My Comments below:
The pin height of a 383 piston is not the same as a 413 or 440 piston, so
the idea of putting a 383 piston into a raised block ( 413 - 440 ) engine
doesnt work. Yes you can bore the thing to gain the proper diameter ( a 383
and a 426 both are a stock 4.25 bore for example ) but the rest of the
equation wont work, the location of the piston pin in the piston is not the
same, and neither are the rod lengths or the strokes between a 383 and its
bigger brothers. Unless you want to cough up the dough for custom pistons or
rods, the choice is yours.
Dont blame me, Im just the messenger. Any good B/RB reference book, the
older Direct Connection - Mopar Performance stuff goes into this in depth.
413 pistons, for example, are rare yes, but not impossible to find.
Silvolite or Badger still offer them last time I looked, but dont get
suckered into using the later model truck pistons out of motorhomes unless a
compression ratio of about 7 1/2 to one turns you on.
Hello All;
From what I understand it would depend on whether you were talking about
the wrist pin height of an early 383 verses a 413. The early 383 and 361,
built between about 1958 and 1962, shared their blocks with the 413 unlike
the later 383 and the 400, but the pistons are probably just as hard to find
as the 413 ones so the arguement is pretty much moot. With bearings and
gaskets, however, you are very much in luck for an interchange.
Merry Christmas
Arran Foster
1954 Imperial Newport
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network