My 383 Build Experience - with parts and costs
12-23-2013, 08:54 AM
#1
Racer
Thread Starter
My 383 Build Experience - with parts and costs
Hi all, I thought I would share my 383 build experience and lessons learned for others who may like me be less experienced in auto mechanics. I learned a lot from the forum and so wanted to give back to the forum my experience from the adventure.
So first a couple of disclaimers, I cannot guarantee your experiences and or car configuration to be the same as mine with that said my car is a 1987 Convertible. It was completely stock when I started tinkering with it. I did 3 things a couple years before the engine build got started. Those items included a new aluminum radiator as the factory style plastic side radiator failed, next I installed a TPIS AIR delete kit, and finally I needed new exhaust from the cat’s back so I went to a local shop and he eliminated the cats and installed some overly obnoxious mufflers, but I live in rural central Florida so that kind of thing is expected. One other problem I tackled which gave me the confidence to complete this engine build was to replace the intake manifold gaskets and after doing so the car ran great until an eventual head gasket failure in winter of 2012.
So that brings us to this project. I was looking at crate engines but I kept reading about all the concerns and risks with ebay crate engines and if you’re doing a crate engine ensure you can trust the shop etc. Given I was on a wife imposed budget I had to tread lightly and adjust my requirements along the way, those of you that are married will understand this as a way of life; those of you who are single will think I am whooped. Which I may be but at my age I don’t really want to deal with a divorce and child support so I choose my battles carefully.
Since I had successfully replaced the intake manifold gaskets I knew what was involved in getting down to the heads, so I removed the complete upper and lower intakes. This gave me a lot of room but I still needed to remove the exhaust manifolds. They actually came off of the heads a lot easier than I thought they would after 20+ years of installation. Once they were off I was ready to remove the valve covers and the valve train. I found my 87 roller cam and lifters but not roller rockers which I thought roller rockers became standard in 87 so my belief or my car was incorrect. Once the valve train was removed I made it to the heads. This really wasn’t that bad either, again once everything is out of the way it is simply unbolting and then breaking the gasket seal. I found a significant amount of coolant in Piston 7, ahh ha there was my head gasket leak but since the leak was so severe my car had heated up to 240-250 I had already decided it was time to replace the motor.
I bought a 383 stroker rotating assembly from Skip White Performance along with a set of ProComp heads. I also bought a set of Stainless Steel Roller Rockers (1.5) to go with my heads. I have a race engine builder down the street from me so I went to him and asked him if I brought him the parts if we could clean and check my block, if healthy then would he build my motor and clearance the block etc. Fortunately for me, he said yes he would do it since I was bringing him everything and he didn’t have to order anything on his own. Since he is local to me and he is known for building local race engines I felt like I could trust him to do the work. I will say, I think he does incredible work based upon the motor I got back. But the key here, I didn’t buy a crate engine I took him my legacy L98 and he rebuilt it and installed my rotating assembly.
One of the first lesson I learned, TPI base intakes are smaller in width than a carbureted intake. This means if your heads have a bigger than 1204 gasket on the intake ports the TPI base will not seal. So my 210 CC heads had to go back and I swapped them for 190CC heads. These heads and intake just barely seal, they use a 1205 gasket and to make it work we had to double gasket the intake, not ideal but I didn’t have money for another set of heads. So there is an expensive lesson, 1204 is max.
One other expensive lesson, hi-torque mini-starters don’t necessarily come with the right gears to be direct mount replacement for factory vette starter. My mini-starter didn’t seat correctly and chewed up my brand new flex plate in the first 3 minutes of run time on the motor. DOH! So I had to order a new flexplate, and after getting a quote to install it I decided to have my transmission rebuilt and then install it while the tranny was out. The transmission shop tried to install the mini-starter and told me no-way would it align so I had to buy a new factory style starter. Fortunate thing, this allowed me to change from a 168 to 153 tooth flex plate because my original “new flexplate” was the wrong size. It will work but since I had to replace it I went with the correct size.
