thatvetteguy

Anyone upgrade their 350 SBC stock engine to the 383? I own an '81 and tuned the engine a bit to change it from 190 hp to a little over 400, I just couldn't stand having it that low because of smog regulations and what not. Any one else?

Also, Hi I'm new!

MakoShark72

Welcome...

Thats one HELL of a tuneup..

BKbroiler

There are many of us here with 383s. 400hp from a 350 is quite a tune up. How about some details.

Gordonm

383s are very common now.

thatvetteguy

Yeah I didn't think it was much but now that you guys mention it, I suppose it is. My Father and I bought the car a while back with the stock engine, and we have been working on it on and off for a while. Just last week we actually finished it up and we're quite happy with it. I pitched the idea to my dad because he enjoys drag racing and our neighborhood is full of ricer's and turbo tom's so he thought it would be funny to beat them in our 30 year old car. And what Details do you want? I'm not much of a mechanic, my dad is and he worked on the engine I just handed him the tools.

thatvetteguy

Really? I hardly see C3 corvettes where I live and I have been looking at these forums for a while now and I haven't seen anything about engine specs, just your beautiful cars, so I assumed most of them were Stock.

BKbroiler

If you click on the forum name in a post you will usually see info about that forum member and his car.

Scottd

Im pushing 400 HP in my Camaro, my 350 is HEAVILY worked to include bored 40 over, cam, vortec heads, aftermarket intake, 670 carb and headers. Id be REALLY interested in just how you 'tuned' yours, unless you are deliberately being modest about the effort you have put in...

ggistore

How did you determine you were making 400 HP, is it at the wheels or at the crank? Also, are you claiming to have a 383 and looking to see who else has upgraded or are you looking for advice on upgrading to?

srs244

i had to go to a 383 stroker with a cam/headers/baffled exhausts, etc to be anywhere near close to that without building a race engine, lol. you might want to share some of your tuning secrets with those of us here. i'm certain we could certainly learn something.

lowkeytow

Mines not stock.

This was the first upgrade to the 383


On the next upgrade I went a little bigger.

VCuomo

Here's my 383 (although it no longer has the glass gas filter):
This is not my original "stock" 350 (it's safely stored). It was originally a ZZ3 (all that's left of the ZZ3 is the block).

Ironman Motorsports

Its funny this post is here because I just dropped off my block at machine shop tuesday, should be ready in a week so I can bring it home and start putting my 383 together. Original motor is getting cleaned up and retired to an engine stand in the corner of the garage. I'm shooting for being north of 450 on the dyno... we shall see.

timgman

383 here... it was a big "tune-up"... I had to tear the car to pieces and sell off some prized guitars to put it together...

MIKE80

I have a 385 (40 over).

jeepman3080

I had an engine builder do my 383 for my 77 and I love it. I had him put the edelbrock top end kit on it with the vortec heads, Roller rockers, Ect. Dyno at 435 HP with 470 ft. pounds of torq. It's how a 77 should run.

scottyp99

SURPRISINGLY common, considering Chevy never built a single one for production. They aren't the latest craze, either, people were building them when I was a kid, back in the early 80s. Here's a great article about Chevy small block 383s:

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...evy/index.html



Scott

dmeesq

I upgraded my 350 block with a 030 bore, flat top pistons, forged crank, Edelbrock RPM aluminum heads, RPM air gap intake, 800 cfm Edelbrock carb, hi flow fuel pump, scorpion roller rockers, and Hooker headers and sidepipes. Im right at 410 hp.