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Stroked the LT1 in my 1994 a few years back. Dyno printout recorded 426HP.
I can honestly say it feels like a different car, power feels similar to my C6, although the car doesn't hook up quite the same even with 315s in the rear. The smile on your face with be apparent every time you lean into the throttle.
I'd love a 383 but am thinking all I really need to do is pull the heads, maybe a new cam, Vortecs, headers and cat back. Should net me, with other mods, around 300HP. And probably get it done with me doing the work, for around $2500 (TPiS headers $850, Y-pipe a couple hun, cam $350, heads variable but figure ~$850, exhaust variable).
The $6k for a 383 (GM) crate is just a start, with everything else to add on. For a really nice, sano install done myself, I could see knocking a big hole in a $10,000 bill.
i guess i forgot the include pics of the car on my mind, an '87 w/ the 383 engine, i'm planning on going to see it tomorrow. i called them yesterday and they said the AC just needs recharged, so that was a bonus. guess i'll see how it is when i see it tomorrow....
i should also say that one of the things that is ruining me on certain corvettes (besides all the threads "musings on HP....") is reading "Vette" magazine. i just sort of realized that practically every article is about the owner starting off w/ his factory 345 hp (or up) engine, but did this and that and now he's at 600hp (or whatever)....i need to stop reading it!!!
although the funny thing the new issue had some guy (who owns a hot rod shop!) who bought some pristine '75 w/ low miles, and he's kept the engine at the standard HP rating of 205 (the L82 engine). his quote was: the engine is fine for street driving. sort of made me laugh....
"sano"?
(i must not be up on my hip lingo???)...oh, i just looked it up, does it mean: "clean"???
i know, i've actually been looking up carb engines pros and cons...and trying to remember the days back when i drove carb'ed cars...that is one thing that worries me a bit about it also...trying to weigh the pros and cons....guess i'm going into it w/ an open mind to see how it is....
i have test driven an '86-which actually had a good clean interior, but the gauges were a mess! but the seats were actually very comfortable i thought.
and an '87 i drove a few weeks ago, it was a bit worn on the interior, and the seats were REPLACED w/ racing seats-which i actually found not very comfy!!!
so i'm trying to keep an open mind, i'm sure the interior may be a bit rough.....
but heck, our current cars ('05 crv, 06 volvo) are pretty rough inside, but we USE our cars....and kids are hard on interiors-they don't know the word DAINTY!!!!!
This one looks to be a little hotter and more fun, but I don't know that I can justify the increase in price for extra performance that I may not need:
The car needs to have good reliability and will get some track use.
Not an expert by any means but that second option of 500 hp 383 that has 10:1 compression and that size cam can make that power? Not saying it's not impossible, but I'd figured more compression than that to wring out the 500 hp from a 383. That number was probably achieved with a carb and specific manifold.
I'd love a 383 but am thinking all I really need to do is pull the heads, maybe a new cam, Vortecs, headers and cat back. Should net me, with other mods, around 300HP. And probably get it done with me doing the work, for around $2500 (TPiS headers $850, Y-pipe a couple hun, cam $350, heads variable but figure ~$850, exhaust variable).
The $6k for a 383 (GM) crate is just a start, with everything else to add on. For a really nice, sano install done myself, I could see knocking a big hole in a $10,000 bill.
why so much you can pick up a stroker off ebay from a builder for aroubd $3000 and how much to install $1500?
A few cons with a carbed 383 are::Motors don't last as long....Gas mileage sucks compared to fuel injection....I get 26 mpg on the highway with my 383, carbed Vettes will be lucky to get half that.....Carbs are considered a step backwards to most and make a car harder to sell when the time comes...
The pros are:: easier to work on...More power will be made with a carb then will be made with fuel injection on the same engine..WW
thanks WW7 for your honest input.
i talked to my mechanic friend about the car yesterday-called him about the AC fix, he basically said at the end: RUN, don't walk away from this....
i sort of laughed.
i'll plan on checking it out anyway today....
just to see what it is like.
A few cons with a carbed 383 are::Motors don't last as long....Gas mileage sucks compared to fuel injection....I get 26 mpg on the highway with my 383, carbed Vettes will be lucky to get half that.....Carbs are considered a step backwards to most and make a car harder to sell when the time comes...
The pros are:: easier to work on...More power will be made with a carb then will be made with fuel injection on the same engine..WW
I highly doubt that on the power.
The most powerful engines on the planet are fuel injected, period.
Also good luck building a 650horse streetable carbed engine. Let alone even building a 1k+ hp carbed engine. Or coming even remotely close to matching an NHRA top fuel engine (10,000+hp).
The only advantage carbs have, is it's "easy" to setup initially.
