383 Stroker

Ok, i may sound a little retarded on this one. I want to do a 350 to 383 stroker. I am told all i need to do this is a 400 crank. i am told i can use stock rods and pistons. What i dont get is how putting in a 400 crank gets you soo much more horsepower. What about having a longer stroke is soo much better. and is it true i can use stock rods and pistons? is it really as simple as going to the junk yard, finding an old 400, pulling the crank, slapping it into your 350, and wam you got a lot more balls. i dont believe it is that easy, if it were then why are stroker kits selling for upwards of 500 dollars. i hope you guys can answer my ?s. thanks.:confused:

www.jegs.com (http://www.jegs.com) look under eagle for stroker cranks. they make ones with 350 main journal sizes aleready. And ARP makes a rod bolt thats shorter so you wont have to clearnace your block.

by making a 350 a stroker your improving volumetric effiency of it. you get extra cubes, and more volume in your cylinders. which equals power.


if you want one, dont fool with a stock crank. buy a stroker crank, cast steel ones go for under 300$ and arp stroker rod bolts.

and its really that simple. cheap power and bragging rights

You can use stock 350 pistons if you use stock 400 rods, which are 5.565" center to center (vs. 5.7" stock rod size). If you use stock 350 rods, you must use special pistons with the proper compression height for the 400 stroke of 3.75".

If you use a stock 400 crank, you must have the main journals ground down to 2.45" from the stock 400 diameter of 2.65".

You must also run the 400 harmonic balancer and flexplate, which are externally counterbalanced.

The extra cubic inches along with the longer stroke give you more low and midrange torque, but unless you're running light parts and long rods, you're not going to get a lot of RPMs out of the engine - consider it to redline in the 5000-5500RPM range, all else being equal.

If you're going to do the modification to stroke your 350, buy longer rods (either your stock 5.7s or some 6.00s) and get the proper piston for those - the shorter rod length of the 400 can cause additional piston side-loading over the longer rods, which increases wear and reduces high-RPM reliability.

The real reason a stroker is going to make more power is because it causes the motor to have higher compression, and usually more compression equals more power, the more the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder is compressed the bigger explosion you get which means more force pushing the cylinder down which ultimately means more power to the crank and wheels

A stroker does no raise compression in itself as the pistons are custom made for the application so that is not the issue, it is the displacement that is the issue, and the resulting additional torque as a result of a longer arm on the crank throw. The compression could be anywhere from 8:1 to 15:1

A 383 stroker has 33 more cubes and this is why it makes more power, my learned friend. As Maxwedge states, compression has nothing to do with it in and of itself.

Im looking to build a 383 stroker as well and plan to buy the kit with rods pistons crank and all that jazz but i hear now and then from people that you need to notch the block? can somone help shed some light on the subject for me??

Im looking to build a 383 stroker as well and plan to buy the kit with rods pistons crank and all that jazz but i hear now and then from people that you need to notch the block? can somone help shed some light on the subject for me??

I have also heard that you will need to clearance the block to make it work.

BTW this is a old thread.