The next big thing to happen, I chewed up a distributor gear so I replaced the distributor assembly and subsequently chewed up that gear. I came to the conclusion that a high-volume high-pressure oil pump isn’t practical for a street car. So I have replaced that pump with a standard volume / pressure pump and the binding seems to be gone, for the moment anyway. I also bought a set of nylon shims from Summit racing. When I dropped the distributor into place I saw about a full 1/8 in gap between the intake deck and distributor stop, that made me think my gasket was too thin. My shim kit came with a nylon shim that fit that gap perfectly so I installed it and have had an issue since (about 3000 miles now).
One other little item, I bought some inexpensive ceramic coated SBC headers off ebay. They look nice and are very light weight, but for those of you that want to get them understand they will only fit with a little hammer love. The number 8 cylinder tube will not clear the a/c firewall box without being dented, on the driver side one of the tubes barely catches the steering knuckle so a little more love needs to be shown on this side as well. My intent to swap these headers out for a set of “Tru-Ram” headers off of speedway motors.com in the not too distant future.
Fuel Injection, bigger isn’t always better. I had 36lb fuel injectors and it was dumping way to much fuel into the system. You could literally smell fuel in the exhaust, besides that when you accelerated it would cough and sputter really bad. I replaced the 36lbs with 32lbs based upon recommendation from Fuel Injection Connection and also replaced the chip to align to the 32lbs injectors. What a difference that made, acceleration is smooth and fuel consumption is reasonable. Also bought a new TPS, with the TPS I bought the adapter to allow you to easily connect volt meter and set voltage correctly.
Intake and Throttle Body work. I sent my intake to Darrin Dochterman and High Flow Fuel Injection for a “stage 4” porting. The base intake and plenum have been enlarged to the point where a golf ball will fit inside the ports. That is serious increase in port size, unfortunately I have ASM runners that would not properly seal and hence I experienced vacuum leaks so I had to re-install the factory runners. No leaks and car runs fine, though I know the car is capable of more air flow that I am currently providing. I finally pulled the factory runners off and replaced the ASM runners again, this time using the 4 bolts provided by ASM and torquing per instructions (start in middle of runners and work out). I still have a little leak but I think once I pull valve covers and re-torque the base I think it will be fine.
The fuel pump, I put a 255lph pump in the car and decided it was flowing way to much fuel as well, so I went back to stock pump and have found it to provide more than enough fuel for my needs. I also had a problem with the 9th fuel injector so I pulled and blocked it off. Then I saw an issue with fuel pressure and ended up installing a new BBK AFPR and diaphragm, this seems to have resolved those issues.
I had a custom chip burned by PCM4Less, they have been great to work with as I have needed 2 re-flashes to get my idle correct. They were quick to process the orders and send the chips back to me.
Other purchases included bolt kits, polished waterpump, new overflow tank, new temp sensors, fan sensor, sending units, 2 fuel pumps, egr block off kits, new ecm, new distributor, and other miscellaneous parts. I still have interior and paint to go, plus wheels and new tires but that is next year’s project or I will be single and broke, if ya know what I mean.
All in all it was a great learning experience, I know the car inside and out which is pretty amazing considering I am not qualified to be a shade tree mechanic. If you are thinking about doing a similar project on your vette, don’t underestimate the job and double your budget to be safe.
Feel free to ask questions if are curious about any of the parts I used. Here are the parts, part numbers, and costs in case anyone needs or wants to use similar parts.
383 Rotating Assembly 3831P-1230 $ 904.00
Pro Comp Cylinder Head A64210274 $ 684.00
Fuel Injectors - Used 36lbs – removed $ 100.00
Cam COMP Cams CL08-466-8 $ 259.00
Oil Pump Melling HV - removed $ 57.50
Stainless Steel Roller Rockers (Skip White) $ 159.00
Lifters GM-12499225 $ 150.00
Timing Chain 3-202SA $ 58.95
Valve Covers + $ 70.00
ASM TPI Runners $ 485.00
Port Intake & Plenum $ 475.00
Fuel Injectors FICC65 Bosch D3 32lbs $205.00
58MM Throttle Body 69707 Professional Products $238.99
Custom Prom PCM4Less $220.00
Stall Converter 2400 70418 B&M $267.00
New Flex Plate APE $120.00
Transmission Rebuild Ronoco Transmissions $2,100.00
Power Brake Booster Corvette Central $200.00
Revised Prom (x2 @ $50 each) $100.00
New Melling Reg Volume Oil Pump Melling M55 $40.00
SBC Block Hugger Hearders Ceramic Coated $159.99
Engine Shop Work (clean, flux, bore, hone, clearance, assembly, labor) $1900
So first a couple of disclaimers, I cannot guarantee your experiences and or car configuration to be the same as mine with that said my car is a 1987 Convertible. It was completely stock when I started tinkering with it. I did 3 things a couple years before the engine build got started. Those items included a new aluminum radiator as the factory style plastic side radiator failed, next I installed a TPIS AIR delete kit, and finally I needed new exhaust from the cat’s back so I went to a local shop and he eliminated the cats and installed some overly obnoxious mufflers, but I live in rural central Florida so that kind of thing is expected. One other problem I tackled which gave me the confidence to complete this engine build was to replace the intake manifold gaskets and after doing so the car ran great until an eventual head gasket failure in winter of 2012.