You can't really even say it's easier to maintain, due to the ease of diagnosing, and replacing of sensors in a FI car. And the superior reliability that comes with FI, vs..rebuilding the carb once a year, and retuning it, just because it's cold outside, or warm.
Cheap, and ease of initial setup, that's all a carb does better.
I highly doubt that on the power.
The most powerful engines on the planet are fuel injected, period.
Also good luck building a 650horse streetable carbed engine. Let alone even building a 1k+ hp carbed engine. Or coming even remotely close to matching an NHRA top fuel engine (10,000+hp).
The only advantage carbs have, is it's "easy" to setup initially.
You can't really even say it's easier to maintain, due to the ease of diagnosing, and replacing of sensors in a FI car. And the superior reliability that comes with FI, vs..rebuilding the carb once a year, and retuning it, just because it's cold outside, or warm.
Cheap, and ease of initial setup, that's all a carb does better.
But were not talking high hp pro racing engines, were talking street engines...I can't speak on the high HP racing motors (1000 hp plus)... but every engine I looked at while shopping for a replacement engine for my Vette had higher hp ratings with a carb compaired to fuel injection.The ZZ4 motor I looked at had 35 hp more with a carb compaired to EFI..If your talking multi thousand dollar fuel injection systems on race cars you may be correct. But most of us can only afford consumer priced EFI systems , and when using them, the carb was higher when it comes to peak hp..WW
.Here is a statement made by Warren Johnson about carb vs EFI...
Warren Johnson: Properly tuned, carburetors make more peak power than EFI in a Pro Stock engine. A carb's pressure differential atomizes the gas a lot better than spraying fuel through an orifice. But EFI has a broader powerband and superior cylinder-to-cylinder fuel distribution. The 1,100- to 1,300-cfm dual carbs are good only over a narrow range, about 1,500 rpm at most. EFI performs well over 2,000 rpm or more. On average, if optimized, both systems perform about the same as far as how fast you get
I can't speak on the high HP racing motors (1000 hp plus)... but every engine I looked at while shopping for a replacement engine for my Vette had higher hp ratings with a carb compaired to fuel injection.The ZZ4 motor I looked at had 35 hp more with a carb compaired to EFI..If your talking multi thousand dollar fuel injection systems on race cars you may be correct. But most of us can only afford consumer priced EFI systems , and when using them, the carb is still king when it comes to peak hp..
.Here is a statement made by Warren Johnson about carb vs EFI...
Warren Johnson: Properly tuned, carburetors make more peak power than EFI in a Pro Stock engine. A carb's pressure differential atomizes the gas a lot better than spraying fuel through an orifice. But EFI has a broader powerband and superior cylinder-to-cylinder fuel distribution. The 1,100- to 1,300-cfm dual carbs are good only over a narrow range, about 1,500 rpm at most. EFI performs well over 2,000 rpm or more. On average, if optimized, both systems perform about the same as far as how fast you get
Fourteen years ago (when this article was made) sure.
Now? not so much no. Hell the LSX's Factory Stuff, blows any carb setup away, with the right injectors, and tuning them is a breeze.
EFI has come a very very long way in 14 years, far more than carbs have. The thing is, that article doesn't factor in, even remotely, was the processing speed of ecms, or the precision of modern FI sensors.
14 years ago, sure they were comparable with a slight edge leading out to FI in NA form.
(in Boosted form, there's no comparison, FI blows carb away every day of the week, in turbos, particularly)
Also, the only carbs that compete, now are just as expensive as an EFI setup at this point. You aren't going to be shelling out a couple hundred bucks for a carb, and another couple hundred for an intake manifold, and be competitive, even against an Old EFI system.
You're looking at thousands of dollars, and countless hours of tweaks...to compete with what you get out of the box from GM factory engines these days. To say nothing of the current wave of direct injected engines.
These days by the way, NHRA is using fuel injected across the board.
F1, the same.
Even Nascar is in the fuel injected game at this point.
To say nothing of sports car racing, which is also FI.
Fourteen years ago (when this article was made) sure.
Now? not so much no. Hell the LSX's Factory Stuff, blows any carb setup away, with the right injectors, and tuning them is a breeze.
EFI has come a very very long way in 14 years, far more than carbs have. The thing is, that article doesn't factor in, even remotely, was the processing speed of ecms, or the precision of modern FI sensors.
14 years ago, sure they were comparable with a slight edge leading out to FI in NA form.
(in Boosted form, there's no comparison, FI blows carb away every day of the week, in turbos, particularly)
Also, the only carbs that compete, now are just as expensive as an EFI setup at this point. You aren't going to be shelling out a couple hundred bucks for a carb, and another couple hundred for an intake manifold, and be competitive, even against an Old EFI system.
You're looking at thousands of dollars, and countless hours of tweaks...to compete with what you get out of the box from GM factory engines these days. To say nothing of the current wave of direct injected engines.
