Disassembling the 383

[Plik]

the future power plant for my duster....

Just a little history on this particular engine. It was originally out of a 68 Roadrunner owned by my friend's...Dad's...mechanic buddy (Fred). It has rebuilt some time in the early 90s, bored .030 over, 12:1 pistons and a beefed up valve train. So said the roadrunner was running somewhere in the 11s after the rebuild.. dunno how true that is. Well, the car was wrecked shortly after and the engine was pulled and put in storage in my friend's...dad's shop. It eventually got acquired by my friend (Fred is an alcoholic and need drinking money, lol). And I bought it a few weeks ago. Anyway, I finished tearing it down yesterday, here are some pics of the dismantling..

It was fun getting this heavy sum-***** out of my truck all by myself...

First off was removing the harmonic balancer and timing chaine cover. Im sure there are a few brown recluses living in those water jackets.

Timing chain had about a 1/4" of flex. Every thing looked fresh, but i will be replacing the chain and sprockets anyway.

I'll be reusing this..

Missing a few push rods, Fred probably needed something to stir his jack and coke with. lol

So said this is a high lift cam.. I have no idea how to identify it, other than measuring the cam lobs, which i will probably do today.

Here is a shot of the #8 piston, Manley P5593 pistons .030 over. They have fairly large domes, so the 12:1 claim is probably true. I tried googling the part number but couldn't find anything.

2,4,6,8

906 heads, probably the original ones that came with the engine. I didn't get a shot of the valves, but they appear to be in good shape. I'll probably reused the heads as is, might get edelbrock aluminum ones later down the road.

Time to tackle the bottom end.

Looks like the #3 rod might be bent..

Found this guy sitting on top of the windage tray...

Looks like Fred used a bolt that was a little too long on this one.

Looks like the #3 piston skirts are toast.. I probably have a bent rod. what do you guys think? There is some vertical scoring evident on the cylinder wall as well, I'm not sure if it can be honed out or not, but sense i probably have to get new pistons anyway, i could bore it another .030 over. Guess I'll find out when i get it to the shop. All the other pistons and cylinders seem to be in great shape aside from some light surface rust in a few spots.

ready for the machine shop. Hopefully it checks out to be just fine.

 

[bOb shingler]

very nice, you could have cleaned and reused everything except for that dang piston and rod. oh well, you can use the cam and crank.

 

[375inStroke]

I was guessing that was a Comp Cam because of the CC. They have a 290A-8 lobe, which is 255°@.050" and .540" lift on 108° centers.

 

[guzziper]

Hi Plik.

I have a Plymouth Satellite 1965, I've have had it since 2003 that followed a 383 engine with the car completely separated and there are two sets of pistons with the engine a set of standard pistons and a set of Manley p 5593, can these pistons be used for street use? The engine block I have is from 13-1-1965 to make it the original engine block but the cylinder heads are from a 440 engine casting number 4006452 as they are from 1975 I just wanted to hear about your experiences with these pistons

Sincerely, Per

I can send some pic just mail to me : [email protected]

 

[Plik]

Guzziper,

I ended up not using those pistons in my rebuild, but i don't see any reason why you couldn't use them on the street. Do you have any more info on your engine? I would suggest checking your valve clearance and the engine's overall dynamic compression ratio with those pistons. This will depend largely on your cam selection and deck height.

 

[guzziper]

Hello again.

Here is some info on my engine block has casting number 2468130-4 LL (4-1-65) and it is assembled at the factory 13-1-65 and it still has standard diameter cylinders, cylinder heads are from a 440 cui engine and they are from 1975 camshaft I know nothing about because it has never been there.
that's why I wanted to hear about your experience but the type Manley Pistons for it would surely be a shame to refurbish an engine which then never came to work and I have found forums where people write that the Pistons are not for road use.

Sincerely, Per.

 

[500stroker]

Octane would be the problem with those pistons. Maybe you could rn them with aluminum heads and a steel shim to lower the compression some . If thevdeck is 0ed it will be tuff. A cam with a lot of overlap will help bleed off some cylinder pressure also

 

[1971tyler]

@RaginCajun.
I have 64 383 with same Pistons I know this thread was in 09 but contact me back if you would. I have some questions about your build