Sorry, I didn't post my truck specs. I need to add that to my signature. My truck is a 1957 3100 with a 1960 235. The truck came from Napa Id with no rust and was an Army base runner before it went to the school district. Also, I believe it to be a Core of Engineers truck, which would have some symmetry seeing as I hold a Masters in Mechanical Engineer. Unfortunately engines aren't covered in depth in our schooling.
I know for a fact that the 1957 283's were used in the '57 trucks. I had the pleasure of running around looking at parts and found a guy between Bend and Redmond here in Oregon who has an ALL original 1957 3200 Napco with the factory installed 283. Been in his family the whole time. All he did was take it off the ranch and gave it a new paint job/spruce up. Oh yea, it is the big window deluxe cab with the deluxe heater and radio. Beautiful. Another neat fact I found out from him is that his Napco was put in at the factory, which only in the tail end of '57 this was happening. Prior to that it was installed as an accessory by the dealer.
I ran with the casting number the owner provided (can be seen in the pictures) and it seems is 1957 specific, which is pretty neat. Of coarse the serial number will identify it as a Belair application, but I think since it is date stamped correctly it would make a cool V8 mod.
I've looked into those Resto-Packs before but unfortunately the 57 truck is one of the few years they do not have. I have an original shop manual, original factory assembly manual, and original owners manual for the truck. I have tried to arm myself with as much history as possible when working on my truck.
Comparing the car data from the resto-packs to the information I have:
283 Truck:
Taskmaster
Compression: 8:1
Valve face angle: 44
283 Car:
Turbofire
Compression 8.5:1 (basic, many options)
Valve face angle: 45
This is just a quick look. Still need to dive deeper.
