5 replies to this topic

[Punchy]

Howdy all,

I have my own hatch thats been squirrled away for a number of years and is busy going through the process of paint and panel.

My intended driveline was to shove my old faithful tunnel rammed 308/turbo 400 combo between the front rails of this hatch, but....

I see Come racing has the 396 rotating assemblys now.. and as all would say that have gone the strokers route, why have a 355 when you can have a 383 for almost the same money and have more power/torque to boot. !

I suppose the same analagy could be said now against that of the 383/396 upgrade... and for only an extra 300 dollars as well !!

I do have my own concerns with rod legth and rod angle for that throw etc against the short deck height of the 308 but asides all that.

Who else has tried the 396 upgrade and how much hassle was it??????



The way i'm looking at it is.
I have a 5.0 block
I'll slip some Crd Engineering 4 bolt caps into it, Studs, and line hone/bore it,
Machine and relieve the block and bores for the rotating assembly.
True and square the decks, torque plate hone, zero the deck height and o'ring the block,
Do the normal lifter gallery/cam hole oil restriction, paint the internals and grind the excess castings
Hardblok to the welch plugs - as an insurance policy for hte block grinding.

Also at this point in time, as much as i'd like to go roller camshaft, the expense is to much for the desired HP output,
so im staying flat tappet for that, some where around the 250 @ 50' 110/112 lobe centre.

Here's a sticking point. Im going to use them bloody pro comp alloy heads i bought a bunch a years ago and have had sitting in the cupboard ever since. !
( after a good close inspection etc and with that of my machinist, who seems happy with with these particular pair, they should do the job.
Im not looking for 600 hp and nor am i grinding the crap out of the heads either. Simple bowl clean up and standard ports- and thus as per the sheets the should deliver 450 hp..but combined with the cubes a very healthy torque figure.

Top that off with a harrop or Torque power manifold and a 750 dp / later changed to a EZ EFI installation / i can only hope for some torquey trouble free motoring with the same manualised turbo 400 thats has served me well to date.

But I suppose i should get away from my waffle and back to the original question...anyone tried or used the Come 396 stroker kit yet, and compared to say a 355 kit ?

Cheers

[76lxhatch]

Second hand info, but apparently the 396 is less hassle and more reliable than the 383 due to the combination and particularly the rods used.

There is a guy on the AussieV8 forum who has one with early heads in an HQ coupe which he races, he has posted quite a bit of info in various threads (user name PeterD I think)

[myss427]

Thats a lot of stroke to make 396 cubes with a 4 inch bore, Small block 400's have 4 and a eigth bore to get those cubes. Would be a very thin piston with oil ring over gudgeon, OK for a race motor but a streeter?

Edited by myss427, 09 July 2012 - 11:45 PM.

[Punchy]

Thats a lot of stroke to make 396 cubes with a 4 inch bore, Small block 400's have 4 and a eigth bore to get those cubes. Would be a very thin piston with oil ring over gudgeon, OK for a race motor but a streeter?

I would agree with you there.
I suppose as with all things, technology steps in, and with better materials being made avaliable now days to manufacture things with, its all for the par.
Yes I can only assume that the gudgeon is going to be hiding somewhere in that oil control ring area or even having taken into consideration that the ring sizes are probly 1/16 to help sneak it all up the "bore" a little more into the region of where the second ring would normally be.. With it being that much closer to the top of the piston, heat and expansion rates will have a heavier impact on gudgeon pins and piston life span including oil control/supply around the gudgeon pins
I think im going to have to ring Come and find out a little more on this assembly before commiting to it.
As much as this engine im thinking about building is to be a friday night/weekend special. I still want to be able to drive it to sydney and back if i wanted too reliably

[yel327]

It won't be a 4" bore, probably 389 or 390ci with 4" bore. I'd just go down the 377ci (3.75" stroke) road, tried and tested!

[Redslur]

A mate of mine did one recently. Went like stink and had great torque but it continually got small amounts of water in the oil. He even grout filled the block. Not sure why, he ended up selling it off.