383 or 400 Stroked

[my73charger]

Just for giggles what kind of HP and torque could you get from a 383 or 400 stroked?  I have been seriously thinking about going that route with my next engine build.  A 383 seems to be a bullet proof motor.  I know I beat the one I had hard and it is still running strong in another car now.  I have a friend with a 383 in his Cuda and man he beats on that thing hard and it just takes it...

[Ghoste]

So how much money do you want to spend? 

[Rolling_Thunder]

pretty much - if you're going to be building a engine from the ground up, it doesnt make sense not to do a stroker...    you can always stroke a 383 though   

[Purple440]

pretty much - if you're going to be building a engine from the ground up, it doesnt make sense not to do a stroker...    you can always stroke a 383 though   

agreed - if I could do it over again, I'd stoke it.

[aifilaw]

I probably won't be stroking my 383 on my next personal buildup, but then again, I'm doing that for a reason.

[my73charger]

Well I spent $5000 on my 440 build so give or take.  I do wish I would have stroked the 440.  I have a friend that just built a stroked 440 (he says it brings it out to a 500ci) and he is making about 100 horses more than me and even more torque.  That much more torque would really make this heavy 73 Charger hop off the line.  I am not sure I could get the kind of hp and torque I would like off a 383 or 400 stroker so I am just curious if any of you have any experience in this regard.

[aifilaw]

I used to specialize in 383 buildups, and have owned 3 of them personally, one of which was stroked to 426 without the overbore.
The plus side of the engine is really the fact that the block is bulletproof, bored or stroked it can take a beating of any kind and keep on ticking when a 400, 440, or most other big blocks regardless of ford, chevrolet, or otherwise would have blown out a cylinder wall, et cetera.

I've taken 383's, without stroking anywhere from 400 up to 500 hp at the flywheel (the 500 is derived since it never saw an engine dyno but a chassis dyno, and it pulled just short of 450 at the rear wheels), and to my knowledge they are all still running strong. These were all non-forced induction motors, and most of them what a lot of people would consider overly high compression ratio's... but getting high CR to run on pump gas is really a question of port work on the heads, quench, and the cam for the most part.

A stroker has more potential than the above regular 383's, but I've never built one trying to maximize HP, always torque. It's obviously possible to reach higher, and a 4.26" bore and 3.75" stroke is nothing to laugh at, and not overly stroked, so it has a lot of potential in the HP creating market. you could probably reach 550 at the flywheel if you were reaching with a well done set of heads and matching components buildup.

After that its time to start looking at forced induction, which again... they can handle easily.

[OttawaCharger]

 

[68 charger freak]

whats the difference betwen the 383 vs 400 ,bore, stroke?

[Nacho-RT74]

BORE... rest is the same engine on everything

[firefighter3931]

A 470ci lowdeck is a pretty stout motor. The stroker will need some good heads (Edelbrock/Indy) to make the big power number so budjet that into the build. 


Ron

[471_Magnum]

pretty much - if you're going to be building a engine from the ground up, it doesnt make sense not to do a stroker... you can always stroke a 383 though

The key is the heads. If you are going to invest in good flowing aftermarket heads, stroke it.

If your budget limits you to stock casting, stick with the stock stroke and save some bucks.

Tough to spec out a stroker that will give you streetable compression ratio with iron open chamber heads.