The 83 crank is actually better for oiling. The intake is idential to the 86 motor and al 8 valve NA cars. Head port is slightly different and so is the cam, but it is not worthy worring about. If you do not rebuilt the motor then you will be losing more hp from not having a fresh valve job than using and 83.

The only possible issue is using an 83 motor in a car with powersteering. The lower balance shaft front bearing area may not have a mount for the powersteering pump. Some do, but some 83 cars had manual steering and a different forward balance shaft cover. This can be swapped pretty easy with motor out of the car, but does require pulling the belts and the lower balance gear. However you should put fresh belts on the motor before you install it anway.

The other issue is some 83 cranks are slight shorter on the nose under the bolt. They don't have the longer lip needed for powersteering pulley. I run manual steering so that is a non issue with me, but it could be problem. You might be able to work around that, but I am not sure.

 

M758
really appreciate all the help,you are always very knowledgeable about these things. i am not running power steering so should be good there,i have a completely rebuilt ported and polished head ready to install, and will be installing an after market web cam in the motor as well as the 70mm throttle body set up on my 86 NA. Also i am not running any A/C on the car. Owe one other thing would like to install a knife edged crank and lightweight aluminum flywheel on the car, is all of this due able and what kind of problems should i look for? You said something about head port being different on the 83,with my new ported and polished head what does this mean?

 

I thank you all for your input.