i to the 12s until college when one of my teachers was a former hemi superstock racer and torqueflite guru... needless to say some secrets were shared and i had a nasty 727 after i got an A in trans class. Lol.
   Car was fun with the semi loose converter and tight 727 but still slow off the line so i snagged a set of 4.30s and dropped them in. Night and day. Mph in the 1/4 was unchanged. Might have picked up 1, hard to tell as i didnt have a weather station to check numbers at the time, but the car became a gigglefest with the gear swap. Shortly after that i swapped to the 4 speed and it became plain ignorant. Lmao. Broken u joints, axleshafts, windshield, door jamb.... you name it, the 4 speed broke it.
  Its been a fun run, and alot of people will tell you i was a fool for revving that combination that high, and they are pretty much right, but it owed me nothing, it was mine, and i had alot of fun over the years with it.

[c00nhunterjoe]

Those are some really impressive numbers you got out of that thing. Sorry it blew up. What's the plans for the next build?

Plan B actually makes an appearance in one of the posted photos....

[c00nhunterjoe]

1st pass on the 383, stuck a set of slapper bars on, 225/75/15s out back. Trans wouldnt shift into 2nd.... just kept slipping...lol.
https://youtu.be/wENxXDQ6qwU

2nd pass, dumped 2 bottles of lucas in trans and hoped for the best. Shifted to 2nd good, into 3rd it slipped, dumped fluid out of the vent all over the track and i nearly wrecked.... 13.21@104 and was kindly asked to not run it anymore...
https://youtu.be/te8dfDlOITo

1st drive with 4 speed installed. Flowmaster 40 series dumped at the axle. Really wish the video showed me driving since i had no shifter handle and was using vice grips.... she really pulled hard, even with the 2.76s.
https://youtu.be/IqkLPXXrohw

More recent trip, full 3" with flowmaster 50suv's
https://youtu.be/di8VIN6i6ok

[firefighter3931]

Those are some really impressive numbers you got out of that thing. Sorry it blew up. What's the plans for the next build?

Plan B actually makes an appearance in one of the posted photos....

OK, spill the beans.....I see an SR headed RB on the engine stand in the first pic 

Looks like the pin boss let go on that slug then all hell broke loose 


Ron

[c00nhunterjoe]

Those are some really impressive numbers you got out of that thing. Sorry it blew up. What's the plans for the next build?

Plan B actually makes an appearance in one of the posted photos....

OK, spill the beans.....I see an SR headed RB on the engine stand in the first pic 

Looks like the pin boss let go on that slug then all hell broke loose 


Ron

I suspected piston failure as the root cause as well..... close, set of 440-1s atop a 440...... details to come once its installed.

[69wannabe]

Those are some really impressive numbers you got out of that thing. Sorry it blew up. What's the plans for the next build?

Plan B actually makes an appearance in one of the posted photos....

OK, spill the beans.....I see an SR headed RB on the engine stand in the first pic 

Looks like the pin boss let go on that slug then all hell broke loose 


Ron

I suspected piston failure as the root cause as well..... close, set of 440-1s atop a 440...... details to come once its installed.

Sweet!!! Them B engines are hard to kill but eventually it does happen!!

[c00nhunterjoe]

Would have happened sooner in an rb block, too many rpm for too long on stock parts. Lol. It does show the r&d that mopar put into these things and the abuse they will take. I am still imlressed at how long it stayed together but more impressed that there was no external block damage. All the carnage was contained within the block.

[lloyd3]

Always liked my 383 cars and never broke one of them (even after some seriously stupid stuff). Those are some fairly dramatic photos. 

[c00nhunterjoe]

Always liked my 383 cars and never broke one of them (even after some seriously stupid stuff). Those are some fairly dramatic photos. 

Love the 383s and 400s. Lots of potential if done right. This one failed because of me, stock parts were not designed to rev that high. She's been past 8 many times over the years, some times on purpose, sometimes on missed gears..... that motor owed me nothing, it was a good ride.