Hey guys,

I have a 383 stroker motor that had a few issues. I don't really want to blame anything or anyone cuz the damage is done. Anyway, it detonated and blue a small chunck out of the top of the edge of the cylinder where the fire ring of the head gaskets seats. That allowed the coolant to flood into cylinder #8.

Anyway, i'm going to have somebody else rebuild the motor and was wondering if i should keep it as a roller motor or move to a solid roller cam. I'm not sure if my terminology is correct so please correct me. I guess the advantage to a roller motor is that you don't have to constantly be adjusting the valves. But at the same time you cant turn as high of RPM's. Is that a pretty accurate statement?

I basically wanted to get people's opinions that have more experience. This is the first motor i have built and am rebuilding so i am learning as i go.

Could i just lighten up the valve train on my current set up and go with some beehive valve springs, keep the rev kit i have, and try and keep that set up on the roller motor? Or move to a solid cam set up?

Help please!

The advantage to a roller is the ability to open the valve faster and with less resistance. Some roller cams are solid and some are hydraulic.
Hydraulic cams require less frequent adjustments than solid cams do.

PM Sandzilla or CBM they would be the people to talk to for sure.

I guess that's what i was meaning to say. Whether I should go with a solid roller cam or a hydraulic one? Is that correct? How often would you have to adjust the solid roller cam?

You have not given enough information for anyone to have an opinion yet.

What h.p. do you expect?
What heads are you running?
Normally asperated?
RPM's?
Budget?

good point.

I am hoping to hit about 550 HP and at least 550 ft/lbs of torque. Before the block failed, our best pull on the dyno was 464 HP i think but that was just with a stock demon 750 carb. It's naturally asperated and now has a C & J engineering custom Holley carb. It's running custom heads from Pacific Performance. They are similar to the AFR 210 heads. I would like to trun higher RPM's. We are currently set to redline at 6000 RPM's but the motor peaks out at about 5800 on the dyno sheets. Budget for the rebuild would be about $3000. I am re-using the eagle rotating assembly and the heads and whatever else i can. I am getting the block for free. So I'm looking at paying for reassembly, misc machine work on the heads cuz the valves aren't seating good for whatever reason. The builder said it could be because of the detonation. THE MOTOR HAS LESS THAT 100 MILES ON IT.

Anyway, hope that helps a little more

An aggressive hydraulic roller would be my choice.

Make sure that your valve springs and rocker arm geometery are correct.

I would purchase a kit containing all the cam and valve train hardware that is a matched set.

Check piston to valve clearence.

Have fun

One more thing, you may want to consider a larger CFM carb.

In my experience with a hot 383, and roller cam I went to an 850 and gained considerably more horsepower. Check your cylinder head and intake manifold flow to determine what the proper CFM wil be.

Stay with Roller Hydraulic. I had a few solids in my last boat, and it was fun constantly adjusting them, but probably not worth it....

it all depends on where you want your engine to make its power. a hyd cam wether it is roller or flat tappet will start to float valves around 6k and up (depending on cam profile). running stiffer springs will collapse the lifter typically.
to hit 550 with a 383 your gonna need some compression 10.5:1 on up, a good flowing set of heads, and a cam to go with everything. the whole combination is going to dictate what rpms the engine wil lmake power.

as for a slodi roller or hyd roller, it really depends on what the intended use for the engine is. somthing that will see alot of street duty i would run a hyd roller. a racing app or just a real radical engine i would use a solid roller.

We are very happy with the C & J setup. Probably the best thing we did on that motor. The Holley that they built is an 815 CFM carb and seems to work very well. It's got a sucker pump and the whole deal.

How many pounds can you torque the springs to before it's starts to become a problem? 170 lbs?

i assume your talking about valve spring seat pressure, i have run as high as 200lbs on the seat with a hyd, and it was around 550 or so over the nose of the cam.

yeah. that's what i'm referring to. my friend said he feels comfortable going as high as 170 but over that you can run into issues.

