$454

[Truck Shop]

Took that 383 apart today--well the top end anyway. The amazing part--very little sludge
of any kind--rather clean for a never apart 54 year old engine. And the bore has .0015
wear--measured 4.253, std is 4.250 and for the fact added clearance it probably left the
factory at 4.2515. But I found the reason for the great care it was given--most on here
might not have been born yet. It had a top of the line oil filter--couldn't buy a better
filter for $1.59 back then--sometime before they went bankrupt.
*

 

[Dom]

Any idea when it last ran or had a oil change? Before my time for sure.

 

[Truck Shop]

Any idea when it last ran or had a oil change? Before my time for sure.

Coast to Coast went under in 1990, so at least 30 years ago.

 

[Truck Shop]

So number on right side pan rail--1B105531, 1B means it was built 1971 at the Hamtramack
plant, and it came in a Barracuda or Challenger, it didn't come in a A body car, no big blocks
were installed in those in 1971.
But it has very little cylinder wear, and the steel crank is in decent shape. Plus it came with
Chryslers hottest cam in those years, the 574 Purple cam. And 346 heads with 1.74 exhaust
valves.

 

[Truck Shop]

Interesting history about Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth.
*

https://www.allpar.com/d3/corporate/dodge-main.html

 

[Truck Shop]

Should fit great in a cat 305.22 mini excavator--.

 

[Welder Dave]

Wasn't Carol Shelby's dual supercharged Cobra Super Snake that sold for $5mil. 800 HP? The other one scared Bill Cosby so much he gave it back. Probably not a surprise when another driver killed himself and totaled it. I was driving beside a Cobra kit car yesterday and they would be scary with 300 HP. They aren't a big car. I was reading about Dick Smith who was the winningest Cobra driver. He said you steered the car with the throttle!

 

[Old Doug]

I don't want to get into a big deal about what brand was the best or worst but a lot of muscle cars back then didn't have the best front end setup and the more frame they had the better I felt about them.

 

[Truck Shop]

Wasn't Carol Shelby's dual supercharged Cobra Super Snake that sold for $5mil. 800 HP?

Problem is it's all covered by writers for car mags and very few will agree on the same thing.
Same with cycle magazines. Plus even supercharged back then 800 hp was really up there
and on the edge, top fuel was only 2,400 hp at that time for guys at top level.

 

[Truck Shop]

383 varnish beast--varnish covered crank, rods/pistons.
*

 

[Truck Shop]

And cylinder bores are just about perfect condition after running a flex hone through them.
Crank is perfect condition all measuring on the low side of tolerances, bearings were all in
very nice condition, not a one was showing any scuffing or copper showing. The 383 was
Chryslers best engine for the fact Chrysler never had any issues with it through out it's
production span.

 

[Truck Shop]

Interesting day, there is a car I've seen for the past five years on rare occasions cruising
along the road that I travel to the shop on, I saw it out today. After I left the shop I had
to run a errand to the grocery store and here was that same car parked out front. I
recognized the guy driving it when I was behind him at check out. {Nice car you have}
Oh yeah thanks it's a great car. {Hard to find one of those, how long have you had it?}
I bought it about six years ago up in Pullman. {You buy it from a women named so & so?}.
Strange look--Yes I did do you know her? {Yeah--I expect it runs good?} Boy does it, lots
of power--runs like a watch. {Your looking at the guy who rebuilt that car from front to back,
it belonged to my EX father in law}.
*

 

[Welder Dave]

What are the odds of that happening?? I bet the car is worth a pretty penny today. Not surprising it runs like a watch. We've seen your attention to detail that I'd suspect was instilled in you at a very early age. My dad said to always do the best you can and don't cut corners.

 

[Truck Shop]

Not really a high valued car, 10 to 14 thousand is about all. I don't think it's all that odd,
other than it landed here, most of those years of Toronado have met the end of the road
by being turned into gladiator/demo cars. I've had an idea it was the same Toro because
of local and color plus the odd fact there were about half as many 1967,s built as the first
year production 1966 models. IIRC 1966 was in the 40k's and 1967 was a little over 20K.
But the one above had a very rare option, ducting for rear seat air conditioning.
*
Actually people who have never ridden in or drove one of the first four year models have
a large tendency to think it was a boat and probably handled like one. Which is far from
fact. Those were powered by one of the toughest big blocks ever built-the 425 cu.in.
rated at 385 HP and 490 ft lbs torque. That blue one above would light the front tires
at the drop of a hat. With nothing more than a better set of gas shocks and the factory
front and rear sway bars it cornered real well. And it's stopping distance was shorter
than most. With a final ratio of 2.90 it had a top speed of very close to 140 mph.
It weighed less than people think 4,300 lbs compared to allot of other cars at the time
that weighed in excess of 5,000 lbs. The transmission was a massive chain driven from
torque converter to actual trans was a Turbo 400 with final mounted on rear of trans
case--it was named the TH425.
*
Funny story to go with that engine I rebuilt in that Toronado. When I got done with it
and test run--it had low vacuum and lousy bottom end it would really go once rpm
climbed at about 70 up, plus it had a rumpity idle. I called Jerry at Delta Camshaft in
Tacoma. He laughed and asked where I got the parts from and brand, it was all
Michigan brand parts. I told him the cam part number-{Jerry-Michigan never changed
the part # that cam is for a 455 HO in a 442, send it over and I will recut the profile
for the oem cam that engine came from factory with}. So I had to R&R the radiator,
front & top of that 425 and send it off to Tacoma Cam. It ran real well afterwards.

 

[Welder Dave]

The front wheel drive concept proved to be very stout. It was the basis for the GM motorhomes that were state of the art. Could have a completely flat floor without tunnel for a transmission. A lot of people wished GM had kept building the motorhomes.

 

[Truck Shop]

The front wheel drive concept proved to be very stout. It was the basis for the GM motorhomes that were state of the art. Could have a completely flat floor without tunnel for a transmission. A lot of people wished GM had kept building the motorhomes.

The only weird issue any of those type FWD cars had was massive engine compartment heat.
The way exhaust ran with a hump over the trans on left side added allot of heat. Because there
was no tunnel air was somewhat trapped. Plus you really didn't want to use the standard shop
cherry picker to remove engine, engine & trans came out as a unit, very heavy.

 

[Dom]

I read about those cars.GM has a habit of stopping production just when they work out all the bugs in a new concept.
It was certainly made to be a GT, not a sports car.

 

[Truck Shop]

Bought the last two steel shim factory head gaskets for a 383 dodge, At least these are the
only two on the web for sale at this time. But there no aftermarket steel shims except in
stainless and those were too thick. Trying compression at oem level and Fel-Pro were too
thick at .039 compressed these are .020. Ordered everything standard.
*

 

[Truck Shop]

It was certainly made to be a GT, not a sports car.

America always had trouble defining a sports car, their idea was the trunk had to be able
to hold 16 cases of beer, even the Corvette at least early 70's you could cram 4 cases behind
the seats. The British decided it was sportier to have a luggage rack to carry the pints.

 

[laidback01]

the only rigs I've ever done much with are the Dodge 5.2 Magnum - 318 with roller rockers and efi, and a Jeep with the 4.0 6 cylinder. Never got to play with the cool kid stuff. oh well.