396 Parts

Block - LT1 (of course).  Bored 0.030" over, honed, line-bored and honed (necessary with new main caps), clearanced for stroker crank, painted inside with Rustoleum and outside with Dupli-Color engine paint.

Crank - For a budget 383, it's possible to find cast 3.75" cranks.  There isn't a cast 396 (3.875") crank on the market (as of Oct. 2001), and so it's necessary to get a forged crank.  While moden cast cranks are very strong, forged cranks become a good idea at about 500 HP in a SBC.  Fortunately, Cola offers a line of budget forged cranks that are relatively inexpensive ($750) and very high-quality.  I had to wait 19 weeks for my crank, supposedly due to Cola's need to fill some demand for GM aftermarket parts.  Whatever the reason, the wait really sucked, and my vendor (Doug Herbert Performance) really got the run-around from Cola during this time.  The part really was worth the wait, but I probably would order a Callies next time as they keep their parts in stock.

Rods - The stock SBC rod ratio isn't all that great, and I didn't want to make it any worse.  The stock rod length is 5.7", but 6" rods are now available for reasonable prices.  I got Eagle's H-beam rods that provide extra clearance for stroker motors.  They come with ARP rod bolts, and have a bushed small end for full-floating piston pins.  Other rods may cause problems with cam clearance, so it's probably a good idea to call the manufacturer for info before buying rods.

Pistons - There's no budget pistons available for a 396 build-up.  I picked up the JE/SRP forged pistons for this application.  They're very nice parts (way too pretty to actually install in an engine), and forged pistons add just a bit of extra insurance against detonation-induced damage.  If you go with the 6" rod, you'll be stuck with flat-top pistons, as there's just not much room above the piston pin for a dish.  This means that the resultant compression ratio is going to require some close attention, least things get a bit too "squeezed".

Bearings - Clevite 77H.  These were spec'ed by my machine shop, and seem to carry a very good reputation.  The fitting of the correct size bearing is more important than the brand, though.

Main bearing caps - Milodon 4-bolt splayed caps.  These provide a bit of extra support to the bottom end, and are a good idea on higher-revving engines.  They're certainly not required for a stroker build-up, but they're not bad insurance.

Rings - Speed-Pro file-fit "plasma-moly".  Moly rings break-in very quickly and provide a good seal.  The file-fit rings allow close fitting of the rings to the bores.  I used the Summit ring filer to fit the rings, and it's worth the $25 - using a hand file seems like a good way to break a ring or two.  The oil ring expander that's provided with this ring set is very difficult to install incorrectly, and that's worth the price of the rings in itself (many expander types can be installed with the ends overlapped, which gives no support to the oil rings and therefore causes a huge oil control problem).

Heads - LT4.  These castings are pretty good out of the box, offer some very nice stock valves, and have greater potential for big flow numbers than the LT1 heads.  Compared to the stock iron heads, these are about 50 lbs lighter and allow (require?) a bit more compression ratio.  I'm currently running these with very minor clean-up, but I plan on further porting later on.

Intake - LT4.  The port differences between the LT1 and LT4 heads require the proper intake for the selected head.  Look here for more info on the intake ports, and hopefully it's obvious why it's not a good idea to mix-and-match intakes and heads.

Throttle body - Stock for now, but not for long.  The original plan was to bore out a spare TB to 52 mm, but now I'm thinking that I'm going to fit a 58 mm TB to the intake in anticipation of future modifications and requirements.

Gaskets - I used GM gaskets for the heads ( LT4 - 0.051 compressed thickness) and intake.  All others are Fel-Pro.

Oil pan - stock, modified by me.  Since there's some clearancing required, I welded in some extra material and used a die grinder to clearance some room for the rod bolts.  Unfortunately, the crank cleared everything while the engine was on the stand, but there's an interference between the floor of the pan and the #1 rod while the engine is running.  I'll be switching to a Canton pan over the winter, as I'm done messing around with the stock part.  It just isn't worth it to save $250.

Cam - Comp Cams Xtreme Energy.  This is a custom grind - 230/236 duration at 0.050" valve lift, 113 lobe center, 108 intake center (effectively, 5 degrees of advance ground into the cam), 0.510/0.521" of valve lift with 1.5:1 rockers.  This cam was selected for its fast ramp angles, which allow for good 0.050" duration while mimimizing the duration at lower lifts (the heads don't flow a significant amount of air below 0.050", but cylinder pressure will still bleed off and cause reduced driveability at lower engine speeds).  The primary disadvantage of these fast ramp angles is a increased chance of valve float at higher revs (above 6000 RPM).  Cam choice is almost always a compromise, and I selected my cam to give the best performance over the entire usable rev range.  For all-out top-end power, a bigger cam such as the CC306 (230/244 at 0.050") is probably a better choice.
 

Lifters - stock LT1 with stock retainer hardware.

Rockers - Crane Gold roller rockers.  I had a split set of 1.6/1.5 rockers left over from my 350 that I used on this engine, for a resultant valve lift of 0.540" on the intake and 0.521" on the exhaust.

Pushrods - stock LT1.

Ignition - stock Opti-spark.

Oil pump - SPX/Sealed Power.  An ARP chrome-moly oil pump driveshaft was also installed.

Injectors - SVO/Bosch 30 lb/hr.  My engine is barely big enough to justify these injectors, but they give me a bit of headroom for future power upgrades.

Fuel pressure regulator - Stock LT1.  Since I have LT1_edit and I can adjust the PCM calibration, I don't feel that I need an adjustable FPR.  It would have come in handy for making very coarse adjustments during the initial tuning phase, though, so I think there's some benefit.

Fuel rails, lines and pump - Stock LT1/Impala SS.  Right now, the stock fuel pump is holding up just fine, but I don't intend to rely on it for long.  The pump will be upgraded to something like the Aeromotive when I start spraying the motor.

Mass airflow sensor - Stock F-body LT1. The stock B-body part flows plenty of air, but doesn't read MAF readings above 330 grams/sec.  That presents a problem for higher-power motors (1 gram/sec of airflow is worth roughly 1 rear-wheel HP), so the F-body part is a smart upgrade.  It can flow up to 471 grams/sec. of airflow.

Intake tract - Sewer pipe and K&N cone filter.  Simple and cheap-looking.