SaltyNaulty
New member
Actually the 383 Chevy is a great streetable, torque engine perfect for trucks, 4Xs, and heavy cars. U are correct in that they used a crank from a 400sb. They cut the main journals down to fit the 350 block. However, these cranks were never forged so the guys building big HP didn't use them. A less known version was the 373, which used a forged steel 350 crank in a 400 block. Bigger bore, shorter stroke high winder! The only drawback was the siamese cylinder bores in the middle of the block which could cause overheating in extreme conditions as there wasn't a water passage between them. Man do I miss my Chevys!
My dad and I build a 396 stroker out of my stock 350 I removed from my old truck, it actually ended up being comparable in price with building a 383 and made 530hp on pump gas with mild compression. Those extra cubes allowed us to use a more streetable cam and lower compression to achieve similar power to what a higher compression radical cam 355 or 383 would have made. Pretty sure it was eagle or lunati that made the rotating assy. kit for the 396, not sure though.





