Has anyone ever heard of a chevy small block 377 stroker?  If so what component combination would have been used to get that?  

un slang terms the 377 is a 400 block with a 350 crank stuffed in it..

the 383 is a 350 block with a 400 crank.  

The 383 is a better combo because the siamesed cylinders in 400 block can have cooling issues at high output levels and do not take kindly for over heating either. To build a 383, you get a 400 crank and rods and turn mains to correct size for 350 block and use 350 pistons of choice. You do also need to use a 400 damper and a flex plate or flywheel because 400 crank is externally balanced while 350 crank is internally balanced.  

So that would probably have a little to do with why my willy's keeps overheating.  It's pushing upwards of 575 hp on race fuel and was originally set up for wide open passes in the mud pit.  

didn't I read something about your willys having the radiator in the rear last year sometime?

seems it also had something to do with over heating and finding a electric fan?.....  

williard46:
So that would probably have a little to do with why my willy's keeps overheating.  It's pushing upwards of 575 hp on race fuel and was originally set up for wide open passes in the mud pit.

Your Willy's is overheating because you do not have enough radiator and fan on it. The point is a 350 block cools more evenly and has full flow around cylinders and can be pushed harder while a 400 needs to be kept cool because it will not survive same temps as a 350 block will under heavy loads. a 400 SB is a motor that you do not want to run hot is you want it to last a long time.  

Yes you did read that around october/november last year.  I'm just gathering information on possible solutions to my known problems now while I have spare time.  Currently I'm a marine in Iraq and I'm making a list of what needs to be done when I get home.  I bought this truck shortly before I left and haven't had a chance to start the project yet, for obvious reasons.  So the issues are one's that were passed to me by the previous owner.  

Also I was asking if that had anything to do with why it was overheating in the first place or if it just couldn't withstand high heat as well as the 350.  Thank you for the clarification.  It's greatly appreciated.  

if its a mudracer maybe the engine generates too much heat(duh) hmm.any way if its a custom job,and radiator is in the back..why not find the biggest rad you can find and use it?  heck run two smaller ones on each side?  

I kinda doubt you'll find a electric fan that will eliminate the problem, though it may help, one of the guys was using or planning on using a viper fan,..O' I think it was rawkon in his tj.

for a mud racer I'm sure it probably works alright cause it's not running for prolonged amounts of time.
even a stock engine of any kind will probably have a cooling issue...

I have seen serveral sbc powered dune buggies running a single electric with little trouble, though they're mounted high and get some air flow from speed also.  

The problem is that electric fans cannot move enough air to do serious cooling. To do so they would need to draw a few hundred amps minimum. When you use a electric fan to replace a engine driven fan that is capable of moving 40,000 CFM plus you are going to have problems under high loads and low speed. If I wanted to try to make electrics work with a rear mount I would use a double stack of radiators and route coolant thru them in series.I would also run double batteries to power extra fans for this. If this was a mud racer and not driven on street I would convert water pump to electric driven so that you could shut down engine and run pump and fans and cool between runs.  

It's set up for mud racing right now.  However when I get home that's almost decidedly not what I'm going to use it for.  I'm leaning to more of a highly modified trail rig.  I have an extra 350 in a parts truck that I will probably make into a strong 350 or possibly a 383 stroker.  Depending on availability of parts and necessity for the extra power once  I get it on the trail.  Also I'm going to redo my cage so it's similar to the one in my avatar.  I then plan on moving the radiator from the rear tailgate location to a mounting point on the 45 degree bars going down into the box from the cab.  

The new engine won't have as much power I'm sure, but I doubt I need that much on tap unless I plan on running competitions and whatnot...which I don't.  Hopefully that will help reduce my heat issues as well.  

Engine power is kinda relative to gearing. If you have some serious gears in axles, you can do well even with a smaller motor. The trick is gears. If you stay with rear mount radiators, get two of them and plumb them is series and you can stack on in front of the other if you want and if you do that, run coolant thru rear one first and then through front one. Place a good fan on each one as it will boost air flow against back pressure of cores. (you could turn them on it stages if you want too) This setup will greatly increase the surface area of cores and shed more heat. Which ever style radiator you use have direction of coolant flow through them the same on both. They way this works is say with down flow, Hot coolant comes in top of rear and out bottom and into top of next one. This way you can extract more heat with airflow because the warmest part of front core at top is still cooler than top of rear core so air can still cool rear core some. Same at bottom because coolant at bottom of front core is cooler than coolant at bottom of rear core so rear again is still cooled. Also, a dual setup like this would work best with a thinner core (say 2 core). The reason for this is with the low airflow of a fan relative to a engine driven on, the rear cores of say a 4 core are not cooled much and less cores forces all coolant to be exposed to air flow better and will shed heat more evenly and two good two cores in series like mention above will then cool better than a single 4 core with electric fans.