^My thinking exaclty. I'm just getting started on my 383 LT1 with LE3 heads and Cam. Nothing against a 355...I've never experienced one. I just lean towards more cubes for future options. You never know, I might win the lottery next week...

 

If you can afford the induction to go with it, build the 383. Otherwise, I'd just stick to a 3.48 stroke combination.

-Mindgame

 

i was worried about my car not running as fast as some of the 355s i see, but its doing a damn good job on lt1 castings and lt1 intake.

 

Hey! Where's the love?

 

What you gettin the itch for a motor again?

 

I guess i dont really understand comments such as this. When people argue about 355 v 383, i consistantly hear something along the lines of "Well of course with the 383 you'll HAVE to get <insert reference to ridiculously high flowing heads/intake/tb>"

Why? Given the exact same heads, cam and valvetrain components, it seems like a 383 will always be a better performing motor on both the dyno and the track. I dont get why people always insist that a 383 NEEDS to have high flowing heads, as if your 383 will somehow be less powerful than a 355 if you had used the exact same heads on both engines.

I acknowledge that bulding up a 383 bottom end costs a little more for clearancing, but why should those extra cubes necessitate blowing twice the amount of $$ on killer heads? Especially if the cost of the bottom end is a wash between a 383 and 355, why not add the extra cubes and forgoe expensive heads? Sure your 383 will not be living up to it's full potential, but it seems like it would still outperform a 355 with a similar induction setup.

If im totally off on this, please let me know.

 

You are totally off base, and here's why:
With a bigger stroke like 3.48 compared to a 3.75 your increasing the piston speed! Why b/c the larger stroke given the same rpm is going to move the piston up and down the cylinder a greater distance. Since your distance is fixed ( in other words you can't smash the piston in the head) the speed increases. V=X/T (V=velocity, X=distance, T=time) the X & V are linearly related. Therefore it's going to be more hungery for oxygen.

Given fully ported LT1 heads and intake on a 355 vs 383 the 355 is going to be more adequately feed than a 383. The stock LT1 head does not have the MCA (minimal crossectional area) to support a 383. And the intake is a killer on even a well build 355.

The 355's going to rev more given the same heads/intake/cam characterists. You hear it all the time: more cubes make a cam more streetable and that is why.

-brandon