383 = no love

ramenth said

This is pretty much on the money.

I've got a buddy who insists the 360 is junk while never thinking the 360 is a smog era engine. And, much like the 383, served duty in everything across the board. It's funny the 400 has never been seen that way, even though it took over the roll.

The 383 doesn't get a lot of love simply because it's not associated with performance. Too many people think about the 383 two barrel grandma had in her Polera. That and the fact that dollar for dollar it's the same cost to build a 440. Why start at the disadvanatage of the smaller cubes? It's the same never ending debate when people build a 318.

I've got a soft spot for 383's. You can usually pick them up cheap and with a little bit of love and not a lot of money, they can be made to run.

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My uncle is like that and thinks 360 and 383 suck cause he smoked them all day long with his 340 duster. It's just no one built them up back then. Just like my 400 ford it's considered a turd of an engine until it's started winning engine masters challenge.

Just like 340 440 gets all the love in the big block arena for good reason biggest engine with almost the biggest bore. Same with 400 no one cares to build them stock stroke since they win biggest bore slightly and are low deck they make a great 450-500 cid engine while 440 is better over 500 cid.
I'd probably never build a stock stroke 383
even thought after boring it's just slightly under everyone's favorite 408 for a lot less dollars and just as capable. But just a simple 440 crank swap brings it to an almost 440 size engine 431 with a decent bore just slightly under stock 440 after boring far from small and can be stroked to 496 if needed.

If you going for 450-550 hp I think 383 is a perfect platform it's only gonna be about 20 cid less than the same stroked 400. It's definitely not a small bore but after boring it's pretty much on part with stock 440 bore.
If stroked out to 431 it's gonna make the 450-550 hp in the 5000-6000 peak range which is see as perfect as a decent hot street engine.