Best 383 heads/cam suggestions

[brickyard69]

I am building a 383 with a Eagle rotating assembly 10.7:1 all forged with a manual trans and a 373 rear. Mainly street driven and I am shooting for 450 hp. I am not running any accessories and I want a nice lope to the cam.

I am thinking of three different heads:

1. Edelbrock RPM with RPM cam

2. Trick flow with trick flow cam

3. Dart Pro 1 with ? cam

My concern is that #1 and #2 do not have large enough runners (180/190) vs the 215 on the Dart.

I have also heard the Edelbrock cam may not be a good choice. I was choosing it due to being able to order the "top end kit" for the Edelbrock and Trick flow.

Any ideas/suggestions/recommendations?

Steve

[6'9"Witha69]

What type of cam? Hyd, Hyd Roller, Solid, Solid Roller? How much chop at idle? Are you running vacuum power brakes?

On the heads I love the Dart Pro 1s. I got em. Good heads.

I would say a cam in the 290-300 adv. duration range with a 110 LSA would work well and give you power for those heads.

[Lowend]

I run a very similar setup with the RPM heads and a custom ground Crower cam (on small base circle)
232/242 @050 .500/.518 lift 110LS 4 deg advanced
The engine easilty makes 450HP and has over 400 ft/lbs of torque from 2000-6000RPM

[brickyard69]

1. The Edelbrock RPM cam is: 234/244 with 488/510 hydraulic

There are two Trickflow setups: Same heads

#1. 420 hp 228/234 with 480/494 hydraulic
#2. 445 hp 246/254 with 558/558 hydraulic roller

I assume I could use #2 with the retrofitted rollers correct?

Which one would use choose?

I am running manual trans and manual brakes.

[Lowend]

The Edelbrock cam has some very lazy ramp rates... never liked it much or had very good results.

Trick Flow... well looking at cam #1, is pretty lazy too. Cam #2, eh nothing special. I don't like that the intake and exhaust lift are the same.
On most street motors a little extra duration and lift on the exhaust side will help counteract the poor flowing exhaust port

[brickyard69]

One more option (staying with Edelbrock due to top end pkg available) is the E-tec set up.

E-tec with hydraulic roller 234/238 with 539/548 and 112/107 lap.

What do you think of this combo?

Any help finding the best head/cam combo would be appreciated. I am confussed on what to do.

Steve

[rocketman]

You need to look for heads that are aleast 210's,And a cam with aleast 236 dur.Cams like 224-230 or 230/236 tend to be lazy in a 383.A 236-242 dur cam is where I would start,with 112 centerline for a nice lope or a 110 for more a hard hitting lope.

[trackrat79]

Brodix race rite 200. And a comp extream energy 284. If the motor is mostly going to see street duty you don't need huge intake runners. The nice thing about the race rite 200's is that the sets you get from summit or jegs are cnc'd and matched ports and chambers for about 1300 bucks assembled. Go to http://chevyhiperformance.com and look through some of thier 383 engine build ups. They have a lot of good 383 combos, from total street duty to all track. They also have a cylinder head database so you can compare flow numbers and determine what heads would be best for your aplication.

[Lowend]

There is no magic in the Edelbrock "packages". Edelbrock farms out the cam's from Melling. Forget the RPM package, forget the SystemMax package... you need a package for your specific combo

[rocketman]

I use alot of brodix and afr heads,The shop I workout of use a dart heads but I am not a big fan of them.I highly recommend Comp for the cam and valvetrain,I have never had problem with standing behind there stuff.

[brickyard69]

I just got done reading an article on Comp Cams web-site about a 383 they assisted in building. The cam used was the hydraulic roller XR 288HR-10.

It specs out at:

236/242 and 520/540 with 110 degrees

The cam/head (TFS) package produces excess of 510hp.

Any ideas/suggestions about either of these cams?

Also, the other cam I was considering was the XE 284H-10
240/246 and 507/510 with 110. Hydraulic flat tappet.

Thanks

[harshman]

so far this is the one to beat. (http://www.strokerengine.com/CH383afr.html)

[USAZR1]

Thanks for posting that link. I keep going back & forth between a 383 and a 427. It's beginning to dawn on me that the huge cost difference doesn't justify the extra hp of the 427. $2500 for a Dart block kinda puts the hurt on my budget.

[brickyard69]

What about those cam choices?

Anyone

[Scott Parkhurst]

so far this is the one to beat. (http://www.strokerengine.com/CH383afr.html)

Not quite.

http://www.compcams.com/Community/Articles/Details.asp?ID=1945664039

Mine made more on 87-octane.

~SP~

[brickyard69]

I appreciate the article. There a few things I took away from it.

