Before I get knocked for being the 100th guy to ask such a question I'm serious. Lotta builders out there have done it but who still has one running over 100k miles ? I know most prefer 383 but I don't know I'm stuck on 396. I really wanna build a 396 LE3 but I don't think I trust any local machine shops to build one for me.

 

IMO, the way to make an engine reliable for 100k+ miles like the factory does is to build it like the factory does. Tune it a touch on the rich side, use a fairly mild cam, and choose parts wisely.

I'd look closely at the offerings from Victory Racing Engines. VRE is in the Detroit area -- where are you?

http://victoryracingengines.com/engi...TX&BLOCK=SHORT

 

Portland Oregon

 

I have a VRE 396 shortblock with an LE3 TRICKFLOW heads & cam in my 96 Camaro.
It was built for NA. Decked, Flat top Diamond pistons, Callies crank, etc.
I have nothing but good things to say about them.
I dont use it as a DD though, but it is no trailer queen.

 

I have a good friend who has a 396 built by his father who runs a local machine shop that is known for building excellent dirt track motors. (dirt oval racing is very big where I live) I had advised him it would be a lot safer for him to build a 383 because of the possibility of getting into water jackets and such. So far the thing is running like a champ. He races it almost every weekend and drives it on the street a lot. I think that if you have a good engine builder who knows what he is doing, don't skimp on parts and don't go to wild with your setup you should have no problem building a reliable 396 lt1. IMO 100k is a lot to ask of any motor that gets ran hard. I would think that you would want to pull that motor and have it re freshened around 30 to 40k just to be safe, and that would be if you plan to daily drive it. That's just me, and I'm very conservative when it comes to my motors.

 

Just by being a 396 wont really make it unreliable, crappy parts, a poor set up and unrealistic expectations will though.

 

Reliability is a function of the meticulousness of the machinist, not so much the parts.

 

Why change bore if you don't need to? If the cylinder walls look good, why not just leave them alone? I hate it that the first thing people ask me about my engine is "Hey is that bored out?" I'm just like yea. Why? All things being equal, what kind of performance gain do you expect by simply increasing displacement from bore size to a mere 13ci? That's just a 3% increase in displacement. Let's say you were going to make 450hp out of your 383. Going to a 396 would (all things being equal) would net you a 13.5hp increase. Iff the increased bore size did lead to compromised integrity, why would you push it? Seems like compression ratio, stoke, rod length, cam duration, lift, etc would play for a bigger role. I'm no pro... just my 2 cents.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

Most people who own a built up motor drive it differently than a factory motor. That will have a big influence on longevity along with many other things.

Rich

 

The normal method of achieving 396ci. is to increase the STROKE not the BORE!
383ci. = 4.030" bore X 3.75" stroke
396ci. = 4.030" bore X 3.875" stroke
Most people don't bore perfectly good blocks. They bore them because the block needs it. If I was going to do a stroker and the block only needed .020 over, I think that is all that I would have it bored. I would still have 380ci. with a 3.75" crank. Close enough for me.
Also there can be proportionally greater increases in torque with a longer stroke engine.