383 Stroker RX8 hoping for 500+ hp and tq buld.
 

Well as a lot of you know...cause you've been buying my parts I'm building me a 383 stroker to drop into my car.

I've read a lot about how people have asked about cost to do it and what has to be done in order to get a motor this size into this car. Well as I build mine I'll show pictures and details about things.

Of course I might jump the gun on something..so you might see my oops that I have to fix later on.



As you can tell in the first picture we went ahead and just cut out the two cross members and completely unbolted everything to get it all outta the way. So much easier to see and weld this way.

Now this is our guessed at location. As you can tell I think we could of left the middle support. But we'll see when we get everything a little more solid in there.

Now when you do a build you always have to apply new paint...That's gotta add atleast 15hp ya know.


But anyways before the half a million questions come in. I'm still waiting on the transmission.....

But as far as cost I'll add to it as I go.

350 4 bolt main....free was sitting in the corner
383 Stroker kit. I wanted forged but couldn't afford it so 824.95 ESP-B13455E030
Cam and lifter kit...this baby has some lobe to her. 956.95
CCA-K12-433-8
ARP Head Bolts 111.95
RP-134-3604
RHS 220 CC racing heads 599.95 a piece 1199.90
CCA-12005-01
Gasket Set 61.95
FEL-FS7733PT-2
Oil pump 103.69
SLP-224-43389V
RPM Air Gap intake used ebay reconditioned 203.95
7501
Holley double pumper 770cc avenger carb used 250.00

T56 Camaro transmission with everything off of ebay 1250.00

Custom made oil pan to save money

Fuel Regulator
Motor mounts
ARP Main Bolts
clutch and pressure plate
flywheel
Roller rockers
Distributor
wires
plugs
Push Rods

Now remember all of this is off the top of my head. So I'm sure I forgot something.

now this is what I'm talking about, an rx8 with a carburetor

and because you used blue paint thats at least 25 not 15 :lol:

not sure that build sounds like 500+ hp. What compression are you hoping for? 10.1, 11.1??

Cross Breeding O.o lol

Looking forward to your build I was raised buy a bunch of hot rodin gear heads so this is right in my wheel house

chevy small block swap. you are the man.

i want to do this one day.

^yea this is up there on my list of things I want to do too, as well as a S/C kit or a LSx swap.

thats a long ways off anyways.

i'd rather do a LSx+t56 swap than FI. but a turbo would be a lot more simple.

cast iron block - that's going to be a heavy motherfather

subscribed! very promising :) good luck dude

An LSX swap is one thing, but I'm disgusted that you would use a carburetor. Pre historic garbage. You're like my old neighbor who sold his C6 Z06 so he could drop a carb'd SBC into a 94 Firebird. Carb'd 383's are pitiful engines without spray.

^do you know what your talking about?


cuz it just doesnt seem like it at all

Hopefully whoever painted that block isnt the one doing this build :sad:

lol You don't agree with my over spray??? lol Nothing a little paint thinner didn't take care of.

Well I could say yes and no to the carb. Fuel injection does have it's benefits but why spend the 5 grand for the LSX which is only like 335 hp or something. I'm not sure of numbers but I know it's in the 3's I can build this engine all brand new besides my block and I'm figureing my total cost with the transmission will be 5 maybe 6 and I spent 1250 for the transmission.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_9Ylm32BpI

your totally right....that carb 383 has to be slow as hell.

Oh and yes... I actually carried that damn motor from the car...threw the yard....and now the steps to my basement. I only made it from the car to porch before the crank had to go. and yes the block by it's self is still heavy... I'd say about 100 pounds.

Before I install this motor I'll weight each item so I'll know a exact weight of the motor.

I like it, but, yah, the carb is going to be a bit tall, and wow, to get 500hp out of it N/A, you know you're going to need that lumpy cam and pretty good heads to do it with a 383 stroker.

Iron block typically weighs 90 lbs more than an aluminum block

Tear it up man! I love seeing these V8 RX8's coming out of nowhere!