So that brings us to this project. I was looking at crate engines but I kept reading about all the concerns and risks with ebay crate engines and if you’re doing a crate engine ensure you can trust the shop etc. Given I was on a wife imposed budget I had to tread lightly and adjust my requirements along the way, those of you that are married will understand this as a way of life; those of you who are single will think I am whooped. Which I may be but at my age I don’t really want to deal with a divorce and child support so I choose my battles carefully.
Since I had successfully replaced the intake manifold gaskets I knew what was involved in getting down to the heads, so I removed the complete upper and lower intakes. This gave me a lot of room but I still needed to remove the exhaust manifolds. They actually came off of the heads a lot easier than I thought they would after 20+ years of installation. Once they were off I was ready to remove the valve covers and the valve train. I found my 87 roller cam and lifters but not roller rockers which I thought roller rockers became standard in 87 so my belief or my car was incorrect. Once the valve train was removed I made it to the heads. This really wasn’t that bad either, again once everything is out of the way it is simply unbolting and then breaking the gasket seal. I found a significant amount of coolant in Piston 7, ahh ha there was my head gasket leak but since the leak was so severe my car had heated up to 240-250 I had already decided it was time to replace the motor.
I bought a 383 stroker rotating assembly from Skip White Performance along with a set of ProComp heads. I also bought a set of Stainless Steel Roller Rockers (1.5) to go with my heads. I have a race engine builder down the street from me so I went to him and asked him if I brought him the parts if we could clean and check my block, if healthy then would he build my motor and clearance the block etc. Fortunately for me, he said yes he would do it since I was bringing him everything and he didn’t have to order anything on his own. Since he is local to me and he is known for building local race engines I felt like I could trust him to do the work. I will say, I think he does incredible work based upon the motor I got back. But the key here, I didn’t buy a crate engine I took him my legacy L98 and he rebuilt it and installed my rotating assembly.
One of the first lesson I learned, TPI base intakes are smaller in width than a carbureted intake. This means if your heads have a bigger than 1204 gasket on the intake ports the TPI base will not seal. So my 210 CC heads had to go back and I swapped them for 190CC heads. These heads and intake just barely seal, they use a 1205 gasket and to make it work we had to double gasket the intake, not ideal but I didn’t have money for another set of heads. So there is an expensive lesson, 1204 is max.
One other expensive lesson, hi-torque mini-starters don’t necessarily come with the right gears to be direct mount replacement for factory vette starter. My mini-starter didn’t seat correctly and chewed up my brand new flex plate in the first 3 minutes of run time on the motor. DOH! So I had to order a new flexplate, and after getting a quote to install it I decided to have my transmission rebuilt and then install it while the tranny was out. The transmission shop tried to install the mini-starter and told me no-way would it align so I had to buy a new factory style starter. Fortunate thing, this allowed me to change from a 168 to 153 tooth flex plate because my original “new flexplate” was the wrong size. It will work but since I had to replace it I went with the correct size.
The next big thing to happen, I chewed up a distributor gear so I replaced the distributor assembly and subsequently chewed up that gear. I came to the conclusion that a high-volume high-pressure oil pump isn’t practical for a street car. So I have replaced that pump with a standard volume / pressure pump and the binding seems to be gone, for the moment anyway. I also bought a set of nylon shims from Summit racing. When I dropped the distributor into place I saw about a full 1/8 in gap between the intake deck and distributor stop, that made me think my gasket was too thin. My shim kit came with a nylon shim that fit that gap perfectly so I installed it and have had an issue since (about 3000 miles now).
