I was planning on going 355 with my new motor, but I have been thinking that I may be fine staying with the 350 and saving that money.

This car will be a weekend driver/drag car.
So what, if anything, will I gain in performance by going to 355.

Here are my plans regardless of what ci I choose:

Forged internals
Splayed caps
cc305 cam
P&P LT1 heads
3500 Stall
150 shot of juice
30# injectors

If I left any mods out that you need to know please ask.

 

you will not gain anything going with a 355 instead of 350. The real factor is what shape are the cylinders in.

 

a 355 itself will only add like 8 horsepower if anything, and thats probably from new components. If you want to go into your bottom end for "performance" do a 383...

 

Yeah, I agree, it will cost you basically the same to make a 355 as it would a 383, same amount of machine work involed, maybe $40 more. The crank and pistons will cost basically the same too, unless you go forged. The only way it would be cheaper is if you keep your crank and rods and replace the pistons with the correct size, which i guess is very possible.

 

I really have no desire to go 383.

 

A 355 is just an .030 bored over 350 which should ONLY be done if you NEED that bore work done. If you overbore an engine that doesn't need it, you're needlessly shortening the life of that block!!!!

What's really sickening is people rebuilding 50, 60, 70k motors for performance reasons and overboring them for NO REASON... overboring .030 isn't a performance measure, it's a BLOCK REPAIR measure to repair the excessive scratches in the cylinder bores...

So basically if you need a .030, do a 355. If you don't, don't.

-Michael

 

Just trying to figure out why if your going to go forged everyting so you can juice it safely, why not go 383, the cost is the same, a 383 is a 355 with a longer stroke. You will be at like 360 or so just by going 383, then when you juice it you could safely shoot like 300 at it, if you get the splayed caps. You arent really going to gain anything from the 355, anything noticeable at least, and the cost is the same, unless you have something against 383s go that route.

 

If you want to stick with a 355 go with a bulletproof bottom end and spray a lot!! Most if not all your power is in your heads anyway.....put your money there first.

 

I'm sure I will up the shot eventually, but I am going 150 to start.

I will probaly end up putting the stock heads on the motor for a bit cuz I most likely will not have enough to do the heads same time as motor. Heads would be done a couple months later

 

383 crank costs more
I don't need to go 383 to do a big shot of juice.

I'll probably end up staying 350 unless the bores are bad enough to make me go 355.

 

I did my rebuild at 124k because of a blown head gasket. I just hit the cylinders with a bottle brush. That was 30k ago and hasn't used a drop of oil yet. I did a cheap rebuild though because I didn't have the money at the time to go with a 383 setup and head work and all that. I pretty much just re-ringed it and changed the cam.

 

Just me but I did not want a 383 either considering the one i did have only lasted 40k. I was not looking for insane power of a blown 383, but i did want the reliability of a blown355. I hope to get 60k+ from my setup, but i dont race to often. .30 over bore is not going to make your block weak! you will gain a small amount of performance from the bore. It cost me the same money for my forged 355 as the forged 383.

 

the top end will give you power

if you dont need forged, dont get forged. those 5 cubic inches is 99% negligable.

Why get forged stuff if you dont need it. Unless you are spraying in excess of 200hp or making over 500hp AND spinning over 6400 rpms, there is no need for a forged bottom end.

Keep in mind, you will probobly be shifting earlier on juice.

 

I am doing all forged because I need this motor to last & I am doing it right the FIRST time.

I will be spraying more than 150 in the future. On the juice I should be pushing 500HP or so.

 

ima do a mild 383 motor.. with heads and a decent cam this winter.. gunna be a daily driver.. RARLEY see track time