Well 220cc heads are good at .5 lift to about 570 hp..and my lift is like .56 and yeah my cam is a huge lobe cam. I went to the street/strip cam's and the last one said it wasn't drivable..track only. Next one said very rough idle...but could be driven. The one below it said something about rough idle but still streetable to someone who can tolerate it.. my advertised lift is like 284/292 or something. But all in all this motor should be a easy 500 just how high is the question.

500 hp out of a carberated stoker chevy is pretty common now a days dude! Come on.
The weight is in the heads--and I know those will be aluminum?
Dry sump system?
What are you going to do with the chassis/rear end?

I put a 350 LT1 in a Porsche 928 several years ago. Factory FI ally manifold with stainless headers. Weight as installed with ally adapter, alternator, AC compressor & PS pump was 630 lbs, about 5 lbs lighter then the ally Porsche V8 it replaced. Thats what, about 350 lbs more then the dressed Renesis?

After selling the 928 I never expected to own another touring class car that drove as well. The RX8 changed that. While it doesn't have the stump pulling torque and is a little more thirtsy on the highway its a much more fun to drive car.

The LT1 was stock internally and delivered an honest 24 MPG at 70-75 MPH. City wasn't so good, probably because I just couldn't avoid driving it miserly. Anywhere from 12 - 15 MPG average on city driving.

I think if I were to do a conversion on the RX8 it would be a turbo 4. Good luck on the V8 adventure its sounds pretty cool. :rock:

As far as the dry sump... I've been looking into that!!! Hadn't decided the route yet as far as that.

As far as the rear end I use to put 400 whp to it and it held up find and never had a problem. I don't plan to drag race it. If I do it will be just a day worth of fun. But I'm hoping the rear end will hold up.

Ok. I was wrong. I should have researched before saying anything. I didn't think a 383 stroker made power like that and it's cheap. Cam specs look close to one that did almost 530hp with 1 3/4" headers


This setup is good for 425 to the wheels? Is that the goal?

There really isn't a exact goal really.....and like was said...The heads hold all the weight. A stock head with cam can get ya as high as like 375-400 hp.

But my heads well are 220cc in the intake and like 180 or 190 in the exhaust. compared to your stock head of like 170 intake.

Setting the stock head beside the new one. The new one is almost a inch taller. Since it's taller it have a lot larger intake and exhaust hole. The huge cam... the air gap intake with a double feed, and double pump carb. This thing should be nuts.

I'm running an adjustable distributor as well. So I'll be able to tweak my timing curve as well.

As some say carb is old history. But carb with new technology is killer. Tuned to perfection. In this case a adjust in fuel pressure will adjust my wot fuel ratio. While my screws will adjust the idle.

i miss the carb! A lot.
New tech with carbs is crazy---it still doesnt give you the fine tuning as injectors do but hell --who needs fine tuning for the street with power like this!
What kind of intake will this badboy have? Single or dual plane?
Havent answered my ? about the chassis?
cross that bridge when you get there railroad man?

Well yeah not fine tuned...for every RPM but you can tune pretty good with them.
I'll be running the Edelbrock air gap p/n 7501 it's a dual plane...since I'm still on the street dual is better. As far as the chassis I said I stuck 400 to it before. I'm just hoping it holds up pretty well.


Anyways on to another note... I'm still waiting on my main bolts so I can't build the bottom end of the motor....and I'm waiting on my other head..and the damn cam kit. But otherwise my engine is ready to be built. I'm going to build my own oil pan for clearance reasons. I want to keep it up off of the ground as much as possible. I'm making it wide rather then deep so I'll end up with a 8 qt or so oil pan. Who knows I may just go 10 quarts.

Oh and my transmission come in tomorrow. But with my th 350 bolted to the bock to see my angles and get the engine sitting where it needs to be.. here is a idea of what it's going to look like with a high rise intake.

maybe you need a fabrication mock up block and trans for fitting purposes?
The carburetor will make the drive ability and tuning a whole lot easier --never mind the oem puter.
How are you going to do the steering?
Sorry dude--i have too many questions:)
But following this trend.........!
Dont forget the increase in TQ --that may be a big difference from the engine you had before.
TQ can bend things---ask me how I know:)
OD

good luck with your build man. My ls1 build is somewhat near to completion. Just not alot of good documentation yet. build once the car is complete there will be pictures galore. I think you and i actually spoke a while back about these swaps.

with the room available I wonder how a good set of headers will be done especially on the drivers side.

