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'54 Chevy on a '77 4x4 Chassis 383 Stroker!

Grieby54

Grieby54

1/2 ton status
Joined
Jun 18, 2005
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Location
Houston, TX
Picture of my 383 Stroker

Well guys... here's the thing. I have a project that I've been working on for a while, so bear in mind I'm on a pretty LOW budget. However, when I start getting money I'll upgrade things as a I go, but as for now, I stick with what I've got if I don't need better. The project is as follows:
'54 Chevy Pickup on a '77 Chevy chassis with 4x4. 383 Stroker with 425+ hp and 475+ ft. lbs. Dana 44 up front dana 60 in the back. 35" Buckshot mudders on 15" wheels. 2" Tuff Country EZ Ride suspension and a 3" body lift (I'd go bigger suspension and no body lift but I need the body lift for body/chassis mating issues. However, it does stand taller than my '92 GMC Sierra with a 6" susp. lift and 35's.)
Ok, so here's one of my current problems... I have 3.08 gears in my Dana's right now (because that's what came stock, and as mentioned before, I live with what I have if I don't NEED something else for it to run). So I don't doubt that I can turn those 35's with my new 383 Stroker... but I'm kinda wondering how well I can turn them! With that much hp and torque do I need new gears very badly, or can I get them about a year down the road. Bear in mind that I have a 4 speed manual with Granny gear that is LOW LOW LOW, so if I'm pulling... I can do it fine, but normally I don't start out in granny when I'm driving. I'm not a retard if you're wondering. I know I need some different gears eventually, but I'm wondering if it should be higher on my priority list than it is now. So if you guys could tell me what I'll be getting with those 3.08's (gas milage, acceleration, mudding, etc...) and direct me to some CHEAP 4.10's, that'd be awesome!!! :confused:

P.S. I'm kinda new to this forum, so I'll be in and out. But my email address is [email protected]. THANKS!!! :o
 
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Just some insight from my application. I have 3.73's and 35" tires with a 4 speed SM465. She is pretty gutless but I can cruise at 75 MPH around 2600 RPM's. My K5 is driven to the trail right now. On the trail I have No problems with my setup with the granny low gear.

I would say you could wait on the gears, but you are going to be missing out on all that power from your Stroker :whistle:
 
I've got the same tranny! I had this thing running about a year ago before I decided to do a frame off. I had 28" street tires and it surprisingly tore up, and that was with a stock 350! But I was wonderind, do I need granny gear to do wheeling, or would I be ok in 2nd (first if you go by: Low, first, second, and third). Because mudding would be a pain in granny due to the fact I couldn't pick up speed to hit the holes with.
 
stallion85 said:
Just some insight from my application. I have 3.73's and 35" tires with a 4 speed SM465. She is pretty gutless but I can cruise at 75 MPH around 2600 RPM's. My K5 is driven to the trail right now. On the trail I have No problems with my setup with the granny low gear.

I would say you could wait on the gears, but you are going to be missing out on all that power from your Stroker :whistle:
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By gustless, do you mean due to your gears, or just because your engine is gutless? Would the 383 do better?
 
I think he means that you will get more benifit from your set up with different gears then what you got now.. With your 3.08 gears and the 465 your running you will not see any real performance out of your 383 like you would if you had 4.11 gears.. Yes you might do better with your 383 vs 350 with that set up but your not going to get maximum results with out changing gears.. You will get alot more low RPM tourque out of your motor with 4.11 then you will with the 3.08 gears you got now.. You will also see alot less on your take off speed 0-60 with 3.08..

Can you run the gears you got ? YES

Are you going to be happy with the results ? NO

I can understand not wanting to change gears right away do to other things you might need.. So here is my 2 cents.. Get your truck put together where you feel comfortable with it's reliabilty.. Once you get most of the bugs worked out and your ready to start wheeling it a little bit then move to things like performance and other modifications you want to do..

Oh yeah 1 more thing we need to see some pics of that truck.. :D
 
Grieby54 said:
By gustless, do you mean due to your gears, or just because your engine is gutless? Would the 383 do better?
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Due to gears my truck is gutless. My 350 has a mild cam and a fresh rebuild, which I would assume would have some more balls if I had the right gearing. Wheeling in the rocks is no problem with me. Now the mud might be a different story, I have no experience with mudding though.......
 
