Thread: 350 to 383 Clearance and assembly.

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Now that the head is torqued down for the second pull, I will put a dab of the camshaft breakin lube in the ends of the pushrods. This will help keep the pushrods smooth during initial startup. I will also use a length of 3/8" all thread to make a engine pre-lube shaft to use in my drill. I will verify we have oil to the rocker arms prior to ever trying to start the engine.

Now we can install the Crane (or your stock) rocker arms on the studs. In my case, its a stock pressed in stud, but many of you will have an ARP screwed in stud in place of the stock studs. If your going with a big camshaft that needs high spring pressures you stand a chance of pushing a stock stud out of the head. You need to use a screwed in stud for aggressive spring pressures.

Make sure you put each rocker on each stud, make sure if you have nuts like these that the inner lock nut is turned back towards the top of the outer nut so that you can adjust the outer nut on the stud before the inner nut interferes.

The rule is to rotate the engine over and watch the #1 intake rocker go open and then close, now go to the TDC or 0 degree mark on the dampener to make sure you are on the cams base circle, this will allow you to adjust both the intake and exhaust valve/rocker on that particular cylinder.

If you are in a hurry, you can do the job on all 8 cylinders in 1 crank revolution by follwing the order of the cylinder firing.

You can also adjust number 2,5,and 7 intake valves and 3,4,and 8 exhaust valves while doing the number one cylinder. Once these are done rotate the motor clockwise exactly one turn. You can now adjust number 3,4,6,and 8 intake valves as well as number 2,5,6, and 7 exhaust valves. Once these are done the valve adjustment is complete.

Replace both valve covers using new gaskets. Take special care to thoroughly clean gasket surfaces and do not over tighten cover bolts.

If you are using an aftermarket style rocker like I am here, you need to lock the center lock nut on each adjusting nut at the point that you adjusted the rocker. To do this, rotate the pushrod in your fingers with one hand while you bring the nut down on the rocker with your other hand. As soon as you feel the pushrod drag a bit in the rocker arm pushrod seat it is at 0 lash, now all you need to do is add the preload on the rocker that is needed. I do not do the 1/2 to 3/4 turn additional that Crane recomends, rather I do 1/4 turn past 0 lash. I do this because I have had experiances in the past where I get hydraulic pump up at higher RPM's with hydraulic lifters that were turned 1/2 to 3/4 turn. Its my own little rule. I wouls strongly suggest you follow the cam/lifter manufacture's installation instructions.

Now that we have all of the valves adjusted in and the covers all on we can stand back and sigh........hmmm...the project is near its end. Its sad, this was a fun little project.

Now its time to wrap it all up in plastic and put it on a trailer to be hauled off to the Father-in-laws house for removal of the old dead 350 and the install of the hot new 383!

This is the beast that will be getting a heart transplant. It has a very tired 350 TBI that is so tired it locked uop solid going down the road. You should have seen the show, I was actually following it in my truck and it was dumping smoke like a sci-fi smoke machine...oil was pouring out and it was knocking so hard I could hear it from inside my truck....with my windows up! Finally, as my Father-in-law held the go pedal to the floor...it ground itself to a stop. It was to never move again. Now we will pull that anchor out and put the new high tech and heavy duty 383 in to let this beast start working again.

Here is the dead pig. Soon after this picture was taken this was hanging from a chain. It took about 3 hours to rip it out, and about an hour to swap all the junk from one block to the next as far as sensors and stuff go.

Here is our new engine ready to be unwrapped and slid into place in the GMC C-30 furnature truck. This truck will see use 6 days a week, 12 hours a day. It will haul estates from the deceased, it will deliver aution items ranging from average things to the odd and unheard of. It will climb hills in snow and in baking sun while loaded with 10-12 thousand pounds of "stuff". This engine will be a true testamant to my ability to build a system into an engine that will not only work well together, but survive insane amounts abuse and heat. Next post will be the picture of the beast 383 installed. BTW, the engine did goto work today, and after proper break in and timing I feel good about its future. The oil pressure is about 25 lbs at idle and about 55 lbs at cruise, the cold start idle oil pressure is about 60 lb.

The engine I did for my Father in law is still hammering along. It runs good, it does not make huge amounts of power as a big block would have, but I understood this going into the project. The engine hauls the long hills much better than it did in its previous life as a 350ci, it does not get hot, and the one thing that seems odd is that it is sucking down fuel at unheard of rates. About 30-40 bucks a day in fuel! We did hang new injectors on the Throttlebody, but I notice that the spray pattern is still weak and the center of the injectors is dripping large drops of fuel. THis spring when I get time I may try to get into the fuel injection side of this and see if I can make it work better. I suspect that the fuel pressure may not be up to par, fuel pumps may need replaced. Maybe a new Holley TBI unit from Summit will help...thats about 350 bucks. Overall I am satisfied with the 383. Good luck guys! Its fun to creat things out of piles of parts!

I do see a couple of things not mentioned...I will add...

When mocking up the engine it is epecially important to check "ring end gap" more so with a hyperutectic because the ring gets all the heat with these....

with a heavy vehicle or higher rpm range I would use a .025 top ring end gap and a .020 second ring end gap.... hpoefully you checked this..... A to tight ring gap can cause a slow hard start when hot ( like a dead battery or too much ignition timing)...ring gap is closed and binding...

Also when upgrading a fuel injection engine ALWAYS call JETCHIP to make sure you are going to be in the perameters of the fuel/spark map....if not you will use too much fuel...In your case being too lean....(you can tweek the map sensor for this)
The TBI injectors can be had new for 80.00 ea at Auto Zone or you can clean the ones you have....T

Originally posted by dr_bowtie
I do see a couple of things not mentioned...I will add...

When mocking up the engine it is epecially important to check "ring end gap" more so with a hyperutectic because the ring gets all the heat with these....

with a heavy vehicle or higher rpm range I would use a .025 top ring end gap and a .020 second ring end gap.... hpoefully you checked this..... A to tight ring gap can cause a slow hard start when hot ( like a dead battery or too much ignition timing)...ring gap is closed and binding...

Also when upgrading a fuel injection engine ALWAYS call JETCHIP to make sure you are going to be in the perameters of the fuel/spark map....if not you will use too much fuel...In your case being too lean....(you can tweek the map sensor for this)
The TBI injectors can be had new for 80.00 ea at Auto Zone or you can clean the ones you have....T

i need to know how you "tweek the map sensor" dr_bowtie?

once you understand how it works...it's easy....the basic...more vacuum at the map sensor the leaner the fuel ratio.... the less...the richer...how you bleed off the vacuum...is your trick..

Originally posted by dr_bowtie
once you understand how it works...it's easy....the basic...more vacuum at the map sensor the leaner the fuel ratio.... the less...the richer...how you bleed off the vacuum...is your trick..

belive me i know how it works, it a lot of ways to richen a EFI but creating a vac. leak at the map senser ant one of them. the only time you would need the extra fuel would be at WOT and you dont have any vac. then anyway.

Originally posted by DennyW
Mike, that's easy. I will order you one from the below sea level parts in the deep, which is 10,000 feet below sea level. Then, when you install this at sea level, it will lean the fuel system up. Perfect!

that'll work

Boy arent you guys just technical.....I said nothing about creating a vacuum leak...... Difference between a 1bar and 4bar map sensor .....as for how you get there you are on your own....