To finish off our stroker's cooling system, we source a water pump from Milodon. The company sells this PN 16200 high-volume unit for $95.31. To save a few bucks, we're using a steel water pump in lieu of aluminum (while there's a weight difference, it isn't as significant as if we were talking about iron cylinder heads).
Our water pump bolts up front using the provided gaskets and our ARP water pump bolt kit. Also while up here, we turn the crank over so that the timing mark on our balancer shows the firing position for cylinder number one (watch the valves move to ensure you are not at the top of the exhaust stroke instead).
We're ready to bolt our valve covers on. The best way to go is not actually to bolt, but to stud. Valve cover studs like our Milodon units are inexpensive and make installing the valve covers far simpler-they'll line up the covers and help prevent the gaskets from slipping out of place. Just be sure to use some threadlocker to prevent them from backing out should you ever need to take the valve covers off. After torquing the covers down (don't overtighten or you'll squeeze the gaskets out of place), we pop on our locally sourced breathers (not shown).
We grabbed a set of MSD PN 3565 Heli-Core wires for $64.46 as well as a value-laden Street Fire HEI distributor for $159.99 (PN 8362). This distributor is a coil-in-cap style and features quick-and-easy wiring, as well as an adjustable vacuum advance system (via an Allen wrench).
After liberally lubricating the distributor gear with the provided break-in lube, the distributor is installed. It's best to have the distributor cap removed while doing this, as it will help you roughly locate where you want your No. 1 spark plug wire to connect once the cap is on. We mark the distributor housing where the rotor ends up, and, after taking this photo, install the distributor cap and mark our corresponding No. 1 plug wire terminal location. We then secure our distributor using a locally sourced hold-down clamp and bolt. Since we're roughly at the No. 1 firing position, our engine should fire with only slight adjustments to distributor twist.
Our choice to feed this 383 will be a tried-and-true Holley 750-cfm four-barrel carburetor. This particular street/strip model carries PN 0-4779C and retails for $565. Features include dual fuel feed inlets and metering blocks, mechanical secondaries with dual accelerator pumps, Power Valve blowout protection, and a manual choke.
One of the final items we need to tidy up is final tightening of our ARP crank bolt (an item we showed you last time). Use threadlocker on this sucker to make sure it doesn't come out. We install spark plugs in our Powerhouse heads to allow the cylinders to build compression and prevent the engine from turning over while doing so.
Unless you have an engine build stand that affords a bunch of room in the back, you'll need to get the engine off of it before installing the flexplate or flywheel. After bolting the engine into a nifty little rolling cradle we grabbed from Summit, we install our Powerhouse flexplate using the ARP bolt kit we showed you last time. Threadlocker (the red stuff) is important here as well, and make sure you have the balance weight facing forward and the extra hole in the flexplate aligned with the extra hole in the crank (here you can see it at the 10 o'clock position). That'll do it for our engine assembly, so it's time to load this 383 into the back of the official Super Chevy minivan and head to the dyno!