There is no such thing as a 55-56 283. The first 283's were produced in 57. However, both the 265 and the 283 used identical crankshafts, forged cranks with a 3" stroke. Some of the very late production (early 1960's) 283 engines used a cast crank, but since I'm planning on building a high revving engine, I'll probably use the forged item. I'll be using a 305 block with a set of thick-wall main bearings to adapt the small-diameter main journals of the 283 crank to the later block. I also plan on installing aftermarket 4-bolt main bearing caps in the 2,3,and 4 positions. Every performance engine I build starts out with a line bore, so adding the 4 bolt caps doesn't add much to the initial cost.
Jerry
