Finally! Finished 383 Project

[mrein3]

This past May I was driving my truck to Menard's to pick up some building supplies. It is a short, 15 mile drive down a US highway from my place. A couple of miles down the road I heard that oh-so-familar pop through the carburator. Cam #4 went flat on me.
I can see 1 going flat on an engine of unknown origin. But 4?
I decided that was it for that tired 350. It had 0 oil pressure on the oil pressure gauge at idle and had a bit of a knock down low when cold. I hurried a new cam in one year before this because I was moving and needed the truck. But now it was time to do something.

I sent a 350 block to the machine shop I had sitting around. The 350 was out of a 1971 Monte I finally had to junk a few years ago but not before stripping it clean of anything usable. The machine shop guy had a 400 crank laying around that he already cleaned up. He convinced me that I'd be crazy to do anything but a 383 for my truck so that is the way I went. The price difference is basically the cost of the new crank shaft. And that is pretty small considering I'd have to have him go over the 350 crank anyways. The 383 piston price was negligible compared to new 350 pistons so the decision was easy. I was going to build a 383.

Because of a lot of different reasons I didn't get the stuff back until November. Then work got difficult. To make a long story short I today called the project complete.

I had a new edelbrock intake and manifold I was going to install on the old engine right before it crapped out. So that was put on the 383. I finally secured all the brackets for AC so I installed some of that stuff with the project. I'll do the compressor and charge it this summer. I bought a 4bbl air cleaner off the parts board a few years ago. I have that all painted up but there must be a difference between a 2wd and 4wd air cleaner. The one I got hits the firewall - remember 4wd engines sit farther back under the hood. That explains the dirty chrome one sitting on there. It was one I had laying around the shop. One of these days I'll polish it up so it looks nice. Finally I installed the 7-blade fan and clutch out of the Monte. It looks like it was made for this application.

After driving it around some finally I would call the project a success. Anybody looking to rebuild a 350 should SERIOUSLY consider going with a 383.