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The two Mopar 383 engines
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Feb 4, 2025
Why they made an oddball Chrysler 383, and why they stopped making it after just two years...
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0:02
Chrysler's B engines were designed from
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the start to be easy to mass produce in
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automated factories so they started out
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with a 350 and 361 cubic in version the
0:13
350 only lasted one year the B engine
0:16
was completely new and they always saw
0:19
two versions being made one with a low
0:22
deck and one with a raised deck and the
0:24
one with the raised deck was called the
0:26
RB the regular one as we call it now the
0:30
B engine was originally also titled the
0:32
lb but over time for whatever reason it
0:35
became just the B it didn't take long
0:37
for them to get a 383 cubic inch version
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of the B engine and it was made through
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1971 it was essentially a large boore
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version of their original 361 and these
0:48
were made at Trenton engine now Chrysler
0:50
had to have a little bit more because
0:52
they were Chrysler they were premium
0:54
brand and so did Imperial so they had
0:56
the raised deck version the ra the RB
0:59
and and that was 413 cubic in and that
1:03
went under the hood of the 1959 chrys
1:05
score New Yorker chry score 300 and
1:07
Imperial it had more low-end torque than
1:10
the old Hemi 392 was 120 lb lighter and
1:14
helped the 1959 Chrysler 300E to beat
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the previous year's record by over a
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full second so that's impressive because
1:22
the Hemi 392 is a legend now but making
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the 413 was a problem for Chrysler
1:27
because their Trenton assembly plan had
1:30
one line devoted to the B series V8s and
1:33
another for the RB because they had
1:35
different blocks and because the Bor and
1:37
stroke were different it was a big deal
1:40
to switch one of those two lines from
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the RB back to the B and then back to
1:45
the RB again so what they had to do was
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they had to divert a bunch of production
1:50
from the B engines to the RB engines and
1:53
what they did was they took the one
1:55
Chrysler that was pegged have a 383
1:57
cubic inch B engine and they made an RB
2:00
Engine with the same displacement it was
2:03
a bit odd because they could have made
2:05
the RB engine say a 389 390 between 383
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and 413 they had a range of 28 different
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engine sizes instead they made the RB
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Engine with 383 cubic in that would
2:19
cause much confusion later on and in
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fact one guide a dealership said that
2:24
they cursed every time that they sold a
2:25
Chrysler with a 383 because sooner or
2:28
later it would be coming back and
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causing confusion in Parts the low-end
2:32
1959 to 1980 Chrysler had special RB 33s
2:37
because the factory just couldn't switch
2:39
fast enough now the company claimed that
2:41
the b33 and the
2:44
rb33 had the same horsepower ratings but
2:48
whether this was based on testing or
2:49
marketing is hard to know today in 1960
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in mid1 1960 the people at Trenton
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figured out how to do fast switches and
2:57
the RB wasn't needed anymore for for
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1961 but for 59 and 60 there were two
3:03
383 engines both made by Chrysler that
3:06
are different one b and one RB you know
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we have this rated 325 horsepower but
3:12
that's brake horsepower it was measured
3:14
differently than we would measure today
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if we look at the 1971 figures we can
3:19
guess that the equivalent to a modern
3:22
engine power rating would be 250
3:24
horsepower and 325 lb feet of torque if
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you measured it by today's standard
3:29
standards this was a good powered engine
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belting out lots of torque at low
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revolutions they would have been quite a
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nice engine whether tuned for
3:39
performance in a Plymouth or Dodge or
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whether tuned for luxurious Highway
3:44
cruising in a Chrysler and both are
3:46
finally remembered today
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