Rebuilding a 383

M

Mopar383

Newbie
Points
6
Location
Zeeland, Michigan
Car
1965 Ply Sport Fury
I currently have a 1965 Plymouth Sport Fury with a 4 barrel 383 ci, this is completely stock and the engine as far as I know has never been cracked open. It has 115,000 miles on it and runs strong. It has the original exhaust maifolds, however, I did put on a 2 1/2 inch duel exhaust from the manifolds back and put a new Eldelbrock carburator on it last spring. This engine, per MOPAR , is rated at 330 hp, there is no way that I am there today. The engine is tierd, it does not leak or burn any oil. This is what I plan on doing once I get the car out of it's winter storage hibernation. I was going to pull and rebuild the heads, and while I have the heads off put all new lifters and push rods and do a little porting as well. I really don't want to mess with the cam, this is a little outside of my mechanical ability. Here's my question, by just rebuilding the heads, swapping out the old with new lifters & push rods, and do some porting, I should be able to see a noticeable gain in horse power, right? I really don't want to pull this engine, I want to be able to keep this task within my mechanically applitude, I probably could do it, I just don't want to get into a can of worms. Thanks
 
Hey buddy.welcome to TC, good to have you mate, would love to see your project taking of, can't wait for the phodies.
 
Greetings and a Warm Welcome to our TorqueCars Forum my Friend :)


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Howdy, I am also new, but I have some experience with mopar in general and 383 specifically. If your pulling the engine anyway you've got good skills, so check out replacing 383 parts with 440 parts. A cheap donor 440 will take you to 400hp with only cleaning and bolting on. The exhaust manifold will give you 15hp, it's as good as a header. one last thing, some engines have a ground underneath that is a steel cable and nearly hidden between block and frame, if you miss it, it will literally lift the car off the jacks.
 
Thanks for the insight, so I don't miss-understand you, are you saying a 440 exhaust manifold will fit 383 heads, or are you saying, swap out the 383 heads for 440's. I do not plan on pulling the engine, just rebuilding the top half. So the question remains, by doing so, can I expect to see substantial gains in performance by porting and rebuilding the 383 heads along with new lifters and push rods? Either way the valves will be much improved by new ground seats. (Oh yeah, I do see the ground strap from the engine to the frame, thanks for the heads up if I do decide to pull it.)
 
I'm sorry i took so long to get back. I had a great reply, hit the wrong button and it all went away, FRUSTRATION!!!!!! so I went away for awhile.
Yes the exhaust will bolt up. 383 & 440 are the same block just different bore and stroke. Nearly every thing is interchangeable Including cam and crank.
I'd look into fitting 440 heads and putting hardened seats and valves in them. You just saved a ton on porting that you can't do yourself with no flow meters. Now a simple valve job will suffice
The last thing I'll say is check compression. With 100K+ your rings are TIRED. At 100 we sold as soon as possible, because things were going south soon. If it was me I'd spend a few hundred more for rings and bearings, etc. and find a moparphile to help
with Q&A and maybe some wrench work. you'll only add 2 to 4 weeks total and you'll go with a new engine.
I wish you the best, this sounds great.
wigguy1 (Ron)
 
I've mentioned Z gap rings in other forums but they are worth a mention here too. At 115k miles, I would look at doing your rings otherwise you're not doing justice to your expenditure on the upper work.

A mechanical engineer will tell you that any engine will get 10%+ blow past with normal rings. But with Z gap rings you get 1% or 2% blow past or even 0%. That alone is a great HP and torque improver.
 
Haven't seen anything from you on your 383. Have you started on it yet? Did you check with some others on fitting 440 parts? after I wrote I got thinking; they may have changed from the B block to another series in 65 so the fits might not be as numerous as between the 440 and the B block. Keep us up to date. This is a really exciting project for Mopar guys.
Lots of luck
Ron
 
Hi there, I hope you are well. May I wish you a warm welcome to TorqueCars, it is a pleasure to meet you.

You'll find us a pretty friendly bunch and I'm sure you'll start to love and enjoy the forums as much as we all do. (It gets quite addictive at times.)

Feel free to get involved in our other threads, all opinions are welcome and as they say "the more the merrier"! (It's also great when people start new threads and discussions and all adds to the great debate.)

Keep us up to date with your project as well, we like to see what people are getting up to with their cars.
 
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