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383 Cylinder Head Choice  
CRushER
New User | Posts: 16 | Joined: 08/05
Posted: 08/04/06
07:49 PM

Hey guys,

I am in the process (been a long process too!) of building a 383 engine for my 71 nova. I bored the engine 30 over to clean it up. I am attempting to figure out which aftermarket aluminum heads I should buy for it based upon the cam I am using and the compression ratio I am aiming for. I am using the comp cam's Xtreme Energy 274H hydraulic flat tappet with 230/236 and .487/490 lift. I will probably want to use 1.6 rocks so that must be taken into consideration too. With 1.6 rockers the lift goes to around .523. I am aiming for high 9's to 10:1 at the most because I want to run it on 91 pump gas. I may, in the far future, add a shot of nos to it. No more than a 125hp shot though. That is in the future of course.

I read carcraft's article on calculating compression ratio and followed it assuming I have a .015 deck height and a 4.125 bore headgasket with a compression thickness of .039. Here are my results with a broad range of cyclinder head sizes:

76cc = 9.692
74cc = 9.889
72cc = 10.095
70cc = 10.311
68cc = 10.538
66cc = 10.776
64cc = 11.026

I have been looking at a set of afr's with 195 intake ports and 74 cc chambers. Also, I have been looking at brodix. What heads do you guys reccomend I get? I am going to run an edelbrock performer rpm air gap manifold and I havn't decided on the carb size yet. I would guess 650cfm-750cfm.

Another concern I have is straight or angled plugs. I was talking to another owner of a nova that had angled plug heads and he told me he had to find special headers for them to clear the spark plug because of the nova's small engine area. Also, any performance difference?

I know its alot of information and I apologize for that, but there are as many choices for sbc heads as there is candy at the store.

Thanks in advance,
Dennis
 

 
AmericanMuscle13
Enthusiast | Posts: 534 | Joined: 09/03
Posted: 08/04/06
08:07 PM

If you can afford them, AFR makes some of the best heads on the market.  I'd run straight plug if it were me.

Mitch "I'm a Mean Machine, Drinking Gasoline and Honey you can make my motor run"-Guns and Roses
 

 
GibTG
Guru | Posts: 917 | Joined: 08/03
Posted: 08/04/06
08:53 PM

Has your block been decked? Most aftermarket pistons are designed to be .020-.025" in the hole @TDC with the "blueprint" chevy deck height of 9.025". That .010 can make about .2 of a point sway in your calculations. If you really want to be picky to you should cc the "eyebrows" in your pistons if you are using flat tops as I have found they are usually larger than they are advertised at (at least with cheaper piston companies) you can also figure in about a cc or 2 for the crevice volume, and as long as you get a good aftermarket head with accurate com chamber volumes you will have a very accurate compression ratio calc.

The Trick Flow 195's are also a good option for this engine. RHS I'm sure has something for you as well but the advantage with them is not power production from the ports but getting them assembled with beehive springs, but one could argue that you don't need them for this mild cam.











 

                                                                                      ~Gibs

 

 
CRushER
New User | Posts: 16 | Joined: 08/05
Posted: 08/05/06
09:44 AM

The block I got was a virgin 350 4bolt main.  I then punched it out to 30 over and no the block hasn't been decked yet.  Are 195's for the intake port wouldn't be too big would it?  Some people suggest using 180's for this engine, but I think im going to go with 195's incase I ever want to put in a bigger cam later on.  As long as my CR is close to 10:1 I will be a happy boy.  Thnx for the info on the deck height.  


 
GibTG
Guru | Posts: 917 | Joined: 08/03
Posted: 08/05/06
01:58 PM

Decked YET? Hopefully this block was bored on a machine that bores off of the mains. Conventional boring bars bore off of the deck, so poor tolerance factory decks can cause the bores to be not as straight as possible. If I may also ask, was your block bored with a torqueplate?

If you decide not to have the deck blocked make sure to use a dial indicatior and check the distance the pistons are in the hole at top dead center, hopefully your block isn't tall otherwise your piston could easily be .030" in the hole and this will effect your quench and compression ratio.

Port volume isn't nearly as important as the limiting cross-sectional area. This area should be at the pushrod "pinch". The best you can do without a flowbench is estimate the limiting port velocity (LPV) with a formula like this...

Required Port Cross-Sectional Area (CSA)= Bore x Bore x Stroke x .00353 x maximum RPM/614

Then ask the manufacturers for the CSA's of their heads and see what you find, don't worry if their CSA's are a little smaller or a little larger than this formula states, it is just a guideline and the shape of the individual port can effect the LPV.

I encourage you to take a look at this dyno test by ChevyHighPerformance Mag that I talked up at the Hot Rod boards...

Post #136937 here...
http://forums.hotrod.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=36990&page=0&fpart=all&vc=1

and

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/tech/engines_drivetrain/cams_heads_valvetrain/0606ch_cylinder_head_performance_test/











 

                                                                                      ~Gibs

 

 
burningsuqirrels
New User | Posts: 8 | Joined: 08/06
Posted: 08/09/06
03:48 AM

angle plugs have been shown to have no real improvement over straight plugs.


i got angle plugs, and if i had done more research, i would have gotte nstraight plugs. basically, with angle plugs, my header choices were narrowed down to about two that were the only ones under $300 on my nova. i ended up with hedman hustlers. nice headers, but it just kind of blew having so few (or one) choice.

 

 
nosnerd
User | Posts: 104 | Joined: 04/05
Posted: 08/11/06
11:05 AM

a great value is the Eddy E-tech 200......great runners...


 


 


nosnerd


but you will need to change manifolds......

 

 
jalamon
New User | Posts: 10 | Joined: 07/06
Posted: 08/25/06
02:36 PM

Tests I've seen always show AFR heads flowing the best, but they cost more too.  The TrickFlow 195s are a good price at Summit.  They have angled plugs, but I had no problem using them with standard Hooker Competition headers on a '68 Camaro.  


 
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