383 piston help (photos)

[tufamc]

Hi all,

1969 383, Can anyone tell if the pistons are OEM, there close to zero deck(eye balling) but they do have a small dish in the middle. Previous owner said it "was" rebuilt, but i have a hard time believing him, the timing chain was very stretched and the cam gear was the nylon teeth type. There are NO stampings on the pistons, only the notch for "front". The distributor pad reads, E383, "R", i assume the R is for regular fuel, also the engine is Orange in color with a "402" oil pan.

Thanks

oh, and "dish" measures 3" accost and maybe 1/8' deep, also the outside of that dish is flush with the deck...

[Patronus]

  but you could mic out a cylinder to check the bore

[tufamc]

Nope, I do not have any special tools, just re-ring the pistons, I used standard bore rings, and the installed end gaps are closer together than the old ones, so I would have to assume it's still standard bore.

Really just looking if some old timer, knows/rembers if these are the hp or non hp pistons

Thanks

[frederick]

Don't think they're HP pistons with those dishes.

With those pistons and 90cc heads you'll be lucky to hit 8:1 compression. 

The R indicates it isn't an HP engine.

[tufamc]

Ya,

kinda what I was thinking, since the cranking compression is about 125-130psi on all 8 cylinders, bummer.....was thinking of running that voodoo 302 cam in it, but now I'm thinking of using the 301, due to the low static compression