07/03/2026
Chevrolet never built a 383 cubic inch small-block V8. Not in 1970. Not in 1980. Not ever. The 383 stroker is not a factory engine. It's a junkyard invention that became the single most popular performance engine combination in the history of the American aftermarket.
The idea is credited to the late Joe Sherman, an engine builder who looked at Chevrolet's parts shelf and asked the question that started everything: what if you put a 400 small-block crankshaft into a 350 block?
The Chevy 400 was introduced in 1970. It had a 4.125-inch bore and a 3.750-inch stroke. 400 cubic inches from the same external dimensions as the 350. But the 400 had a problem: Siamese cylinder bores. To accommodate the larger bore, Chevrolet cast the cylinders without water passages between them. This saved space but created chronic overheating. The 400 also used larger 2.650-inch main bearing journals, different from the 350's 2.450-inch journals. Hot rodders avoided the 400 block. The cooling issues were too severe for performance applications.
Sherman's solution was elegant. Take the 400's crankshaft with its longer 3.750-inch stroke. Machine the main journals down from 2.650 to 2.450 inches so it fits the 350 block. Bore the 350 block .030 inches over, from 4.000 to 4.030 inches. Install shorter 5.565-inch connecting rods from the 400. Use 350 pistons, which happened to share the same 1.560-inch compression height as the 400 pistons, so the geometry worked. The result: 382.6 cubic inches. Rounded up to 383.
The genius wasn't just the displacement increase. It was what the longer stroke did to the torque curve. More stroke means more leverage on the crankshaft. More leverage means more torque. And that torque arrives at lower RPM than a standard 350. A 383 doesn't just make more power than a 350. It makes its power where you actually use it: at stoplight launches, highway on-ramps, and towing.
A typical street-built 383 stroker makes 400 to 450 horsepower and 430 to 450 lb-ft of torque on pump gas. More aggressive builds with performance heads, a hot camshaft, and higher compression push past 500 horsepower. Supercharged or turbocharged builds can exceed 600. All from a small-block that bolts into any chassis that accepts a standard 350. No fabrication. No adapter plates. No widened engine bays.
The reason the 383 worked so well is that parts were everywhere. The Chevy 350 is the most produced V8 in General Motors history. The 400 was built from 1970 to 1979 in enormous quantities. By the 1980s, junkyards were full of both. You could build a 383 for the cost of a crankshaft machining job and a set of pistons. Everything else came from the same parts bin. Same heads. Same intake manifolds. Same exhaust manifolds. Same accessories. Same bellhousing bolt pattern.
Today, you don't even need a junkyard. Purpose-built aftermarket 383 stroker crankshafts, connecting rods, and piston kits are available from S**t, Eagle, Lunati, and dozens of others. Complete 383 crate engines from BluePrint Engines, ATK, and even Chevrolet Performance start around $5,500 and go up to $25,000 for supercharged, turn-key builds. In 2020, Chevrolet Performance released the SP383, the factory's own take on the engine it never officially built. The SP383 uses a 4.005-inch bore and a 3.800-inch stroke to reach 382.97 cubic inches, close enough to earn the 383 badge.
The 383 stroker. Born in a junkyard. Built from two engines Chevrolet designed for completely different purposes. Never a factory option. Now the most widely built performance V8 in America. Because one engine builder looked at a 400 crankshaft and a 350 block and asked: what can this do?