I need a little more data. What Gen engine are we talking about? II, III, IV? Iron block? Aluminum? What intake? What ignition system? What octane gas do you want to run? What's the weight of the car? What tranny? Is it a Sand Rail or Pre-runner?

Zilla

Hey Zilla,

I don't know what gen it is. It's just a 350 small block bored and stroked. It's a late model block 1 piece rear main seal. It's an iron block with a crappy intake. Some chinese intake which is something we will probably change to a victor junior. Troy at pacific performance did the porting on the intake and the heads. it's running and MSD 6AL ingnition. We were running pump gas which probably wasn't OK on 10.8:1 compression. The cars weighs about 4300lbs. We are running a Turbo 400 tranny built by Culhane with all the good parts in it. I'm not sure what the stall on the torque converter is but i can find out. It is a truggy that is primarily set up as a prerunner. It's the car in my avatar picture.

Do yourself a favor and run a hyd. roller. I spin mine to 7200rpm with no problem using Morel tie bar lifters, best money can buy and are regarded as the best hyd. roller on the market. Make sure you do what romans9 said and make sure everything is matched for the rpm you plan on running. Valve float will beat anything to death no matter how good the components are. If this is for play no need to good solid, to hard on the valvetrain IMO.

OK... That helps. Can you take a picture of it and post it? As for running a solid roller, it's not necessary. And a heavy car like yours, I would "think" you would want more low end torque, verse high RPM HP. Everybody wants the big HP number, but the pre-runners guys end up wanting more low speed power after they run their cars a few times. If you were racing it... That would be a different story.

JMHO,

Zilla

Hey Zilla,

Thanks for your response. The problem seems to be out in glamis when we are running the big Robby Gordon Paddles. When we shift into 3rd gear, it seems to fall on it's face and we can't ever continue picking up speed. It's like it won't rap up anymore. but then again, i don't know how long our motor was messed up? maybe we never had a good trip when the motor was working the way it should. What do you think could be causing that loss of power when shifting into 3rd? I will try and get some pictures up next week.

what rear end gear are you running? 37" paddles?

Putting a bigger cam in your car will only worsen the problem. You have too much tire for that car. You can help it will gearing or go to a smaller less aggressive tire. And shifting the power band up will make it fall flat until you reacquire the power band again... You should probably look at a 106-110 LSA grind cam. It will be more "peaky" but it will help get all that weight going.

You could also look into putting a looser converter in it. It will keep the RPM's up and keep you in the power band. Doing that will allow you to run a more aggressive cam and higher RPM's... But remember, you will have to have your foot in it all the time, and it will run hotter. <(More prone to detonation)

Zilla

Would it help a lot to know all the internals of the motor and see the dyno sheet? I can post that stuff on Monday. We are running 37" tires stripped down with paddles and the rear end has 5.13 gears.

Yes... The more data you have, the better.

Zilla

id would say you need a lower gear, closer to a 6.0. you have alot of weight to move and a tall tire. in my rail i am running a 6.50 rear gear, but i also have a powerglide, but high gear is still the same as yours. im running a 38 extreme paddle, my engine is a 406, same stroke as you just bigger bore.

Alright Zilla,

Here is what i have. Dyno #'s, build sheet, parts list and cam info. I am trying to get some pics of the block damage too.

One more question, if we are getting a free block for all the problems that we have had on our motor, should we just go forward with that for the rebuild, or are we stupid to not pull the trigger on buying a much nicer DART block for about $1700?

OK... Your max torque is 464.3 @ 4800 RPM and Max HP is, 467.5 @ 5600 RPM. With all thing being equal with your new engine, and you go to a more aggressive cam (more duration), you will increase both those numbers, especially the HP, but it WILL move up the power band. You max power number will be above @ 5600, and your low end power will suffer down low... And I don't think that want you want. You would be better off going with more displacement <(bore and stroke) vs. any cam shaft change.

And from your spec sheet, I see why you had detonation problems... Call me and I'll fill you in. 480-216-3421

Zilla