I have decided though to go with Dart Pro One 215 heads set up for roller cam and the Comp cams and probally the XR288HR-10 (236/242 @.05 and 520/540 lift with 110 degrees.

If anyone else has any other suggestions I would be open.

I am using the internally balanced Eagle kit with cast crank, 5140 6" rods, and 11.0:1 forged SRP pistons.

[Scott Parkhurst]

I appreciate the article. There a few things I took away from it.

I have decided though to go with Dart Pro One 215 heads set up for roller cam and the Comp cams and probally the XR288HR-10 (236/242 @.05 and 520/540 lift with 110 degrees.

If anyone else has any other suggestions I would be open.

I am using the internally balanced Eagle kit with cast crank, 5140 6" rods, and 11.0:1 forged SRP pistons.

You're very much on track. An Air Gap intake with a 750-800 cfm carb would be perfect (I run my Demon RS with the 775cfm green sleeves) unless you're opting for EFI.

You should see solid HP and TQ figures for this engine, and if you use internal engine coatings (especially on the piston tops, chambers, ports, and valves) you'll help keep detonation at bay.

Headers should be 1.75-inch primaries (for top end) or 1 5/8-inch (for more low end response). Personally, I think you'll have more power than tire, so I'd opt for the fatter pipes and get more power you can use up there. You'll still have plenty of grunt to hurl the car around at low rpm. Get a good valvetrain setup (look into Crane's shaft-mounted setup) and have no fear spinning to 7,000 where that cam likes to make peak power.

Make sure you've got a good oil pan (Milodon or Moroso). Baffles, windage tray, and a scraper will all serve you well.

I wouldn't spray it though. The high compression and that cast crank won't like much juice. You should have plenty of power without it, but you'll get used to it and probably get greedy later. If you do, run race gas (to avoid detonation) and don't go much past a 100-horse shot.

Have fun with it. 383s rock.

~SP~

[USAZR1]

I appreciate the article. There a few things I took away from it.
I have decided though to go with Dart Pro One 215 heads set up for roller cam and the Comp cams and probally the XR288HR-10 (236/242 @.05 and 520/540 lift with 110 degrees.
If anyone else has any other suggestions I would be open.
I am using the internally balanced Eagle kit with cast crank, 5140 6" rods, and 11.0:1 forged SRP pistons.

Sounds like your combo will really like to rev. If it were me,I would spend a little more on a forged crank.

[brickyard69]

Thanks guys,

I probally will pop for the forged crank and 4340 rods. Its $1600 balanced and shipped.

Do you think that cam will be ok in the lower RPM range?

Steve

[Scott Parkhurst]

My cam is only a bit larger, but it's a solid vs. your choice of a hydraulic. Check the dyno chart on the link to mine to see where power comes in- yours will be similar...hell, your whole engine is similar. Your smaller cam and it's hydraulic llifters will probably offer more vacuum at idle and start pulling a bit earlier. It may also finish a bit earlier, but I doubt it. I'm sure yours should pull up to 6,400-plus like mine does. 6,500 is a great shift point. Shifting earlier is hardly a penalty though...your torque curve will be flat enough to keep you happy even 1,000 rpm lower.

~SP~

[SStrokerAce]

Scott has some good advice.... I'm not a fan of AFR heads over the years, but then again I don't run a head that doesn't have porting done to it, and most times its not CNC work.

One thing if you are not in a hurry to look at in terms of heads is wait on the new Dart Pro 1's. They are basically making the platinum Iron Eagles in Aluminum as a update to the Pro 1 heads. Those heads will be KILLER to start from. A good buddy of mine who has to remain nameless is a big fan of those heads.

As far as a cam goes. A hyd roller would be the way to go, with 2.05-2.08 valves you are still going to want some lift (.550"+) to get the most out of the motor but you don't need a lot of LSA or a lot of duration to make the setup killer. I have a lot of guys in the mid 400's rwhp and running some sick times with 4000+ boats and f-bodys with shafts like this.

The RPM Air Gap is a killer intake, i'm still partcial to single planes because I like to concentrate on the 4000-6500 span more than the lower RPM because 1500-4000rpm can be taken care of with the right cam and compression. Either way a dual plane can always make more TQ thru that span of the RPM range, especially if you overcam and under compression the motor. Which I see 95% of the time.

Bret

[brickyard69]

What about the 220cc offset intake valve heads from Jegs.

They have 1.550 springs-1.875 install height with 240# seat pressure.

They also hace 2.100 intake valves and 1.6 exhaust.

Any ideas on these?

[SStrokerAce]

Do you want to run a solid of hyd cam? They are the Canfied heads and are nice heads, but right now I really think that the new Dart stuff is about as good as you can get for standard runner 23° stuff.

Bret