Yeah as far as headers...if you get a set that goes down and then back they will work just fine. My real transmission is suppose to come in today but yea...like you said I'm waiting on my other one before I start welding. We haven't done a whole lot the last two days... I do know all the engine parts come in today...besides my cam kit. So we will be building the engine and hopefully making it permanent so I can start working on the steering and the sway bar.

^post up pics of the engine build!

I'm loving this thread just so you know

Subscribed. Good luck with this.

Just wanted everyone to know I ordered what I believe to be the rest of my parts and I get my transmission tomorrow. So it's going to start going together in the next week or so.

and didnt you almost buy my blown rotory to rebuild? this is quite different ha

yes I looked for several parts. I even bought parts off of people. side housings and rotors and everything. and then decided to say screw it. I sold it all to cam at pettit for one low price to just get rid of it. Today I'll take a bunch of pictures and start showing the engine putting it together. All we did last night was throw the crank in. The pistons go in tonight and I'll throw the intake and carb on top just for looks. But the big thing is putting the transmission on the back and dropping it into the car. I've been waiting on head bolts and my cam. The head bolts keeps getting farther and farther on back order. To the point it's almost not going to be in to april. When I first looked the date was the 5th...then it was the 11, now I looked the other day it's the 25. So I'm going to call and have them which it out for studs. They are stronger just more expensive.

For your guys viewing purpose I threw the engine half ass together for looks but I ran into a problem... maybe someone can throw some insight to it.


Anyways when putting the rod bearing in we ran into a issue with binding. I'm kinda confused.

I didn't use the plastic gauge stuff cause I bought a 383 stroker kit from summitracing.com

The kit comes with the crank, rods, pistons, rings and the bearings as well as my arp bolts.

So I more less assume if it's a kit that's all made to go together I shouldn't have to check that stuff.

Anyways the more is stiff turning over with bolts loose. You can tell I have the thick rings and fresh engine.

But when tightening down the rod bearing you can no longer turn the engine over.

If it's torqued to 40 lbs your not bugging it....and that's just one rod and piston with all the others still loose. If you torque to say 10 or so you can turn it but it's very hard. I tried this on several different rods and they are all the same. So I'm thinking maybe my crank is outta spec...TOO BIG? bearing say standard on them so that's not the case. Unless they got stamped wrong. I think I might compare them to my old rod bearings.

oh and if your wondering I have new valve covers and everything coming so don't worry..not using those dirty ugly looking crome ones.

the rod bearing? you have 8 of them..

was the kit you bought not put together?

plastigauge is a great product, but you paid to a complete motor.

i raced my way through college.. and i sent you money for stuff.. this is not rocket science.. send me a pm.. then call me..

wondering.

beers :beer:

You do realize the kit you linked in your first post required your blocked to be bored out .030" ? I was wondering why you painted it before taking it to the machine shop......

The block had already recently been bored 30 over.. All the rest of it...as far as bearings is standard size. The pistons and rings are in.

And yes I know I have 8 of them. The point was you should install your first rod...put the bearings in....oil them up really good..apply the rod to crank. Put on your cap and install bolts. I did a little tighten with my ratchet, then a little more, then pulled out the torque wrench and did final torque and I couldn't turn the engine over.

So I then loosened the bolts and turned it over without any problems. So then I slightly tightened the bolts and I can verily turn it over and I'm using a cheater bar.

