Just want to find out about this block I have. It is a 1977 350 4 bolt main truck block. I built a 388" stroker (.030 over bore, 3.80 stroke, 5.7" rods). When I went to preassemble it to see where I had to grind everything had good clearence! I assembled it with no clearancing, put a supercharger on it and ran it for one season at the strip turning 11.70's. I then disassembled it and it has been in my basement for about 5 years now. Anyone else had a block that needed no grinding to build a 383 (or bigger)? It is even more amazing to me to add another five hundreths stroke and still have good clearances. Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience with the same year of block or years around it. Maybe we can find a pattern of good stroker blocks and blocks that would not be so good for strokers. :bowtie:

I think Damon or Doug Jaynes put together a 3.75" stroke that required no block clearancing. I've never been been so lucky but your not the first.

Yep, same deal with me. Never saw one like that before or since. Drop the stroker in and everything cleared without ANY grinding. Mine's only a 2-bolt though.

It had me worried the block might be some kind of weak light weight casting, but I've blowin it up once since then and still no damage to the block. Go figure.

The real crazy thing is it's the exact same casting number as the block I had previously used this exact same rotating assembly in (which was a 4-bolt block). The first one required the usual grinding, this one didn't. Very odd. Still no idea why this one is different than the last one.

Id love to hear the specifics on the rotating assemblies.

Specs were:

3.80" Scat stroker crank

.030 JE Ultralight forged pistons (Since sold to a member here).

Stock 5.7 rods with ARP bolts and comp cams blower cam

Nothing unusual. I did not balance the engine and it never felt right from the day I first fired it up. It ran excellent and seemed strong, it just "vibrated" more than I thought it should. I tore it down after one season of racing and the bearings were trashed as hell. I seriously dont think I would have gotten 5 more passes out of it and the crank was trashed to. This is why the engine has sat in my basement. I am 95% sure the damage was from not being balanced and it being under boost but the 5% tells me I should have the block completely checked over before using it again.

I used a cheapie cast 383 crank from somewhere- maybe Summit. Reused an old set of stock 5.7 rods with ARP Waveloc bolts. I've used several sets of pistons with these parts, but none of them had any clearance issues with the crank throws so I doubt they would make much difference. Like Manifoldsrme, nothing special.