These days by the way, NHRA is using fuel injected across the board.
F1, the same.
Even Nascar is in the fuel injected game at this point.
To say nothing of sports car racing, which is also FI.
I don't disagree with you if the above was what I was giving the OP my opinion on ,Im sure the modern new efi is better and more efficient, but the OP was asking about the L98 383 engine in an older Vette that had a carb.
He's thinking of buying the car and wanted to know the (pros and cons) about the carb it has on it.. We are talking about a 27 year old L98 ( carb vs fuel injection) circa 1987 , not a LS1 or more modern engine...We are comparing apples to oranges with what you and I are talking about.....WW
I don't disagree with you if the above was what I was giving the OP my opinion on ,Im sure the modern new efi is better and more efficient, but the OP was asking about the L98 383 engine in an older Vette that had a carb.
He's thinking of buying the car and wanted to know the (pros and cons) about the carb it has on it.. We are talking about a 27 year old L98 ( carb vs fuel injection) circa 1987 , not a LS1 or more modern engine...We are comparing apples to oranges with what you and I are talking about.....WW
Even then, there's still upgrades to the L98's fuel injection.
Newer injectors are better than the old ones, let alone FAST EFI computers, etc etc.
Miniram intakes, or FIRST intakes.
For peak power, the L98's big hold back has nothing to do with the fuel injection aspect, and everything to do with the long tube runners, in naturally aspirated form anyway.
An L98, with a modern aftermarket ecm, even is a pretty significant step up. An aftermarket EFI setup, with a miniram, or ramjet setup, on the other hand...
Let's compare, an 80s carb to 80s FI. That's more apples to apples...
and the carb loses...everytime.
drove the 87 383 stroker on thursday.
i loved the look of the car: red, new big tires. newer rims.
the paint had some problem areas you could only see close up, but honestly w/ a 28 yr old car i didn't car. also the interior was rough as stated, but i also didn't care, sort of added to the charm of it i thought.
had to test drive it w/ one of the mechanics (boss won't let the vettes go out alone, bummer, but ok i guess). the funny thing, 1st thing up: wouldn't start b/c it's sat for a month! they just finished it a month ago!!!! so after jumping it, it started. whew, IT SOUNDED AWESOME!!! they had some different exhaust on it (he called it performance), but it was loud! but sounded so good!!!! and honestly i thought it drove well too. i took it briefly on the interstate and it got up to speed fine, he said the speedometer was a bit off, but it felt like we were moving! i took some pics that i'll have my mechanic friend look over w/ the engine. i guess on my mind was the carburated engine...debating the pros/cons of it.
the funny thought as i drove it was thinking w/ it so loud (but good) it would be useless to have a nice stereo in here-you'd never hear it.
the one thought i had about this car was, if i had it: I WOULD DRIVE IT.
i wouldn't worry about it being a show car, b/c it was far from it. not sure my wife would like it. did sort of wonder how much HP it had and how fast it could go-not that i would drive it that fast....the funny thing when i got home, later that night the shop removed the for sale ad on craigslist of it. so don't know what that means. but it was a fun adventure.
the funny thing, when we got back, the mechanic guy said that i didn't drive it as hard as he would have...so guess i have to learn how to drive faster in the future!!!!
oh, i should say while driving i did ask some questions about it...he said it had a new transmission (700r) to handle the engine HP (he said he didn't know exact HP, but they built it to be above stock). i asked a couple of questions about the engine, i thought they said they put a new one in, so i asked what happened w/ the original L98, and he said the original is in there, they just rebuilt it and put in the mods, 383 stroker, etc.....
so my thought on it was: wow, it's a L98 that's modded and sounds a bit hotter than the standard L98 i test drove....
[QUOTE=86C4Z51;1589959904]I'd love a 383 but am thinking all I really need to do is pull the heads,, Vortecs,. (, heads variable but figure ~$850, exhaust variable).
Don't know where your at, but here on Indys west side there is a machine shop selling Vortec heads, redone, 300 bucks out the door. Also, go to summit racing and price their 383 kits and engines. Looks like some decent buys in there.
On a diff. note when an add says a/c needs recharge plan on spending some bucks to get it working right. If thats all it needed the seller could of had it done himself.
Thank you for all the advice. I think I'm at a spot where my desire for the car vs the reality of owning it are far apart ( my wife would hate it). I will stick with my mechanic friend's advice and stick with stock C4s with working air! It was fun to test drive though and dream...i guess there is part of me that has always wanted a hot rod car... But the reality of owning it probably isn't for me...on my way to see the car I did call and talk to my dad about memories of owning our old carburated cars... That was fun to talk about...
06-29-2015, 07:28 AM
383 Stroker - Pure Fun
.Carbs are considered a step backwards to most and make a car harder to sell when the time comes...