I think either this new crank isn't turned down to spec.. or my bearings that have standard stamped on them aren't the right ones.

main caps are ok and crankshaft rotates ok without rods on --right?
take a caliper and spec out the crankshaft and rod bearings
I always thought you install all the rods and rotate then loose then tighten them outside to in?
Plastic is always needed-- crankshaft tolerances can always differ some. Doesnt take much to lock it down so it cant be turned by hand.
od

well after doing some research and asking around.....my buddy was helping me..and like him....we've changed out bearing and rings and stuff..but never built from the ground up. I just read that rods only go one direction when being installed. I some how believe I managed to install all of them the wrong way lol. I'll fix most likely monday when we get all of our parts and finish building the engine.

oh man--you havent built from ground up before?
Oh there is a LOT more to installing crank/mains, pistons/wristpins and rods.
little things like
1- it has to be a REALLY CLEAN AREA---really clean and no dust being blown
2- temp needs to be stable and a little warm (70's)
3- have to check end play,
4- pistons ALSO only go one way!
5- rods also only go one way
6- dont forget to seat the main bearings studs with hammer ( brass)
7- the block has been cleaned --right?
8- check bearings for proper clearances on the ends and insure the lub holes are aligned (a lot of people drill them a little)
10 use the same high quality of break in grease on everything
11 you HAVE to use the plastic to be sure the oil film can get in there ok
12- is your crank OK --was it cleaned or turned?
13- then you get into how to properly get the rods bolts tq ed down right--with streach and all.
Man you need to read a lot----just wait til to get to the cam and heads.
you can do this--you will learn a lot.

this engine should be able to turn without the heads on with about 20lbs of torque --anything much higher meens a problem.

yes I know all parts have to be the same temp when checking clearances and stuff..... I know 90 percent of it. just never did it all at one time..

As far as taping the top making sure they are set and solid before torque and torque in 3 different steps... I know all of that. I'm using arp bolts and going by everything they say when torquing.

I have a new crank so it's nice and pretty.

Before we started to do the rods I could grab the harmonic balancer and turn it over pretty easily without much strain. I knew something wasn't right when I did the rods. I know the pistons go in only one way. Like I said I've done all of this stuff at some point and time just new actually did a complete rebuild. With all brand new parts. I'll have the engine put together monday and the transmission will be mounted. My mounts will be made and the engine will be getting wired and I'll be working on the steering and everything else.

when all that weight is in there your new nickname for the car will be ........ sledge . LOL

yes

hmm...idk...cause arp says you should loosen and retorque all of the bolts atleast 5 times to verify there is no friction and everything goes down smoothly.

As far as rod go I don't see why where you start would matter. But the mains I torque them the same way I do my heads. From the middle out...and even then I don't really see why it would matter. But I do

But like you guys say from the outside in....only thing could be cause of pull and stress I guess as you built them.

Good luck with the build! I'm building a 347stroker + 100shot for my 67 mustang. Take your time and do it right I didn't do that on my last 302 rebuild and well you know what happened next.

^The big bang? lol

outinnowhere3193 whats the weight difference from the re?

big bang...or a loud knock.

I'm only going to be 10 to 1 compression so I'll be fine on that end of the stick...it's the backing sure she breaks in and I don't throw a rod. So I've been doing some reading about break in's what's your guys thoughts about breaking it in on synthetic oil?

The last part of your statement makes me laugh. Card'd 383s can push 650+ without spray. I've seen it done and I've built 2 that did.

Woot...that's right...yeah with everything I have I should have a easy 600 but 500 at the wheels is really what I'm shooting for.

Just for anyone else that is checking in on this and what not. We all know how our girlfriend and wifes can be when we start working on our cars. But anyways monday starts my day to go back to working on the car and I'll be spending the majority...if not all of the day over there finishing the build and installing the motor mounts and getting things situated. My transmission parts guy is going to put me a clutch kit together so I'm hoping to see things really put together in the next week. Although I'm still waiting on the cam till about the 16

500 to the wheel??
uhhhhh--dont know if i would want to do that without some real chassis bracing and swapping axles?
So the PPF will be completely gone right?
I really dont know what the diff will take? or the rear suspension for that matter.
Whoooo--getting the engine is will be a piece of cake compared as to what to do with the rest of it?
You the man dude--show us how! rooting for ya.
OD