In 57 and 58 the GM train drivers who introduced the 283 a couple of years too soon were on the uphill slope of a steep learning curve. The biggest gripe the owners of new 57's had was the fact that the 55's with the 265 engines were outrunning them on a regular basis. By about 59 most of the demons had been exorcized, and the 283 got a lot better- - - -performance and reliability-wise.
That being said, there's nothing particularly magical about 283 cubic inches. Virtually all of the small block V8's from the 265 to the late 1980's 350 have a huge amount of parts interchangeability, so making up cubic inch displacements the factory never introduced is just a matter of picking out the right parts list and making sure all the pieces play nice with each other. I like to do that stuff myself, while others just bite the bullet and whip out the old checkbook. The engine that I'm able to build for $1k from pieces lying around in my scrap heap will cost somebody else five or six times that amount if he pays somebody else to do it for him. My junkyard engine will still outrun the high dollar one, at least most of the time, mostly because all the parts and pieces are singing from the same page of the hymnal, and they've been massaged sufficiently to be able to harmonize.
Jerry