One other little item, I bought some inexpensive ceramic coated SBC headers off ebay. They look nice and are very light weight, but for those of you that want to get them understand they will only fit with a little hammer love. The number 8 cylinder tube will not clear the a/c firewall box without being dented, on the driver side one of the tubes barely catches the steering knuckle so a little more love needs to be shown on this side as well. My intent to swap these headers out for a set of “Tru-Ram” headers off of speedway motors.com in the not too distant future.
Fuel Injection, bigger isn’t always better. I had 36lb fuel injectors and it was dumping way to much fuel into the system. You could literally smell fuel in the exhaust, besides that when you accelerated it would cough and sputter really bad. I replaced the 36lbs with 32lbs based upon recommendation from Fuel Injection Connection and also replaced the chip to align to the 32lbs injectors. What a difference that made, acceleration is smooth and fuel consumption is reasonable. Also bought a new TPS, with the TPS I bought the adapter to allow you to easily connect volt meter and set voltage correctly.
Intake and Throttle Body work. I sent my intake to Darrin Dochterman and High Flow Fuel Injection for a “stage 4” porting. The base intake and plenum have been enlarged to the point where a golf ball will fit inside the ports. That is serious increase in port size, unfortunately I have ASM runners that would not properly seal and hence I experienced vacuum leaks so I had to re-install the factory runners. No leaks and car runs fine, though I know the car is capable of more air flow that I am currently providing. I finally pulled the factory runners off and replaced the ASM runners again, this time using the 4 bolts provided by ASM and torquing per instructions (start in middle of runners and work out). I still have a little leak but I think once I pull valve covers and re-torque the base I think it will be fine.
The fuel pump, I put a 255lph pump in the car and decided it was flowing way to much fuel as well, so I went back to stock pump and have found it to provide more than enough fuel for my needs. I also had a problem with the 9th fuel injector so I pulled and blocked it off. Then I saw an issue with fuel pressure and ended up installing a new BBK AFPR and diaphragm, this seems to have resolved those issues.
I had a custom chip burned by PCM4Less, they have been great to work with as I have needed 2 re-flashes to get my idle correct. They were quick to process the orders and send the chips back to me.
Other purchases included bolt kits, polished waterpump, new overflow tank, new temp sensors, fan sensor, sending units, 2 fuel pumps, egr block off kits, new ecm, new distributor, and other miscellaneous parts. I still have interior and paint to go, plus wheels and new tires but that is next year’s project or I will be single and broke, if ya know what I mean.
All in all it was a great learning experience, I know the car inside and out which is pretty amazing considering I am not qualified to be a shade tree mechanic. If you are thinking about doing a similar project on your vette, don’t underestimate the job and double your budget to be safe.
Feel free to ask questions if are curious about any of the parts I used. Here are the parts, part numbers, and costs in case anyone needs or wants to use similar parts.
383 Rotating Assembly 3831P-1230 $ 904.00
Pro Comp Cylinder Head A64210274 $ 684.00
Fuel Injectors - Used 36lbs – removed $ 100.00
Cam COMP Cams CL08-466-8 $ 259.00
Oil Pump Melling HV - removed $ 57.50
Stainless Steel Roller Rockers (Skip White) $ 159.00
Lifters GM-12499225 $ 150.00
Timing Chain 3-202SA $ 58.95
Valve Covers + $ 70.00
ASM TPI Runners $ 485.00
Port Intake & Plenum $ 475.00
Fuel Injectors FICC65 Bosch D3 32lbs $205.00
58MM Throttle Body 69707 Professional Products $238.99
Custom Prom PCM4Less $220.00
Stall Converter 2400 70418 B&M $267.00
New Flex Plate APE $120.00
Transmission Rebuild Ronoco Transmissions $2,100.00
Power Brake Booster Corvette Central $200.00
Revised Prom (x2 @ $50 each) $100.00
New Melling Reg Volume Oil Pump Melling M55 $40.00
SBC Block Hugger Hearders Ceramic Coated $159.99
Engine Shop Work (clean, flux, bore, hone, clearance, assembly, labor) $1900
Last edited by beerme; 12-23-2013 at 07:05 PM.
