Who builds these engines

[425/409ER]

Yesterday I bought a 383 SBC and tore it down as I was told it had a rod knock, no biggie as the whole deal was pretty cheap. But what I found on teardown really was like a WTF moment. I suspected after I pulled the Air Gap intake off the 383 had a flat cam, but when I looked at the lifters Huh! they are solids. Pull a few out, yup solids and a few are really mushroomed. Pull the heads and it has some dished pistons .030 but the bore are kind of not so good. Pulled the pan and the 383 has some 6" rods that say on the side "wheeler USA" on them but they look identical to Scat rods and are bushed. Pulled the cam out, sure enough it's got several flat lobes but when I look up the specs it's a Comp Thumper Hyd with Solids someone put in there. The pistons are Hypers so I may just get some forged flat tops and use my other block that needs to be punched out but the way some of these guys put stuff together really makes me wonder what the hell is in their heads at times. This 383 has a really nice set of 462 fuelie heads in it that are matched date coded for a 67 327 and I got a good SBC Air Gap so I will sell the heads to get my investment back and start on my 1st 383, never had one before.

 

[La Hot Rods]

I ran some solid lifters on a Crane King of the Driven cam. Had to advance the cam 25 degrees but ran pretty good.

 

[425/409ER]

I am going to sell the cam as a 3/4 race grind, as 3/4th of the lobes are still good on it.

 

[425/409ER]

I think I found a way to make a relatively cheap 383. There are some budget priced forged pistons I can get along with a Scat 9000 lightweight 6" rod crankshaft. I just need to see what it cost to balance the whole thing as with the longer rod I guess the crank says internally balanced which would be nice. Looking at right around $1100 to get the short block done. I have a lot of heads and intakes to use so I am good there.