Well ive been looking everywhere to find information on this topic but i cant find exactly what im looking for. Now im new to most of this stuff so i was just wondering what exactly a 383 stroker and 355ci rebuild kit is and which one is better for the money? Im looking at buying an LT1 for cheap to put in my firebird and at first i was just looking into adding a head/cam package to it to increase the HP and everything but then i started seeing all this stuff about 383 stroker kits and 355ci kits and so which would be the best thing to go with for the money? Like i said, im pretty new to all of this so if any of these questions sound stupid thats why. (i know a good bit about engine related stuff but just about nothong about these 383's and 355's )

I guess what im asking is which would i see more power out of and which would be more reliable and where can i find a good price on these?
This would also be a daily driven car so i would like something that would be reliable and something i could drive just about everyday. Thanks for the help.

 

A 355 in its simplest meaning is a basic rebuild of the 350 with an overbore of the cylinders of 0.030" over.

A 383 is a 355 with a 3.750" stroke.

Cheaper would be a 355, but everything depends on what exactly you want to do... You can build a 355 that will cost much more than a regular 383.

For a heads and cam car, on a budget, 355 is the way to go in my opinion. If you can afford forged internals, get them.

As for power levels, the stroker will not yield a whole lot more power than a 355, but it will make more torque.

The major difference is that you can do a 355 with stock internals and oversize rings but you will need a new rotating assembly for the 383. Plus the 383 requires more machine work... that's why it's more expensive.

 

Thanks for the help there. So i guess your saying that the best thing to go with would be the 355.

Alright now some other questions...
This si what im looking to do...buy a LT1 engine block, and just look to add a good bit of HP in some way. Like i said, i was looking at a head/cam kit and i know a good bit about them, but not about these.

Is there a kit about there that sells everything i need to do this 355 rebuild or is there more i need for it? You said it depends on what im looking to do with it too...im just looking for the cheapest way possible, but yet a reliable way to make some power too. Is there anything that you would reccomend to go with here? Like which kit or pasrts or anything? im looking at not spending more than 3000 on this kit since i have to have money to buy the engine block too, so i dont know if this is anywhere close to enough money to do this. For around 2000-3000 dollars is there anything good that i can go with on this? Thanks again for the help.

 

There is a rebuild kit that summit sells. It has forged pistons, pretty much everything you need for the bottom end minus the crank. That is probably what I will get when I do my rebuild, I hear it is a good kit for the money. There is also a cam kit gp that is going on right now that takes care of pretty much the top end of the motor minus the heads.