Chevy 383 Stroker - Takin' Care Of Business

With the crank torqued in place, a dial indicator was attached to the front of the block and set on the crank's snout to determine its endplay. A slight push and pull of the crank with a screwdriver is all it takes to get the needle to move. No excess here!

With the crank and cam in place, the next step was to align the two with a precision timing gear set. Lunati's timing set comes with a multi-slot crankshaft gear to allow advance and retard of the camshaft.

Here we reached top dead center (TDC) after installing one piston and rod combination on the crank, and using a dial indicator to determine when it had reached the top of its rotation. Note the large degree wheel bolted to the end of the crank. This gave us the correct relationship of the cam, crank and piston/rod assembly in terms of degrees.

One extremely critical step in the blueprint process is determining the correct ring end gap. This clearance is determined by many factors such as cylinder pressure, type of cylinder wall finish and anticipated use (street, track, etc.). The desired ring end gap is set using this cool machine as shown. It's a time consuming process, but it's part of going the extra mile to achieve your goal.

Once the pistons were locked, cocked, and ready to rock the Lunati rings were put on. This is where a good set of hands-or a special tool-is useful.

A dedicated billet aluminum spring compressor is a must for serious engine building. It's also a tool that is right at home in the casual assembler. There are stories told of those who have broken rings and searched days for a replacement, leaving the engine half-assembled in its wake. The key is a swift, sharp blow with the end of a dead-blow hammer.

After all the pistons were in place, Dave used a feeler gauge to check between each pair of rods to determine the correct clearance.

Dave assembled the Lunati 8.5:1 compression ratio forged pistons onto the trick Lunati H-beam rods using a two-piece spiral lock to retain the wrist pin. Again, a slow process, but the full-floating assembly equals better power.

A nice billet aluminum timing cover was used to cover the timing chain and gears, along with the Professional Products crank dampener. The B&B billet timing pointer was also installed. ARP nuts, bolts, and studs were used to assemble this all-star team, as well as the rest of the engine.

Since the engine is going to operate under high combustion pressures, tight sealing Loc-Wire head gaskets were used. The Holley heads were cut with receiver grooves to accept the Loc-Wire gaskets.

With the gaskets in place it was time for the Holley aluminum cylinder heads to be installed. Note the use of high-quality ARP studs instead of standard bolts. With a blown engine, it's imperative to keep the cylinder heads sealed and head studs do a better job than bolts.

The Lunati hydraulic roller lifters were lubed up and installed. followed by a set of chrome-moly Lunati pushrods.

In order to let the supercharged engine breath Lunati 1.6 ratio aluminum roller rocker arms were installed on the exhaust side, while standard 1.5 ratio rockers found their way above the intake valve. Lunati lock nuts were used to keep the rockers from going off their rockers.

The Fel-Pro gaskets were put in place and the Weiand intake manifold was installed. Get this, that's powdercoated not polished!

The ATI Procharger centrifugal supercharger was installed next, but first the mounting plate was powdercoated to match the rest of the engine. Cool blue, Bob!

The Holley carburetor built by The Carb Shop was installed on the manifold, as well as the Procharger hat.

A few pieces of true blue silicone hose and stainless steel clamps were used to plumb all the parts of the D1 SC Procharger together.

Check out the finished product! We'll bet you're anxious to see if it performs as good as it looks? Check out next month's issue for the results.