360 vs 383

12 pages, dang... I think this goes to show both engines are good and have potential, if one was objectively better than the other all around there wouldn't be this much arguing. Just like the Chevy vs Ford vs Dodge pickup truck guys lol.

I didn't vote because I like both and each kind of has a different purpose, especially when they were new. 383 had the benefit of being around during the muscle car years but the 360 missed out, it didn't come along in HP form until low compression was the norm. I wonder how an HP 360 would have performed with 9.5:1+ compression like the earlier 340s had?

I've only had the opportunity to build up 360s in my own cars but I did overhaul an original 10:1 383 4-bbl in a 1969 Polara 2-door. In stock-ish form the 383 makes just a tad more torque but it's higher in the revs, that Polara was fun but didn't really start to move until around 2500 RPM or so even with the stock 4-bbl (non-HP/Magnum) cam (heavy car with 2.76 gears!). Every stock 360 I've driven including Magnums make tons of torque right off idle but quickly run out of breath around 4000 RPM.

Also an aside, in the BB block testing 440Source did they found that the main webbing on the 383 was considerably weaker than a 440 and way less than a 400, for those talking about high-effort builds. If I wanted more than about 500 horses out of a low-deck BBM full build I'd start with a 400 hands-down.