i have a 68 camaro and have been driving it around for about a year with a zz3 crate engine (350). but i would like to start progressively building a 383 in my garage as i get the money. then i can make the swap and sell the 350 that is in it now.

so my question is what is the best block to use? i saw on a tv show a block that is built from their factory with all the clearances, but i dont remember the name.

or should i buy an old 350 and have it machined?

any suggestions or comments would be great.

 

In order to determine the best block to start with, you need to describe the intended use (daily driver, strip only, etc), HP levels, power adder if any, RPM range, etc. A normally aspirated 383 should be very happy starting with "an old 350".... a high RPM/high HP "power adder" engine may need something more substantial. Some idea of budget limitations will also help.

Also would be good to know the capabilities of the builder. You might want to consider a "crate" engine, or at least a short-block approach, depending on the answers to the above questions.

 

sorry about that, wasnt thinking to hard when i posted i guess

my experience building engines is limited. i am in andvanced auto in high school and have strippied down 302's (teacher is a ford guy) and stuff like that. i am going to make working on cars a career so i am willing to learn.

the car will be weekend driven

somewhere in the range of 450-650 hp/tq (i want it to have some go....but not crazy)

probably naturally aspirated.....considering putting together with a turbo if build cost isnt too high

so probably want things to be pretty solid

dont want to spend too much, i am going to sell the zz3 crate engine after i do the swap for the 383 so that will help with cost (by the way.....how much could i get for it?).
but i dont really have too much of an idea. i am looking pretty much for some ideas on how to get started.......like finding a good 350 to start with or buying a new block that has all the clearances from the factory....just to get an idea of what is out there and start to price things out.

i am in the very begining stages where i am not sure about a lot of things and want to get a broad idea of what is possible within the very ruff guidlines i already know (the ones above).

sorry if this is hard to understand. i rambled a lot

thanks for any help

 

Dart and World Products both make very good blocks, they are based of SBCs or SBFs but are designed a little bit stronger, you can buy them with either standard bore requiring machining, or you can buy them pre-machined to your specs, say 4.125 bore clearanced for 3.875 stroke or even a 4.00 stroke on their blocks no problem. Also you can buy them with either 4bolt nodular iron caps or 4bolt billet steel caps, there is about a $300 price difference in those two. The latter premachined would run you in the area of $2000 in summit I believe, not a bad starting point to a very stout motor.

If you want to get crazy, Darts Lil'M tall deck block would be a VERY good start to an awesome motor. These are possible to make into something like a ~470ci smallblock since they are over 9.025" deck (not sure exactly how tall) so you can run an extremely long stroke in it, and their bores arent to shabby at 4.125 standard I believe. Or course this will cost you quite a bit more money.

For a first motor though, I might recommend just picking up an 86up 1pc seal roller block and putting together a nice solid roller 383 or even 396 for a pretty decent amount of money, right close to $10000 since you will be buying everything new.