red 69 runner
Well-Known Member
So I had this great idea to have new 383 built for my road runner so I could save the numbers matching motor for when I die and the wife sells all my stuff she can say here is the original numbers matching motor,This was 2 1/2 years ago. The 1st candidate for the project was a 1970 short block that I got from a friend it had been in a shed from the time it was put together and sat and got pretty rusty,it was 30 over and had a cast crank so I didnt want to use the cast crank and another friend said he had a forged steel crank for a 383 and I gave him $150. bucks for it so now we were ready to start when after seeing how rusty the 30 over short block was the guy I got the crank from said hey I got the whole motor that crank was out of and I will sell it to you if you want this was a 1965 383 original bore and was not all rusty so in my mind this would be a better motor to rebuild. The engine builder i am using is a guy that a friend introduced me to ,he has a good reputation and has been in business for about 36 years,so after he had it shot peened and machined you think hey how long does it take to put a motor together,well here is where the trouble started I explained I did not want a race motor I wanted to have a new motor that I can put pump gas in and get in and drive anywhere but a little more than the rated 335HP of my stock 383,he said no problem we can do that. SO I am not a builder and take his advise based on his reputation he says I have a set of alluminum Venolia pistons brand new for a 383 that were left from a project that never got built and gave me a good price on them so they are what we are using they are 60 over I questioned why 60 over on a standard bore I was thinking it would have to be 30 over at the least and I have heard 60 may create over heating problems but he said these motors can go bigger with no trouble so I agreed,now he grind a notch at the top of the cylander that he says makes better flow with the wedge combustion chamber so I said you are the doctor it must be ok so then he says he made the notches to low and the venolia pistons will not work. It just so happens he is building another 383 and its 60 over and that guy bought his own pistons and they will work on my block so he switched blocks,the other one is a 1968 383,so now I have the 1968 motor and my crank from my 1965 motor,I got sick in april 2019 and was out of commission for the rest of the year so he put my project on the back burner and assembled the other motor(my original block I brought him)so now he is putting mine together and is having a problem with the counter weights hitting the block and is taking off material to make it work,he is telling me that the crank I brought him is from a 1959 383 which is a RB motor from what I read.The guy I got the block and the crank from said it was the only motor he ever disassembled and it was an original factory assembled motor.I am about done with the whole project and will probably taking a loss and tell the builder he can keep it since the parts i brought him are not my parts any more. Can any body tell me if the 2 engines cranks would be differant from 1965 to 1968,sorry for this being long but I am getting frustrated with this whole project and need some answers.thanks in advance.