12-23-2013, 10:01 AM
#2
Team Owner
Member Since: Oct 2004
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St. Jude Donor '05
Never heard EFI intakes are narrower.
Double stacking which sure you found was your dist gear issue.
The stock base can be port matched to a 1205. next time its off get it done if the intake port on the head is still taller you can weld a little material on the intake;your single 1205 at that point should fit Hopefully you have no vacuum leaks from the double gaskets
HV or stock pump is Ok....Usually issues there (HV/dist gear) are when using a billet cam gear (which you dont have)and needing an everwear gear
Sounds like the runners need some material added also as the base entry was made too big. Fixable
Keep us posted as you work the bugs out.
Double stacking which sure you found was your dist gear issue.
The stock base can be port matched to a 1205. next time its off get it done if the intake port on the head is still taller you can weld a little material on the intake;your single 1205 at that point should fit Hopefully you have no vacuum leaks from the double gaskets
HV or stock pump is Ok....Usually issues there (HV/dist gear) are when using a billet cam gear (which you dont have)and needing an everwear gear
Sounds like the runners need some material added also as the base entry was made too big. Fixable
Keep us posted as you work the bugs out.
Last edited by cv67; 12-23-2013 at 10:05 AM.
12-23-2013, 06:46 PM
#5
Racer
Thread Starter
12-23-2013, 07:06 PM
#6
Racer
Thread Starter
12-23-2013, 07:11 PM
#7
Pro
12-23-2013, 07:16 PM
#8
Pro
12-23-2013, 08:02 PM
#9
Racer
Thread Starter
12-23-2013, 08:37 PM
#10
Pro
12-24-2013, 02:12 PM
#12
Racer
Thread Starter
Ya, that is why wife is on my ****.
My project was a 3500 planned budget. I probably could have just taken to a shop for an ls swap. But I am happy with the way it runs, now if I can get it painted for less than 5k I will be happy. But that still leaves new carpet, seat covers, and door panels.
Oh well good thing I like the car.
My project was a 3500 planned budget. I probably could have just taken to a shop for an ls swap. But I am happy with the way it runs, now if I can get it painted for less than 5k I will be happy. But that still leaves new carpet, seat covers, and door panels.
Oh well good thing I like the car.
12-24-2013, 02:19 PM
#13
Team Owner
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St. Jude Donor '05
"Budget" always doubles dont it! 
At least youre happy with the newfound torque.
When others ask what it would cost to-at least you have an example to post up.
I caught hell for asking that same amount for my 383, cost 4-5k more to build top to bottom . I dont know how but it did lol
That "little" stuff adds up
Some just havent done it yet.
At least youre happy with the newfound torque.
When others ask what it would cost to-at least you have an example to post up.
I caught hell for asking that same amount for my 383, cost 4-5k more to build top to bottom . I dont know how but it did lol
That "little" stuff adds up
Some just havent done it yet.
Last edited by cv67; 12-24-2013 at 02:25 PM.
12-25-2013, 01:22 AM
#16
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St. Jude '03-'04-'05-'06-'07-'08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17-'18-‘19-'20-'21-'22-'23-'24
beerme, so if you were to start this project over from start, would just opt for a crate motor?
Or piece another together?
Or piece another together?
12-25-2013, 09:36 AM
#17
Racer
Thread Starter
Knowing what I know now, I would not do a crate motor. I would have my 350 reworked by a reputable engine shop, the difference being I would just tell them what I want abd let them recommend parts etc.
Also key point to remember, I stayed tpi, I mention this because my l98 is a 2 bolt main. My motor shouldnt see 6000 rpm, a carbed setup or lt style injection could push the rpm into a detrimental range.
I am already thinking about my next garage build, thinking a 71 el camino with a 1st fuel injection tpi on top of a small block 427. Guess I should build that dog house first as I will need a pkace to sleep.
Also key point to remember, I stayed tpi, I mention this because my l98 is a 2 bolt main. My motor shouldnt see 6000 rpm, a carbed setup or lt style injection could push the rpm into a detrimental range.
I am already thinking about my next garage build, thinking a 71 el camino with a 1st fuel injection tpi on top of a small block 427. Guess I should build that dog house first as I will need a pkace to sleep.