For an economical daily driver, it's probably a pretty good engine. I had the original 283 in my '62 Suburban. It'd been rebuilt at least twice, and had later heads on it, and was tired, but it still did a fine job.
The '60-'62 truck 283s have thicker cylinder walls, and can be bored .125-over, punching it to a 4-inch bore, for 301 (302) cubic inches. My block was already bored .060-over.
The problem with rebuilding a 283 is getting pistons for it. I've heard they're tough to find, and getting a decent compression ratio for them is tough too. For a street engine on pump gas, 9.0-9.5:1 is ideal. It won't need Premium to run, and won't feel "soft" like lower compression does.
After lots and lots of thought, I simply went with a GM crate 350; it's the bottom of the rung in the GM Performance Parts catalog, rating "only" 290hp, but 290hp is stouter than most any small block from the glory days. For $1,300 ready to go (add my intake, carb, exhaust and distributor), I couldn't have built a 283 for that much. In fact, building a 283 would have been a good bit more expensive.
At the same time I did mine, a friend built a 283 for his '63 truck. He's happy with it, but spent more money. I'm happy with mine, and spent less money.
I left my engine black, and dressed it with chrome 327 valve covers, the stock Rams horn headers, and a vintage Edelbrock C3B intake, modified with a PCV port in the valley pan at the back of the intake, and a port in the oil fill tube.
I was going to rebuild the truck's 283 for a drag motor in my '57 Chevy wagon gasser, basing it on a set of NOS Ross high compression pistons I found, but the pistons are only .060-over, and the block was already bored .060 and needs to go further to clean up. I'm keeping that block just in case I find a set of 302 pistons cheap. And because I don't have enough junk in my shop!
-Brad