Well, in the first post I made, there's a link to my 383. My body is off being sand blasted and primered, then off to get body work, the we assemble it. But in the mean time, rolling chassis is the game. More pics will come!

So now that I feel pretty sure new gears are a must, I need to find some decent ones for cheap!
 
A lot of people won't agree with this but if you are looking for cheap find a set of used gears. since 4.11's were a stock gear set you can find them that have been swapped out for lower aftermarket gears. Several years ago I got a good set of used gears for a D60 from Jeff's Bronco Graveyard on the north side of Houston.
 
Grieby54 said:
My body is off being sand blasted and primered, then off to get body work, the we assemble it.
Click to expand...

I assume you have friends that are blasting/primering/body workin your rig for free. If not, it doesn't sound like you're on a tight budget at all. Generally, when someone on ck5 says "I'm on a tight budget" it means that body work consists of bashing out dents of a hammer until they are "good enough" (read: pretty ugly) and using rattle can paint.

anyway, i concur with the 3/4 ton axle swap idea. Gets you the gears you want. If you just bought the danas then you should have a pretty good idea what they are worth and shouldn't have a problem selling them to someone else. ;) if you'd rather not swap gears, you could lurk pirate4x4.com's axles/tires and misc FS forums... people sell used gears there sometimes and 4.10s shouldn't be toooo hard to get considering how many people over there want 4.56, 5.13, 5.38 etc. If you want a grear price on new gears, go to the vendor forum over on pirate and look for the post by CCOR. I am getting my 5.13s from them... and they quoted the lowest shipped price I have seen in 2 years of gear price-watching...

j
 
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Would be doing it myself, but I'm trying to make this truck show quality and trail durable. But we've got an industrial place doing it cheap, and yes, the bodywork is free! I made a straight six engine swap for the body work, so hopefully, this guy is worth it (He made the McDonalds shoe car... so I think so). :dunno:
 
cool beans. Its always a good deal when you can trade for skilled labor! :)

not sure how long the show truck but trail ready thing will last tho... trees and rocks sometimes have a different idea of how a 4x4 should look. ;)

j
 
True that, I had a purty little 92 that a ditch decided needed a bent frame! But this one would pretty much only see the mud, so there wouldn't be too much damage to the body or anything, maybe some drivetrain but that's no problem. Even if the body takes damage, I can repair it. I can do a little bit of painting. :rolleyes:
 
Hey Grieby54 I got a question for you.. What all have you done to that motor to get 425 h.p and 475 ft out of it ?

I have considered building a 383 myself and was wandering what your parts list was ?
 
I'm not at home right now but I'll get out the specs sheet and list all the things done to it. It wasn't cheap though, but it sure is nice. But I'll get back to you on that at about 6 today.
 
hyper pistions, roller cam, perf. springs, roller lifter, hardened retainers, HB oil pump, steel finned oil pump shaft, molly rings, 1,6 roller top rockers, double roller T chain, ARP rod bolts, 8 1/4 blancer, vertec airgap intake, pin rocher studs, 50,000 volt coil and distributor, bronze distributor gear, Avenger 770 carb.

This is what he wrote on my reciept... an I can barely read his writing. :thinking: So yea... that's all the stuff!
 
How much $ have you got in it total ?

How do you know it is making that kind of horsepower and torque ?

You said it has never been in the truck yet so I'm just wondering.. :confused:
 
Well... the original quote was $600... but after ordering all the extras including distributor, oil pan, carb, etc... it bumped up a wee bit to 2,700 hence my tight budget now. Did I mention I'm 17 and in some HUGE debt to my parents. As for how I know the hp and torque... the guy who rebuilt it has done a nearly identical setup and has gotten those numbers, but says I'll do better since the block is a ZZ4 which pushed out 355 hp and torque BEFORE I even touched it... needless to say I got a good start. So hopefully... I'll be putting out bigger numbers than originally expected. :pimp:
 
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